MST-52806 Evidence-Based Facility Management

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

The course is compulsory for students taking the MME specialization Facility Management. Furthermore, all MSc students with an interest to learn more about how the physical environment, whether or not demonstrably, is associated with health, mood and behavior of people and organizations, and how to exert influence to this can join this course.

Continuation courses:

MST-31806 Facility Management Innovation

Contents:

The effect of atmospherics, physical design and décor elements, on customers and employees is recognized by managers and mentioned in many marketing, retailing, healthcare, education, and organizational behavior texts. Also, managers continually plan, build, change, and control an organizations physical surroundings, but frequently the impact of a specific design or design change on ultimate users of the facility is not fully understood. Yet, the ability of the physical environment to influence behaviors and to create an image is apparent for many organizations such as hotels, restaurants, offices, retail stores, education institutes, and hospitals. Research suggests that the physical setting can influence employee satisfaction, productivity, and motivation, but also may influence the customers ultimate satisfaction with the core service.
The purpose of this course is to take a first step towards integrating theories and empirical findings from diverse disciplines to describe how the service environment, that comprises a mixture of separate, but yet closely related designed features of physical facilities (e.g. workplaces, layout, cleanliness, temperature) and services (e.g. reception desk, catering, concierge), affects both customers and employees in organizations. The course takes on a facility management perspective, as the integral and integrative function within organizations that supports primary activities. After elaborating on environment-user relationships and related measurement models, this course continues consecutively with a specific focus on office environments, healthcare environments, education environments, and store environments. By doing so, we equip students with the know how to influence facility design decisions towards their (expert) view and to be able to translate the potential added value of facility management into board room considerations and metrics.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to: - describe basic concepts and explain basic theories in environment-user relationships.;
- understand how the service environment can impact user's behavior and outcomes in different sectors (i.e. office, healthcare, education, retail) ;
- design empirical research for measuring effects that elements of the service environment have on users;
- critically analyze facility design issues in different sectors, using facility management knowledge;
- reflect on facility design decisions to benefit organizational outcomes on both an operational and strategic level.

Activities:

The course consists of 12 (guest) lectures, self-study, an individual assignment, group discussions and student presentations.
During the course, students will work individually on an essay in which they reflect on appreciable facility design decisions. Actually, the essay is more or less a research proposal. This starts with an overview of introducing the primary environment-user relationships of an existing organization of choice in either sector (e.g. education, healthcare, retail, hotel, zoo.). Then, a specific problem or challenge of the organization is described that may be solved by intervening in the facility design. This also drives the proposed research question. This is followed by the proposed modifications of the facility design to benefit specific user or organizational outcomes, by using relevant literature. Finally, it is students indicated how these effects can be demonstrated by giving an outline of a relevant research approach for this. Students present their work and receive feedback in 105-minute sessions during the last lecture.

Examination:

- written examination, consisting of open and multiple choice questions (50%);
- Individual essay (50%).
Each component requires a minimum of 5.5 to pass.

Literature:

Relevant articles will be provided. Furthermore, after each lecture a PowerPoint presentation on the subject will be posted on Blackboard.