(PDF) ADDED VALUE IN WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT A FOCUS ON WORKPLACE STRATEGY

ADDED VALUE IN WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT

A FOCUS ON WORKPLACE STRATEGY

Master Thesis

Institute of Facility Management

Department of Life Sciences and Facility

Management Zurich University of

Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

Author: Adegoke Oyewo Solomon

Study program: Facility Management from 2017 to 2019

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ABSTRACT

In the business world creating added value is beginning to be the main need of organizations, they are

seeking employees, service providers, and clients that would add value to their organization. The

workplace is considered to be a strategic tool in influencing the performance of employees and realizing

business goals, that is why organizations are beginning to use the workplace to realize their corporate

goals. The role of Facility managers in workplace management is beginning to grow into adding value

to the organization hence placing FM in a more strategic position in organization. Workplace strategies

are used by organizations to make sure that the work processes are aligned with the workplace to

enable peak performance. This Master thesis deals with how workplace strategies can be used as a

tool to positively influence the performance of employees. It explains how workplace management

strategies and innovation can generate added value to an organization, hence increasing employee

performance. This research adopts a qualitative approach in gathering data which resulted in

conducting 11 semi-structured interviews with Inhouse Facility/Workplace managers and Consultants

from around the world. The outcome of this thesis gives insights on how facility managers can add value

to their organizations through workplace management, to outline a detailed process of how to develop

a workplace strategy, stating out the elements and benefits of a workplace management, and finally the

positive impact of workplace strategies on employee performance. These findings are adequate only

for knowledge intensive organizations because the interviews were conducted with participants from

knowledge-based industries.

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© 2018 ZHAW, Institute of Facility Management    Added Value in WPM: A focus on Workplace Strategy 
 
 
Table of Contents 
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 
1 Background to the Research ................................................................................................... 1 
1.1 Terms and Definitions ......................................................................................................... 3 
2 Research Problem .................................................................................................................. 4 
3 Research Aim .......................................................................................................................... 4 
4 Research Questions and Objectives ....................................................................................... 4 
4.1 Research questions ............................................................................................................ 4 
4.2 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................... 4 
5 Purpose Statement ................................................................................................................. 4 
6 Scope and Limitations ............................................................................................................. 5 
7 Methodological Approach ........................................................................................................ 5 
Theoretical Background .................................................................................................................. 6 
1 Added Value ............................................................................................................................ 6 
2 Added Value in Workplace Management ................................................................................ 9 
3 Benchmarking ....................................................................................................................... 11 
4 Innovative Workplace Designs .............................................................................................. 11 
5 Performance in Workplace .................................................................................................... 12 
6 Workplace Strategy (WPS) ................................................................................................... 17 
7 Developing Workplace Strategies ......................................................................................... 19 
8 Research Gap ....................................................................................................................... 20 
Research Methodology ................................................................................................................. 21 
1 Data Collection Methods ....................................................................................................... 21 
2 Sampling ............................................................................................................................... 21 
3 Semi-Structured Interviews ................................................................................................... 23 
4 Procedures ............................................................................................................................ 24 
5 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 24 
6 Ethical Issue .......................................................................................................................... 26 
7 Reliability and Validity ........................................................................................................... 27 
8 Reliability ............................................................................................................................... 27 
9 Validity ................................................................................................................................... 27 

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© 2018 ZHAW, Institute of Facility Management    Added Value in WPM: A focus on Workplace Strategy 
 
 
Results .......................................................................................................................................... 29 
1 Results Overview .................................................................................................................. 29 
2 Roles of FM in WPM ............................................................................................................. 30 
3 Added Value & Value Creation ............................................................................................. 31 
4 Space Allocation ................................................................................................................... 33 
5 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance? ................................................... 34 
6 How do you Measure Employee Performance? ................................................................... 37 
7 Developing WPS ................................................................................................................... 38 
8 Stakeholders Involved in Developing WPS ........................................................................... 41 
9 Elements of a Good WPS ..................................................................................................... 43 
10 Implementing WPS and Challenges ..................................................................................... 45 
11 Post Evaluation of WPS ........................................................................................................ 48 
Discussions ................................................................................................................................... 50 
1 How can facility managers add value in workplace management? (RQ1) ........................... 50 
2 Added Value in Workplace management .............................................................................. 51 
3 How  can  workplace  strategies  be  managed  in  organizations  to  add  value  to  the  core 
business? (SRQ 1) ............................................................................................................................ 53 
4 Developing Workplace strategies.......................................................................................... 54 
4.1 The Workplace Strategy Process ......................................................................................... 54 
5 Elements of a Good Workplace Strategy (SRQ2) ................................................................. 58 
6 What influence does Workplace strategy have on employee performance? (SRQ3) .......... 60 
7 Limitations of Study ............................................................................................................... 61 
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 62 
1  Further Research ................................................................................................................. 64 
Bibliography................................................................................................................................... 66 
Appendices.................................................................................................................................... 73 
Appendix 1: Informed Consent ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Appendix 2: Interview Guideline In-house WM ................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Appendix 3: Interview Guideline Consultants...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Appendix 4: Transcribed Interviews .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Interview With IPJK ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 
Written Response IPSD ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 

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Appendix 5: Audio Files....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

9. Plagiarism Declaration .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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© 2018 ZHAW, Institute of Facility Management    Added Value in WPM: A focus on Workplace Strategy 
 
 
List of tables and Figures 
Table 1 List of Interview Partners .......................................................................................................... 22 
Table 2 Roles of FM in WPM ................................................................................................................ 30 
Table 3 Added Value & Value Creation ................................................................................................ 31 
Table 4 Space Allocation....................................................................................................................... 33 
Table 5 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance? ...................................................... 35 
Table 6 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance? ...................................................... 37 
Table 7 Do you have a WPS in your organization? .............................................................................. 38 
Table 8 Developing Workplace Strategy ............................................................................................... 38 
Table 9 Stakeholders Involved in Developing Workplace Strategy ...................................................... 41 
Table 10 Elements of a Good WPS ...................................................................................................... 43 
Table 11 Implementing WPS and Challenges ...................................................................................... 45 
Table 12 Post Evaluation of WPS ......................................................................................................... 48 
  

