Editorial

Citation

Cooke, H. (2013), "Editorial", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 15 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre.2013.31215baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Volume 15, Issue 2

This edition of the journal splits naturally into two parts. The first two papers look broadly at the workplace, whilst the second two are decision-making focussed papers.

Synergies from the co-location of teams is often been cited as a reason to undertake big projects to house everyone under “one roof”. By co-locating teams the perceived problem, that a dispersed workforce is less than fully efficient, is removed. A key driver of efficiency is the rise of collaboration in the workplace. Many organisations have moved to a work style based on teams and hence they need to create spaces that allow collaborative practices to develop fully, such space being formal and informal areas.

Rashid explores the effects of co-location and whether a dispersed workforce is less than fully efficient. The study is of a public sector group in the USA and saw a participation level by employees of circa 60 per cent, in both pre- and post-move questionnaires, a significant response rate for him to work with. Co-location does improve the ability for workers to interact but the old adage that you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink applies. Having removed the physical limitations and impediments workers are not guaranteed to take up the opportunities of using the new freedom. It is the perceived freedom that is important and the study highlights the need to consider specific design features of the workplace, but cultural change needs to go hand in hand with the whole process.

Jaitli and Hua looks at sense of belonging within a corporate campus and how people interact with their workplace and the benefits of co-location. In this study there are signs that co-location is being viewed as less important by employees than it was because of technology. That being said the study shows co-location if a benefit, not only because it gives a sense community and belonging, but because of the improvement in the overall experience of working for the organisation.

The study indicates is that employees are more focussed on their personal workspace rather than the overall environment, but that the latter is important in providing the sense of belonging.

Collectively the two pieces show that more research is needed in the area of the impact of workplace and there is a sense that getting it right is a moving target. For the practitioner the success of an exercise in bringing everyone together is not simply a design question, it is a hearts and minds exercise as well.

Turning to decision making and the paper by Grabowski and Mathiassen looks at a different approach to decision making within the corporate real estate world. The paper considers how reality differs from the theory. The theoretical approach assumes perfect knowledge whereas in reality the different stakeholders with different backgrounds and there is also the drive to “do the deal”, these all create conflicting goals and drivers. Actor network theory offers an alternative approach and the study looked at it in the case of four organisations in the South-East USA. This shows the impact of different stakeholders in moving the driver of decisions beyond the cost per square foot or square metre.

The final paper by Natukunda and colleagues considers the outsourcing of FM services in Uganda, a country with an un-developed FM profession, and the drivers for procurement. This is a back to basics consideration as to what drives outsourcing, when there is no strong history of outsourcing and no professional push for such an activity. What gets outsourced? Security, catering and cleaning, activities that are none core and labour intensive. Why outsource? Quality of service, cost savings and to allow the business to focus on its core activities are the primary drivers. As the industry develops in Uganda it will be interesting to track whether the decision making criteria remain the same, or as more outsourcing occurs whether the basic drivers become modified.

The cross over of the papers for me is in how decisions are made on how we work. The push to open plan made assumptions that output would not change. The move to collaborative space makes assumptions that people need to be working in groups to improve output. The reality is that individuals’ are just that – individual. The challenge for corporate real estate is to try and develop a working environment that tries to cater for all the different styles of working. For too many organisations there is no real understanding of how to create the best environment for their people.

Howard Cooke