Findings, fashion, and future work: A look at facilityrelated research'

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Findings, fashion, and future work  A look at
facility-related research.   Linda M.
Cohen Management Department The Wharton School
IFMA Utilities Council Meeting, May 6, 2002.
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3 Key Goals  a feel for the value of
research  awareness of different kinds of
research approaches  flavor of work on behavior
in the work environment
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• Overview
• So what??
• Info-based FM decision-making
• Research
• questions fashion and other findings
• methods for getting answers
• FM research examples
• Trends in work environment research
• Links to key management concerns (So what?
  revisited)
• Future work challenges and opportunities

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So what??
Research??!!
FM
FM
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So what??
Clue
Enron Vice President Sherron Watkins, left, and
former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling,
right, are sworn in on Capitol Hill. (Ron
Edmonds/AP Photo) source ABC News.com
Enron Audit Committee Chairman Robert Jaedicke
(right). source BusinessWeek, May 6, 2002,
p.71
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So what??
Accountability! As top management and
shareholders increasingly scrutinize FM
decision-making, the use of research to support
facility decisions is becoming more important.
(think of REITs)
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evolution of the field
decision microscope
performance microscope
(shifts to)
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Info-based FM decision-making

• Evolution of information driving FM decisions
• internal feedback maintenance/operations
  requests, special projects, cost/time performance

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Info-based FM decision-making

• Evolution of information driving FM decisions
• Internal feedback maintenance/operations
  requests, special projects, costs, cost/time
  performance
• Research on trends benchmarking competitors
  best practices, or internal patterns (track
  record)
• Other FM research When? How? Why? (internal and
  external)

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Types of research driving FM decision-making

• questions
• methods for getting answers
• examples

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Research Questions
3 types

• Descriptive describe whats going on

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Research Questions
2. Relational look at relationships between 2
or more variables
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Research Questions

• Causal look at what causes or affects outcomes
  how/when this occurs

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Info-based FM decisions
Research Qs

• Internal feedback
• Research on trends benchmarking competitors
  best practices, or internal patterns (track
  record)
• Other FM research When? How? Why? (internal and
  external)

descriptive
relational
causal
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• Research on trends benchmarking competitors
  best practices, or internal patterns (track
  record)
• Other FM research When? How? Why? (internal and
  external)

descriptive
relational
causal
Q Whats more important trends or
when/how/why? research?
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A NOT an either/or choice
BOTH are of value! Ideally, use information from
both findings and fashion
Example Qs from my work on MA 1. What are the
facility trends in MA companies, and how does
this compare to non-MA companies? 2. Is there a
significant effect of MA on facility
outcomes? 3. Can we develop test a model for
MA facility strategy outcomes?
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A NOT an either/or choice
Current Trend?

• ve effects of natural elements
• participatory design

• Co-location of team members

Yes
Research evidence in support?

• QWERTY keyboard
• Status-based space allocation

• Asbestos in ceiling tiles
• (to be discovered dont know effect of X, but
  few do it)

No
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Info-based FM decision-making

• Whether trend or how/when/why?,
• good research will tell you
• Are observed differences meaningful?
• Are these differences important?
• Are the findings applicable to my company?
• Can we make predictions about the future?

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• Overview
• So what??
• Info-based FM decision-making
• Research
• questions fashion and other findings
• methods for getting answers
• FM research examples
• Trends in work environment research
• Links to key management concerns (So what?
  revisited)
• Future work challenges and opportunities

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Research Methods for Getting Answers
There are many (!!) ways to go about getting
answers. The most popular in FM-related research
are

• surveys (telephone, mail, interviews)
• case studies (single or comparative)
• experiments
• quasi-experiments
• theory-based

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Research examples 1. Experiments
a) Rochester Methodist Hospital
Radial
Single-corridor
2ble corridor
Source Trites, D. K., Galbraith, F. D., Jr.,
Sturdavant, M., Leckwart, J. F. 1970. Influence
of Nursing-Unit Design on the Activities and
Subjective Feelings of Nursing Personnel.
Environment and Behavior 2(3) 303-334.
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Research examples 1. Experiments
a) Rochester Methodist Hospital
Basic form of the experiment
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Research examples 1. Experiments

• PROS??