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List of Abbreviations

FM Facility Management

IP Interview Participants

PDCA Plan, Do, Check, Act

POE Post Occupancy Evaluation

RE Real Estate

RQ Research Question

RSQ Research Sub-Question

SLA Service Level Agreement

UX User Experience

VAM Value Added Management

WPM Workplace Management

WPS Workplace Strategy

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1 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Research

Analysing what customers value most has long been a challenge in research and practice in service

industries. (Coenen, Alexander, & Kok, 2013, p. 1). This is a major reason why a vast number of

organizations are still striving to deliver effective and efficient services to their employees. An idea of

what customers value helps the organization to better shape its workplace in such a way that it creates

more value to its core business. This is the reason for Workplace managers to have an in-depth

understanding of what value means to their clients.

The use of the term ``added value'' is known to be a strategy for achieving competitive advantage in the

business world and various authors have given advices on the organizational processes that creates

value either for customers or organizations (e.g. Band, 1991; Gale, 1994; Naumann, 1995,Chernatony,

Harris, & Dall’Olmo Riley, 2000). Creation of value constitutes of setting up processes in the

organization which tends to effectively affect the productivity of the organization as a whole.

Added value involves making trade-offs and choices between benefits, costs and risks which are very

difficult to compare (H. B. Kok, Mobach, & Omta, 2011).This is based on the characteristical, functional

and emotional merits offered by a service in relation to its cost and other functional implications, an

example could be ignoring some basic routine maintenance in the workplace so as to save cost, but in

the long-run there would be quick depreciation of the elements of the workplace. In workplace

management added value would mean efficient utilization of the resources available within the

workplace which tends to have a positive effect on a lot of factors peculiar to workplaces. Jensen et al.

(2012) says that there are six different types of added value which are Use value, Customer value,

Economic, financial or exchange value, Social value, Environmental value, Relationship value. (cited

by Chaiwat Riratanaphong & van der Voordt, 2014).

However, employee wellness, employee safety, employee productivity, employee satisfaction, and a lot

more parameters are also added value metrics which would be critically discussed in this research. Any

organization should be working towards improving its operations, if they take customer satisfaction,

increased productivity, better quality of output, better environmental performance or any of a host of

other performance indicators seriously (Best, Langston & Gerard de Valence, 2002). “Facility

Management is about to undergo a transformation. A transformation that will move the industry from

being building-centric to being user-centric. We will no longer simply service the building. Rather, the

emphasis will increasingly be on improving performance and wellbeing for those in the building, helping

the people working there to become more successful”. (ISS, 2018).

The effective and efficient management of facilities and corporate real estate requires well developed

decisions on how to align facilities and services to the needs of the core business in order to add value

to the organization as a whole and to contribute to organizational performance (Riratanaphong & van

der Voordt, 2014). Also, as in the workplace context in other to create added value it is important to

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1 Introduction

prioritize performance measures and also KPI’s in other to support the core business and contribute to

overall organizational performance.

This thesis would also discuss the approaches to attaining added value which range from operational

strategies in the workplace, KPI’s, performance measures. Sink and Tuttle (1989) identified seven

performance criteria that are interrelated:

• Effectiveness: This is the extent to which an organization is able to realize its goals, usually

expressed as a ratio of actual output to expected output

• Efficiency: This is a measure of resources expected to be consumed and actual resources

consumed

• Quality: Quality in the sense of upstream systems, inputs, transformation value adding

process, outputs, downstream systems

• Productivity: A measure of outputs and resources consumed

• Quality of work life: Personal feelings of employees on key factors such as safety, health,

compensation, pay

• Innovation: An important element in sustaining and improving performance

• Profitability: representing the relationships between revenue and cost

Work environments that organizations have provided for the past half-century are yet to conform to

emerging patterns of work and are inhibiting workers from performing to their full potential. The trends

in the nature of work done in organizations are evolving, workplace should support different work

patterns and activities through innovative workplace strategies, which in turn would have a signiﬁcant

impact on workplace creation. The trend in organizations today is to have fewer individual and

personalized workspaces and a variety of other spaces that foster interaction, communication and

collaboration. Workplace environments are shifting towards more intense interaction. Workspace is

being optimized for all types of collaboration such as large formal meetings to informal interactions as

two people pass in the corridor. For easy transition from one mode of working based on the task of

employees which could be collaborative to heads-down work, ‘‘thinking spaces’’ are needed for periods

of concentration. An organization must provide the right mix of these different spaces and also support

virtual interaction (IT) between colleagues, partners and customers (Schriefer, 2005). An effective

workplace solution allows for a natural and efficient sharing of knowledge, interaction, communication

and so on. Workplaces that increase knowledge sharing between individuals leads to enhanced

productivity, improved quality, and accelerated innovation. (Schriefer, 2005). This is the need for coming

up with workplace strategies that would in the long run have a positive effect on the employees on how

they view their work, and how they execute their daily tasks. With the innovation of flexible workspaces,

workspace are assigned based on different criteria which is represented by the nature of work that is

carried out. This has various benefits ranging from cost efficiency, reducing unoccupied space,

efficiency of space usage and also would have a great number of positive effects on the users of the

building. As the view of workplace is becoming more people focused and less about the physical place,

the workplace can now be used as a strategic business tool which leads to the development of

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1 Introduction

workplace strategies that can lead to the actualization of an organizations goal. These employees are

the key to business performance, therefore the work environment can be a tool that enables employees

and the work they do (Mitchell-Ketzes, 2003). A high performing workplace according to U.S General

Services Administration (1999) a high performing workplace has 7 important characteristics, they are:

• It must be equitable, by meeting functional needs without trading off individual needs.

• It must be flexible

• It must be sustainable, meeting the triple bottom line requirements.

• It must be comfortable

• It must promote collaboration

• It must be reliable

• It must be Identifiable.

These above listed criteria can be said to be a good example of a workplace that can influence

employee performance.

1.1.1 Terms and Definitions

Workplace / work environment: is an ecosystem comprising a careful balance of people, process and

place developed to support people and the nature of their work. (Mitchell-Ketzes, 2003, p. 267)

Workplace Management: Is a series of activities for planning, designing, using and disposing items

surrounding the workplace for the purpose of helping employees organize their daily tasks and optimize

the use of resources and facilities. (Linman, 2010, p. 1)

Value: A measure of the benefit that may be gained from goods or service and the difference

between an individual’s evaluation of benefits and costs.

Added Value: Added value is the increase in value created by undertaking new processes.

Added Value for FM and CREM: The trade-off between the benefits of FM and CREM interventions

and the costs and risks to achieve these benefits. (Jensen, et al. 2012)

Workplace Strategy: The dynamic alignment of an organization’s work patterns with the work

environment to enable peak performance and reduced cost (Schriefer, 2005, p. 223)

Employee Performance: refers to an individual’s work achievement after exerting required efforts on

the job which is associated through getting a meaningful work, engaged profile and compassionate

colleagues around. (Pradhan & Jena, 2017, p. 71)

Employee Productivity: The increased functional and organizational performance, which includes

quality. (Dogan and Dogan, 2005, p. 114)

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1 Introduction

1.2 Research Problem

The problem that this research will address is the issue faced by Workplace managers in practice on

how to organize the workplace in such a way that it creates more added value to the core business and

how they can influence their organizations on the need for a workplace strategy in other to generate

added value for the organization. This relates to issues which involve delivering value, managing

expectations, integrating technologies in the workplace to increase added value potential to the

workplace. Majority of organizations ignore the fact that a good workplace management strategy can

generate added value for the core business

1.3 Research Aim

The research aims at examining and better understanding how workplace management strategies and

innovation can generate added value to an organization, hence increasing employee performance.

1.4 Research Questions and Objectives

1.4.1 Research questions

The main research question is:

• How can facility managers add value in workplace management?

From the main research question follows the successive sub questions:

• How can workplace strategies be managed in organizations to add value to the core

business?

• What are the elements of a good workplace strategy?

• What influence does Workplace strategy have on employee performance?

1.4.2 Research Objectives

• To contribute to existing literature and knowledge in the subject topic.

• To develop a basis for determining added value.

• To examine the stages of workplace strategy development and implementation.

• To investigate the extent to which workplace management strategies and innovation affect the

performance of employees

1.5 Purpose Statement

The purpose of this case study is to outline/discover how and why workplace management strategies

can support the core business and by that to highlight the role of Facility Managers as becoming key

actors in developing and implementing workplace management strategies. Added value in this case is

in relation to employee performance. This study will also explain the reasons why some organizations

are struggling in contributing added value to their organization focusing on performance. It should be

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1 Introduction

noted that for the purpose of this study, facility management organizations are not the main focus, the

study is focused on organizations with in-house facility managers

1.6 Scope and Limitations

In other to limit this research, the term FM organizations refer to FM departments in established

businesses which the core business is not facility management. For this research there are no

limitations about geographical ranges. Also, the term Added Value relates to the users of the

building(employees) and the organization as a whole. In addition, all included organizations were

knowledge intensive organizations, where most of the work is of intellectual nature.

1.7 Methodological Approach

The methodology of this research would be based on already developed literature, and the collection of

Primary data.

The research would adopt a qualitative approach in addressing the issues related to the Master thesis

topic.

Primary data which includes:

• Interviews with In-house Facility Managers/ Workplace managers

• Interviews with Facility Managers/Workplace managers (Consultants)

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Facility managers/ workplace managers with well

proven experience in the field of workplace management and are responsible for workplace strategies

in their organizations, while the other group on interviewees are Workplace consultants with experience

in the field of workplace management with facility management backgrounds. The reason for the

division of interview participants is because the research focuses on workplace strategy and it has been

observed that in the development of workplace strategies organizations either carry out the workplace

strategy by themselves with an inhouse facilitator or alternatively request the services of workplace

consultants.

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2 Theoretical Background

2.1 Added Value

The main focus of Facilities Management (FM) has for a long time been on cost reductions, but over

the years there is a shift towards the need for FM to create added value (Anker Jensen, 2010). This

change in focus is the evolution of workplace management as just reducing cost as there is also a need

for adding value to the core business which will create a more satisfactory environment for the

employees and inhabitants of a building. Going back to the past, added value has been advocated to

mean the combination of price and quality (Treacy & Wiersema, 1995). Organizations find it difficult to

define value and also measure value in their organization (Anderson & Narus, 1998). There is quite a

little amount of research examining what value is despite its importance, little research effort has also

been given to examining what value really means, how it can be achieved, delivered and more

importantly how it is perceived by the end users (Tzokas & Saren, 1999) (cited by Lindgreen & Wynstra,

2005) . Value has different meaning to different people for example value to a user would differ from

value to a producer, just as value to an organization would differ from value of end users of a building

and employees. Value also differs from organizations to organizations. In business management value

to producers, for example, value often comes from customers who are loyal because according to the

following authors (Best, 2004; Buttle, 2004; Doyle, 2000), they are more likely to respond to the

producers cost, they take less of the producers’ time in personal selling, they help in personal one-on-

one advertising, they are less price sensitive and resistive, To users, on the other hand, value could

mean a lot ranging from: getting high-quality service and customized products, feeling valued, access

to social (e.g. friendship/fraternization with the producer) and special treatment (e.g. economic and

customization), this is more specific to services where there is a high degree of contact between the

end-user and provider, anxiety can be reduced because they trust the producer/provider (Lindgreen

& Wynstra, 2005).