• CONS??

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Research examples 1. Experiments

• CONS
• time, resources
• risk that some of the designs are very
  inefficient (more waste of resources)
• cant often randomly assign groups to different
  treatments

• PROS
• findings are very convincing because other
  factors that might make a difference are ruled
  out
• saves later on can apply knowledge all
  future work
• builds FM knowledge base

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Research examples 1. Experiments
b) Impact of energy-efficient lighting strategies
24 office workers divided into 4 groups
lighting A

• task performance (e.g. error detection, data
  entry, typing)
• preferences
• mood

lighting B
lighting C
lighting D
experimental conditions (treatments)
assigned to ALL
sample population
observe outcomes
Katzev, Richard. 1992. The impact of
energy-efficient office lighting strategies on
employee satisfaction and productivity.
Environment Behavior 24(6) 759-778.
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Research examples 1. Experiments
Note Sometimes, a series of experiments are
needed to rule out other explanations for
outcomes!! Most famous example
c) Western Electric Co. Hawthorne Works
TRANSMITTER TESTS CD 1966086 EMP33.019 Electric
Power no date The National Museum of American
History
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Research examples 2. Quasi-experiments
a) Relocation of a government agency from
traditional to open-plan offices
May 1982
Feb. 1984
Source Zalesny Farace. 1987. Traditional
versus Open Offices A Comparison of
sociotechnical, social relations, and symbolic
meaning perspectives. Academy of Management
Journal 30(2) 240-259.
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Research examples 2. Quasi-experiments
a) Relocation of a government agency
Basic form of the quasi-experiment
a given population
initial conditions
changed conditions
make observations
make observations
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Research examples 2. Quasi-experiments
a) Relocation of a government agency
Some before/after output
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Research examples 2. Quasi-experiments
b) RD and Marketing co-location
initial conditions
changed conditions
a given population
Van den Bulte, C. Moenaert, R. K. 1998. The
effects of RD team co-location on communication
patterns among RD, marketing, and manufacturing.
Management Science 44(11, Part 2) S1-S18.
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Research examples 3. Surveys
a) Underfloor Task Ventilation
Source Hedge, Alan Michael, Abigail T
Parmelee, Sharon L. 1993. Reactions of office
workers and facilities managers to underfloor
task ventilation in offices. Journal of
Architectural Planning Research 10(3) 203-218.
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Research examples 3. Surveys
a) Underfloor Task Ventilation
Some survey output
Never Very Occasion Often Very Always
Rarely Often
TEMP. SATISFACTORY TOO WARM TOO COOL TEMP. TOO
VARIABLE VENTIL. SATISFACTRY. CMFRTBL. AIR
MVMNT. TOO LITTLE AIR MVMNT UNCOMFRTBL.
DRAFTS AIR TOO DRY AIR FRESH AIR TOO HUMID
Hedge, Michael Parmelee, 1993, p.210
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Research examples 3. Surveys
a) Underfloor Task Ventilation
Some survey output
Never Very Occasion Often Very Always
Rarely Often
VENTIL. SATISFACTRY. CMFRTBL. AIR MVMNT. TOO
LITTLE AIR MVMNT UNCOMFRTBL. DRAFTS AIR TOO
DRY AIR FRESH
Hedge, Michael Parmelee, 1993, p.210
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Research examples 3. Surveys
a) Underfloor Task Ventilation
Basic form of surveys
initial conditions
changed conditions
a given population OR a subset (could be a
random sample)
administer survey
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Research examples 3. Surveys
b) Stimulus-screening
vs.
Source Oldham, Greg R., Kulik, Carol T.,
Stepina, Lee P. 1991. Physical Environments and
Employee Reactions Effects of Stimulus-Screening
Skills and Job Complexity. Academy of Management
Journal 34(4) 929-938.
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Research examples 4. Case studies
a) Environmental deprivation
15-mo. on-site naturalistic study of a large NE
US company, using observations, participation
open-ended interviews
Source Mazumdar, Sanjoy. 1992. "Sir, please do
not take away my cubicle" The phenomenon of
environmental deprivation. Environment Behavior
24(6) 691-722.
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Research examples 4. Case studies
Typical output
(describing what happened when supervisors lost
their larger work stations) ...They moaned and
bitched about it for about a month. And then they
just realized that there wasnt any sense talking
about it anymore and they stopped. It does not
mean they feel good about it, it just means they
stopped talking about it. (Mazumdar, 1992, p.704)
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Research examples 4. Case studies
Basic form of case studies
activity over time
a given population OR context of interest
intensive observations
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Research examples 4. Case studies
b) Office case study social behavior