An example of a company which has developed an equation to determine user value is a finance

organization Nykredit, they set up a user value equation which is used to maximize and measure user

value in all areas in the organization which is

User value = Quality & Process / Price & Difficulties

This equation shows how user value can be generated with a number of factors, quality, process and

price, difficulties. This company’s motivation of developing this equation was to create value for the

users and also for the organization.

In the facility management context, there was a research at the Vienna University of Technology on

added value with focus on the added value of implementing FM in a company, which was measured by

comparing whether a separate FM department should be established or not (Redlein & Sustr, 2008).

The added value was measured using some parameters which are: One time cost savings, yearly

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2 Theoretical Background

savings, productivity increase, advantages and savings, and perceived success of FM. (Anker Jensen,

2010).

Value creation can be of two forms, they are: “use value” and “exchange value” (Bowman & Ambrosini,

2000). Use value is the specific quality of a service or task which the end-user experiences given their

specific needs. The exchange value on the other hand has to do with financial value and the monetary

amount in which the end-user is willing to give-up in relation with the risk the end-user is willing to take

(Lepak et al., 2007) (cited by Kok, Mobach, & Omta, 2011). Jensen et al. (2012) identifies 6 types of

value they are : Use value which is quality based on the users; Customer value which is the trade-off

between benefits and costs; Economic, financial or exchange value which is the financial trade-off

between costs and benefits; Social value which relates to connecting people by improving social

interaction, identity and personal traits; Environmental value which is the environmental impact of FM

and level of green FM and ;Relationship value which is getting special treatment from the producer.

(Riratanaphong & van der Voordt, 2014)

Christopher et al. (1991) says that the aim of establishing what value is to the customer should be to

discover exactly what a customer/user is trying to do with the product/service at a time and place. From

a customer’s view, added value is mostly assessed in terms of additional advantages experienced by

the customer compared to regular competitive offering (Woodruff, 1997; Dodds, 1999). The variables

involved in a customers valuation of value as well as the assessments evolves over time (Kemperman

& van Engelen, 1999). Also, availability of a service in the market and competition, as factors of the

laws of economics, influence user’s acceptance of price which in turn affects their perception of value

(Meijer, 2006).

In literature on manufacturing, the term Value Adding Management (VAM) focuses on eliminating non-

value adding or waste activities. However, Value Adding Management is also seen as a counter

strategy, where the overall corporate mission and vision of the organization is what? and VAM is how?

and adding value refers to why. A new Value Adding Management model has been further developed

which can be seen as the transition of the what-how-why elements into a more comprehensive model

using input-throughput-output-outcome-impact, which then creates added value:

Input → Throughput → Output → Outcome → Impact = Added Value (van der Voordt - BK, p. 3)

To elaborate and further explain the VAM model, the VAM model uses the plan, do, check, act (PDCA)

model which is widely used as a means to integrate the VAM model into an organization to be as a

decision-support and management too, this is described in fig (1) below

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2 Theoretical Background

Figure 1 PDCA model (Hoendervanger et al., 2016)

In Fig (1), the input, throughput, output and outcome are visualized using the PDCA cycle. The Input

stage represents the planning stage where all elements are considered, FM interventions are defined

and decided based on the organizational objectives. Throughput is the action stage which is referred

to as the ‘Do’ stage where implementation is done for example adding new infrastructure, creating new

processes, new workspaces, change management etc. The ‘Check’ stage includes the output which is

the outcome of the interventions and implementation. The output measures the extent of the change in

FM/CREM performance and practices while the outcome is the change in organizational performance.

If these changes turn out to be positive, added value would be derived and would create a need to Act

which would mean the evaluation of the extent of added value and also actualizing the strategy. After

all of these has been done, the cycle should be repeated because the FM and business environment

is dynamic, this provides for continuous improvements. “Assessing added value of FM interventions

should not only include ‘objective’ performance measurement and benchmarking, but it should also

have a ‘subjective’ evaluation whether the improved performance really is perceived as adding value

to the organization, by the clients, customers and end users, and society. All stakeholders involved

should be considered when determining if value has been added”. (van der Voordt - BK, p. 11)

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2 Theoretical Background

2.2 Added Value in Workplace Management

Over the years Real Estate (RE) and FM organizations has begun to search for workplace cost cutting

ideas as a primary way to add value to their organization, however added value should never be seen

from the point of financial implications alone(Mitchell-Ketzes, 2003).There is a clear difference between

value in singular, which expresses the worth of something, and values in plural, which is personal belief

and social behavior. (Anker Jensen, 2010). Value considered in this thesis refers to value in its singular

form as a function of the worth of something.

The concept of value is getting more recognized in some of the literature on management, more

especially in strategy and marketing. An important benchmark on the concept of value is Porter’s theory

on value chains, which like most economic theory relates to exchange value (Porter, 1985). Another

example which relates to use value is the strategy thinking by Teece (2003) on non-tradable assets like

knowledge, innovation, brands and service concepts. When considering exchange value, cost is the

major factor and the relationship between output and input in a business process. The added value in

such cases can be defined as the value of the product divided by the value of the resources used

throughout the process. Use value relates only to the output and the outcome of a process, it doesn’t

involve the process itself. What this means is that a different and improved output by increasing

effectiveness of processes leads to added use value. For both exchange value and use value the added

value is a relative i.e. it changes over time. (Jensen, 2010)

The relationship between added use value and cost reduction depends on the development of cost and

use value of a service over a period of time compared to various indicators specified in the Service

Level Agreement (SLA). The use value of the services in a workplace can be measured using already

determined Key Performance Indicator (KPI) having a minimum level of employee satisfaction. (Jensen,

2010). Also, it should be noted that in workplace management cost reducing interventions that conflict

with the organization’s values do not add value in the end because the trade-off between benefits and

costs will be relatively negative. In cases of a focus on operational excellence in the workplace at a

good price, that same cost reducing interventions would be very appropriate and add value to the

organization (van der Voordt - BK, 2004) . Creating added value concerns the functional or emotional

benefits offered by a product or service in relation to the financial costs, efforts and risks involved in

using or not using the product/service. An example is, reducing cleaning times in the workplace may

lead to an increase in health risks due to fungi and bacteria but this will in some way save cost but it

has a negative health effect on the employees. “This trade-off between risks, benefits, and cost is also

known as optimizing values”. (Kok et al., 2011, pp. 251–252). However, organizations are highly

different, some organizations may focus very much on strategic business goals based on their business

environment while other organizations may only focus on their operational process and short-term

outputs. These organizational objectives actually vary based on the business environment in which the

organization is operating (Lee, 2002). Organizations are differently focused on their facilities and

support services, which makes them prioritize their focus on these services differently. Consequently,

the function, role, scope and priority of FM functions and services need to be designed to fit with the

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2 Theoretical Background

organizations goals (Chotipanich, 2004). Lee (2002) states three important factors that influence FM

practices and services they are organization’s objectives, core business needs, and source of value.

Nutt (2002) also indicates key factors related to FM practices like facility type/facility sector, stakeholder

involvement, market environment and culture. Schindler (1998) views on FM practices is that there are

a few factors that affect the way organizations view FM practices and services, they are culture and

goals of the organization, size of the organization, level of FM in management hierarchy. Cotts (1999)

also indicates four factors, which are size of the organization, size and location of facilities, type of

ownership over the property, and control issues that affect the structure of FM practice of an

organization based on the strategic positioning of FM in the organization. Bennett (2000) identifies six

critical factors in positioning support services for a workplace organization. “The factors include

operation process, logistical relationship with primary operation, support service products, resourcing

of the operations, control, and coordination with organization structure” (cited by Chotipanich, 2004,

p. 367). The importance and significance of maintaining a employee and employer relationship for

providing added value was well acknowledged in (Ravald & Gronroos, 1996; Lindgreen & Wynstra,

2005). According to Ravald and Gronroos (1996), employee and employer relationship itself has an

impact on the total value perceived by the employee/user, also this relationship can increase trust

between both parties, hereby making the users more tolerant in cases of inferior services/performance.

Barret (2000) also argues on the need to build strong relationships in terms of information linkages with

the core business to create value. This means that the alignment of the core business and FM is a vital

element that creates added value and that, besides the service specifications which could be quality

and performance, the relationship between FM and the client must be considered. (cited by Kok et al.,

2011) All of these perceptions of workplace organization still points to the fact that in other to add value

to an organization, facility managers need to critically understand the objectives of their clients and also

build a good relationship. Lindhom (2008), has identified 7 strategies in creating added value in an

organization, they are:

• Increasing the value of assets which leads to increased revenue

• Promoting marketing and sales which also leads to increased revenue

• Increasing innovation which leads to increased revenue

• Increasing employee satisfaction which leads to increased profitability

• Increasing productivity which leads to increased profitability

• Increasing flexibility which leads to increased profitability

• Reducing cost leading to increased profitability. (cited by Anker Jensen, 2010).

The FM value map which was developed as a basis for FM organizations to create value has been

accepted by a lot of writers. The FM value shows some key factors and elements that FM can consider

when creating value, there are eleven (11) of them namely: Cooperation, customers or end-users,

economy or costs, effectiveness and productivity, environmental sustainability, facilities and

workplaces, overall management, geographical area, staff risks and continuity, and services (Anker

Jensen, 2010). The FM Value Map was also presented in the European standardization work group

CEN/TC 348 WG4 on taxonomy of FM. (CEN/TC 348, 2008a).

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2 Theoretical Background

2.3 Benchmarking

Benchmarking is also a tool used by workplace managers in determining the effectiveness of distributing

resources within the workplace to create value. And if well practiced it would lead to effective value

management of the workplace. Benchmarking is mostly misinterpreted to be performance

measurement however, it involves a systematic process of evaluation that provides a mechanism that

uses performance criteria/measurement systems in the search for improvement beyond best practice

in the workplace. In facilities management, benchmarking can be defined as “a process of comparing

a product, service process – indeed, any activity or object – with other samples of a peer group, with a

view to identifying ‘best buy’ or ‘best practice’ and targeting oneself to emulate it” (Williams, 2000 p.24).

These peer groups could be organizations operating in the same market or organizations that provide

similar services. It should be noted that similarity of business function is not really an important

characteristic of a peer group.(Wauters, 2005). Benchmarking practices can provide the facilities

manager with valuable management information that can improve the overall FM service delivery.

Wauters (2005) identifies 3 critical aspects that can be benchmarked in Facility management in the

workplace. They are:

• Space use - Benchmarking the space use is important because it drives all the assets costs

and the floor areas need to be benchmarked for the purpose of comparing costs of

management, maintenance, cleaning, etc.

• FM management - Benchmarking the cost effectiveness of FM operations on a strategic/tactical

level.

• Computer aided facilities management systems - Benchmarking of the costs and service

delivery of the help desk. (Wauters, 2005). A number of FM organization view benchmarking

to be majorly a cost comparison tool, but as described by Wauters, there is more to

benchmarking than just comparing cost.

Benchmarking in general helps workplace managers and FM to improve organizational

performance, processes and overall service quality by having a strategic overview of best practices

to be adopted for improvements that are relevant now and for the future which also helps in creating

a very good workplace strategy. (cited by Adewunmi & Ajayi, 2016).

2.4 Innovative Workplace Designs

“Innovation is the intentional introduction and application with a role, group or organization of ideas,

processes, products or procedures, new to the relevant unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit

the individual, group or organization” (West & Faar., 1990, p.9). FM are serviced with the responsibility

of ensuring a workplace in which its users can perform at their best (Nazali Mohd Noor & Pitt 2009).

Innovative workplace solutions are known as ‘‘workplace of the future’’ or ‘‘alternative officing.’’ These

innovative workplace concepts are adopted by progressive organizations around the world and these

organizations have begun to develop their workplace to meet the needs of their organization(Schriefer,

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2 Theoretical Background

2005). It is also a known phenomenon that workplaces are failing due to lack of proper workplace

management (Leesman, 2017) and this is the reason why workplace managers need to begin to

develop innovative workplace concepts.