• traces the re-design process of a small office
• analysis of social behavior problems to
  determine design solutions
• used environmental psychology literature

Source Dumesnil, Carla D. 1987. Office case
study Social behavior in relation to the design
of the environment. Journal of Architectural
Planning Research 4(1) 7-13.
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Research examples 4. Case studies
b) Office case study social behavior
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• Overview
• So what??
• Info-based FM decision-making
• Research
• questions fashion and other findings
• methods for getting answers
• FM research examples
• Trends in work environment research
• Links to key management concerns (So what?
  revisited)
• Future work challenges and opportunities

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Trends in work environment research
Survey of articles on corporate workplace
environments appearing in top design-behavior
management journals over the past 20 years
Design Management
48 11 Generally, many similarities in terms
of the outcomes, scale and characteristics of
the physical environment, the user groups
considered, and the research methods used.
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Trends in work environment research

• Research methods survey, case studies,
  quasi-experiments, experiments, content analysis,
  descriptive
• Outcomes of interest behavior/action,
  attitudes/perceptions, physical state, social
  processes, architectural
• User groups individual, groups,
  organizational, society

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Trends in work environment research

• Physical scale of analysis general work
  setting/office, building, workstation,
  extra-organizational settings
• PPE characteristics design, ambient
  conditions, projects, location, control/privacy,
  specific room types

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Links to key management concerns (So what?
revisited)
Why management should care?
Research??!!
CEO
CEO
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Links to key management concerns

• Some themes in management research
• technology innovation
• e.g. geography of knowledge spillovers
• corporate governance
• e.g. how does company territory, HQ city
  characteristics owner location affect the
  composition of boards of directors?
• teamwork and coordination
• e.g. RD activity, high-velocity environments
• alliances, joint ventures multinational
  management
• e.g.how to collaborate across company boundaries
  and territories?

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Links to key management concerns

• Also...
• facility interventions are often required as a
  result of many business strategies
• can have far-reaching scope
• can require significant planning coordination
• these interventions can have important strategic
  and performance consequences!
• e.g. many claim that facility strategies will
  affect MA integration process and performance
  outcomes these issues are often cited as factors
  when MA are unsuccessful

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Future Work Challenges opportunities

• Encouraging education
• Conferences, onsite, and formal! Also need to
  raise awareness of research opportunities within
  every company, as well as how to critically look
  at research findings.
• Encouraging supporting research
• IFMA Foundation does a good job at this! Also,
  FM programs, but need more FM execs on board too.
  Need to lobby government for state funding of
  our built resources!

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Future Work Challenges opportunities

• Shifting mindset
• more collaboration information sharing
• Getting publicly available data
• difficult to accomplish without regulatory
  support!
• Bridging the gap between managers and facility
  managers

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Future Work Challenges opportunities

• work is being done in other areas that may be
  relevant to FM
• e.g. effect of the internet on organizational
  relationships (Hampton Wellman, 2000, on the
  wired suburb)
• encouraging partnerships between industry and
  academics
• e.g. every year several Cornell Masters
  students undertake research projects

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Future Work Challenges opportunities

• optimistic outlook Growing interest in physical
  environment by managers management researchers
• e.g. 2nd annual Wharton Technology
  Mini-conference April 02
• so much that remains unexplored!

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Is research THE answer to all FM challenges?
Sadly, no - but it is an important tool for
implementing and justifying facility strategies!