An innovative workplace integrates business activities and individual work practices based on the

available workspaces and office space, which results in healthy and high performing workplace

solutions (GSA, 2003). The integration of people and processes in organization is a huge task faced by

Facility Managers as it is one of their major competences to be able to integrate the organization as a

whole. Also, in workplace management integrating the day to day processes of the organization and

creating workspaces that supports these processes is very vital in creating a working environment that

increases employee performance. In real estate and facility management, innovative workplaces are

seen as renovation of the workplace to create a more beautiful and satisfying environment that meet

the needs of the users (Van der Voordt, 2003). Innovative workplace designs also take into

consideration the business organization as a whole, its practices and the ten (10) forms of workplace

innovation mentioned by Balkin et al. Some of them are innovative work, new skilling, team innovations,

structuring and innovative renumerations. Spatial configurations of rooms and offices in the workplace

could include innovations such as the introduction of flexible workspaces, hot desking, activity-based

workspaces, open layout spaces etc. The aim of innovative workplace concepts is to achieve an

efficient and effective use of space. Through the efficient and effective use of space added value can

be created for the organization as a whole, it can reduce cost and also have a positive effect on the

users of the building.

There are different terms that come to the mind when the word innovative workplace design is

mentioned, which include the outcome of a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to creating

workspace, uniting organization’s strategic real estate plan with organization’s strategic business goals

that responds to the people and work practices of each individual and group, and provides them with

the physical space and tools needed for their success (GSA, 1999). Other terms used to describe

innovative workplace concepts are innovative spaces, new offices, flexible workspace, alternative

offices, alternative work environments and workplace of the future (Van der Voordt, 2003).

2.5 Performance in Workplace

In workplace management and innovation there is a high level of expectation from the users of the

building, these expectations are that the workplace managers would organize the workplace in such a

way that users have access to common areas, areas for different activities, ergonomic furniture, and

the availability of good IT systems, this will bring about a more efficient use of space and facilities which

and an increased performance/productivity of the organization and its employees (van der Voordt,

2004). Performance is a function of three things: ability, motivation, and opportunity. According to

(Heerwagen, 2000), A building can influence the ability of employees by providing a comfortable work

environment, by enabling the employees to control and adjust their work environment, and by reducing

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2 Theoretical Background

risks. Some negative impacts on ability to carry out ones work can be associated with conditions that

are, distracting, hazardous, and uncomfortable. A building can influence motivation by providing

conditions that foster positive affective functioning, psychological engagement and personal control. A

building can also influence opportunity by providing access to conditions that improve health and

safety conditions, access to amenities and compensatory design options where hierarchical structures

exist and are difficult to eliminate entirely.

The contribution of workplace managers can be established by obtaining information about the

relationship between the facility services and the employees work processes. The contribution of

workplace management (WM) can also be found in the effects that the use of facility services have on

the outcome of work processes which could be either a positive or negative effect. Facility services

have differing effects on employee performance in an organization. Employees performance can be

affected by the availability of adequate facilities within their work environment. This can be based on

the effects of some spatial characteristics such as lack of privacy, crowdedness and noise in relation to

stress (Gaillard, 1996; Moline, 2001), employee perceived workload (Blomkvist et al., 2005; Evans &

Mitchell, 1998), lightning (Bronzwaer, 2008) and temperature (Griffit, 1970), air quality in relation to

sick building syndrome (Wilson, 1987; Kreiss, 1990), lack of exercise at the workplace, ergonomics and

unhealthy diet in relation to health (Engbers et al., 2005).

With regards to the mood of employees, there are effects of privacy which increases employee

satisfaction (Sundstrom et al., 1980; Ferguson and Weisman, 1986) and comfort as a result of air quality

& lightning (Nemcsics, 1993). With regards to behavioral attitude in the workplace, there are effects of

proximity in relation to interpersonal communication with colleagues (Peters and Waterman, 1982;

Allen, 1967), physical layout of workspaces for social interaction (Tiburcio and Finch, 2005), productivity

(van der Voordt, 2004) and effectiveness and efficiency of meetings in relation to productivity and also

use of biophilic designs in relation to creativity (Klein Hesselink et al., 2007; Mehta & Zu, 2009). (cited

by Kok et al., 2011 p256.). Majority of organization’s are primarily concerned with increasing

performance without necessarily increasing cost. Moreover, for employees a very important factor is

gaining pleasure from their work. With respect to productivity in the workplace, open plan layout

encourages more communication and facilitates exchange of knowledge and skills and also innovation,

but the presence of quiet areas or concentration areas creates a good atmosphere for concentrated

and heads down work. Employee satisfactions is also an important metric, an issue faced when

introducing activity based workplaces can be giving up one’s personal desk which may conflicts with

basic human needs for privacy, personalization and demonstrating one’s status, however this can be

compensated by providing good architecture, nice and appealing interior design and smart technology

(van der Voordt, 2004). The flexible workspace concept promotes an environment that enhances

employee engagement, collaboration, and gives people and their ideas more freedom hereby

empowering them to take charge of their workplace. The design offers flexibility and variability to meet

the different needs of the employees at a particular time. Flexible workspace designs provide different

kinds of workspace ranging from spaces for collaboration, interaction, socialization to spaces for

concentrated work “The effective and efficient management of corporate real estate and related facilities

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2 Theoretical Background

requires strategic decisions on how to align the facilities and services to the needs of the core business

to add value to the organization and to contribute to organizational performance. Evidence based

decision making is possible with valid and reliable data regarding the impact of real estate on

organizational performance”. (Chaiwat Riratanaphong & Theo J.M. van der Voordt, 2014, p. 103). In

achieving a high-performance workplace, the task of FM is to think of how their resources can be well

utilized more productively to support business objectives. In attempt to achieve this high performing

workplace, Brignall (1992) suggests that performance measurement can be a key agent of change. The

level of determining the extent to which the performance of the employees is influenced by their work

environment is putting in place a performance measurement system. Performance measurement is a

measure put in place to gauge how well environment have done and which motivate them to achieve

higher targets (Zairi, 1994). It indicates the extent to which employee performance has increased based

on some already determined factors. Performance measurement also provides an incentive for

organizations to achieve higher levels of effectiveness and competitiveness. An increase in

performance can be a quantifiable reduction of absenteeism of employees, which could mean that

employees do not leave their offices earlier than their closing time or employees avoiding coming to the

office. An increase in performance can lead to an increase in the quantity and quality of production i.e

outcomes of tasks during the period that employees are actively working (Roelofson, 2002).

Performance measurement can also be described as an important aid for making judgments and taking

decisions in the workplace. In corporate real estate management, there are different performance

measurement tools ranging from tools that cover different kinds of strategic measurement systems and

tactical techniques. “Performance measurement is a prerequisite to know how well people or facilities

perform” (van der Voordt & Jensen, pp 180. 2018). An example of a strategic performance

measurement system is the “balanced scorecard” which is a tool that focuses on the process that

translates an organizations strategy into well-developed objectives, on the other hand, tactical tools are

more internal tools aimed at analyzing future prospects and the status quo. Examples of tactical tools

such as Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) and benchmarking are mostly used to compare situations

and interventions. Another effective tactical tool used to strengthen the POE is the Work Environment

Diagnosis Instrument (WODI) toolkit that was developed by the Center for People and Buildings,

Netherlands (Volker & Van der Voordt, 2005) which includes a working environment diagnostic tool for

an indicative or diagnostic evaluation, it is also a list of key performance indicators(KPI's) that can be

used for benchmarking purposes in the workplace, and a space utilization monitor to measure the

occupancy rate of employees in their workplaces (Maarleveld et al., 2009). Performance measurement

focuses on the means and results or processes and outcomes (Zairi, 1994). Lebas, (1995, p. 24) shows

that performance measurement can help managers to be certain of what exactly they want to measure

by answering the following questions:

• where have we been?

• where are we now?

• where do we want to go?

• how are we going to get there and?

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2 Theoretical Background

• how will we know that we got there?

Parker (2000, p. 63) provides a list of the need for performance measurement in organizations, and

also stated that these reasons vary from organizations to organizations. This can be used in workplace

performance measurement in workplace, they are;

• “To identify success

• To identify whether the organization meets customer requirements

• To better understand their processes (to confirm what they know or to reveal what they do not

know)

• To identify where problems, bottlenecks and waste exist and where improvements are

necessary

• To ensure that decisions are based on facts, not supposition, emotion or intuition

• To show if the improvements planned where actualized”

Bradley (2002), identifies workplace performance from six views using the Balance Score card, they

are;

• Stakeholder perception which focuses on customer satisfaction and loyalty

• Financial health (Market value)

• Organizational development based on the processes in the organization e.g. innovation,

culture, etc.

• Organizational productivity

• Environmental responsibility i.e. sustainability

• Cost efficiency

All of the above are considered to be added value parameters and have also been discussed by other

literature already reviewed in this study e.g. De Jonge (1996), Lindholm & Gibler (2005); Lindholm

(2008), Van Meel et al. (2010), Van der Zwart & Van der Voordt (2013), Jensen et al. (2012).

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2 Theoretical Background

Figure 2: Seven (7) performance criteria. (Sink and Turtle,1989) (Chaiwat Riratanaphong & Theo J.M.

van der Voordt, 2014, p. 97)

Productivity in workplace depends on four (4) variables: personal characteristics, like a person’s

status, profession, career; social factors, such as relationship and engagement with colleagues;

organizational characteristics, like the management style and organogram of the company; and

characteristics of the physical environment, such as the indoor climate, air quality and workplace

layout. (Clement-Crome, 2000). Leaman (1990) shows that there is a relationship between the quality

of the office environment and the level of productivity of the employees/end users. This relationship can

be both negative or positive, however, Oseland (1999) breaksdown the workplace environment

conditions into four parts and he proposed that these four parts have an influence on the occupants.

They are physical conditions which consists of Indoor air quality, light, temperature, noise e.t.c, Spatial

configuration of the workplace, Ergonometrics which consists of workstations and controls, and

Aesthetics. Work environment can increase employee productivity when 5 factors are met according to

Leaman & Bordass (2005):

• Encouraging personal control of workspace

• When there is always a swift response to complaints about work environment problems

• Shallow plans with good ventilation and less complicated technical systems

• Adequate provision and distribution of workspace between different work groups

• Clear communication of the office design intent with the employees and making the employees

understand how to use their spaces

Haynes (2008), considers measurement of employee productivity to be in different ways, which are

measurement of individuals tasks, measurement of actual productivity/output, or perceived/ self-

assessed measurement of productivity. The first two measures may be tough to determine especially

in the case of information and knowledge workers because productivity can mean different things to

different employees based on their unique tasks. However, it can be said that productivity is a measure

of the output and results after a given task.

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2 Theoretical Background

2.6 Workplace Strategy (WPS)

Over the years, organizations have learned to analyze their competitive environment by defining their

position, developing competitive and corporate advantages, and understanding threats within their

business environment. There are different approaches that have helped academicians and practitioners

understand the dynamics of competition and develop recommendations on how firms should define

their competitive and corporate strategies, they include industrial organization, the resource-based

view, dynamic capabilities, and game theory. (Casedesus-Masanell & Ricart, 2009). In the business

world, there are three key words namely, business model, strategy and tactic. A business model is a

firm’s logic which is the way they operate and how value is created for its stakeholders. Strategy are

the set of choice of a business model through which the firm will compete in the marketplace. A tactic

is a way in which the strategy is achieved.

The role of a facility manager is to oversee the physical facility i.e building, workplace, office, complex,

space which must accommodate and support the organization’s activities in a way that it allows the

organization to meet the demands of its clients. The introduction of workplace strategy as a part of a

business’s overall strategic planning process is a developing phenomenon and this is because most C-

suite executives are not experts in real estate, facility and workplace management, so this is the reason

why leaders of real estate and facility management need to define, educate and drive executive

management understanding of how real estate and workplace design can support the overall business

goals while delivering a befitting work environment and related building support services. (Ellen Bruce

Keable & Alexi Marmot, 2011). The focus of FM is changing from just operational maintenance of facility

to the strategic management of facilities, it is now seen as a value-adding element within a corporate

framework that positions FM in a strategic role where they have to be pro-active , and be able to

understand the current needs and future needs of the organization and make futuristic plans that will

support the strategic objectives of the organization. (Best, Langston & Gerard de Valence, 2002). This

is the need for creating workplace strategies that focuses on the need of the organization, focusing on

the corporate goals of an organization and the needs of the employees. “A workplace strategy is a

systematic approach for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of how an organization work space

is used by changing the way work space is configured” (Springer, 2010, p. 1).

According to Van der Voordt (2004), organizations seek to create new workplaces and workplace

strategies to achieve the following:

• Higher productivity

• More efficient use of office space

• Better use and allocation of resources

• To maintain/increase user satisfaction

• To create a positive image to their clients

• To minimize disruption

Workplace strategy should be part of, and integrated into, a company’s business strategy to support

their overall goals (Henry, 2009). Workplace strategies should be designed to be able to adjust to

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2 Theoretical Background

changes in organizations, processes, employees, technology, culture and the peculiarity of each

employee’s work.

Well-developed workplace strategies integrate different aspects of the organization ranging from

information technology, real estate(physical environment), human resources aspects and other aspects

of the workplace to create a holistic, thoughtful, work environments which would add value to the

organization by supporting work process and the behaviors that drive the realization of an organizations

set goals (Mitchell-Ketzes, 2003). Workplace strategies should be developed in such a way that it

supports employee performance, satisfaction, wellness, safety, and engagement through an in-depth

analysis of the work done then creating the right proportion of space that supports the tasks of

employees and tools to support the work.

A good workplace strategy ensures that the highest and best return on real estate investments is

achieved, and the workplace is approached with consistency and rigor to improve cost effectiveness,

improve overall performance and garner employee satisfaction. When a workplace strategy is well

designed, it closely aligns with the overall business strategy, goals, and corporate culture, with the intent

of supporting and meeting the needs of all three. A well-designed workplace strategy integrates the

physical workplace with technology, policies, and organizational excellence to answer important

questions about the workplace. One of the outcomes of workplace strategies is that the strategy should

aim at designing the workplace to better support the core business. In developing a workplace strategy,

FM/WPM must understand the employees, they must understand how work is done now and how it will

be done in the future, then organizations can have the capacity to plan their assets in a way that is

more reflective of the business. Having a futuristic view is also one of the elements of a workplace

strategy, hence a workplace strategy should be future proof to meet not just current needs of its

organization, but to meet the needs of the future. Through the development of workplace strategies,

the planning, design, management and delivering of workplaces can increase the efficient and effective

use of space to support employees in the performance of their work (Tim Springer, 2012).

Different authors have come up with the elements of a good workplace strategy, Schreifer (2005) Lists

6 elements of a good work place strategy:

• Knowledge sharing

• Knowledge creation

• Quality

• Innovation

• Productivity

• Efficiency

• Speed to market

Schriefer (2005) indicates that the initial thought that comes to the minds of executives in organizations

about Workplace strategy is that it is going to cost a lot, the organization will start from the scratch after

creating a new workplace strategy, employees would be overcrowded in a specific area, employees will

be forced to adopt different work styles, less face to face interaction, loss of corporate identity. All these

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2 Theoretical Background

factors are misconceptions, a workplace strategy doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of money needs to be

spent, in fact a good workplace strategy can help reduce cost by reducing the amount of unused and

wasted workspaces. A workplace strategy doesn’t mean that the organization would need to start re-

implementing new workplace structures like policies, technology corporate branding etc. Workplace

strategies are not a ploy to get too many employees to fill up lesser spaces, in fact in practice good

workplace strategies are regarded to maximize the use of space and making employees even feel much

more comfortable.

The influence of workplace on business outcomes which focus on the employees was clearly explained

by Bosti consultants (2003) which they came up with a conclusion that there are many factors affecting

an organizations success, so the connection between design of the workplace and business success

is not clear or ascertained. According to them, business success relies on the actions of the employees

in the organization, their ability to engage in the kinds of activities and behaviors needed to achieve

their organization’s goals. Design of the workplace will not have a direct impact on organizational

success however, it directly affects the behaviors of the people using it. Workplace directly affects

workplace behaviors, and the set of workplace behaviors directly affects the realization of an

organization’s success factors. If the workplace can positive influence the employee activities within the

organization, the performance and productivity of the organization would be at an optimum level.

2.7 Developing Workplace Strategies

A research carried out by Morgan & Anthony (2008) argued that there are three key drivers that stir the

need for developing workplace strategies, they are the need for flexibility with the ability to adapt to the

change in work patterns, the need for creating a culture that improves collaboration and communication,

enhancing the brand/image of the company to attract customers and talents .In developing workplace

strategies, a series of detailed analysis of the needs of the organization and the employees working

styles needs to be well thought of. Different stakeholders and departments are involved in the creation

of workplace strategies. Workplace strategy creation is shaped by inputs from all departments within

the organization, and when the strategy has been formulated, it should reflect the vision, mission, goals,

and objectives for the organization as a whole (Milliman & Brinton, 2010).

When developing workplace strategies, the needs and also change factors have to considered in the

strategy development process. Some these major change factors are as follows:

• Employee expectations: This would involve work-life balance, ability to do remote work,

support for social work, healthy and sustainable environments.

• Nature of work: Privacy, collaborative/team work, shift to knowledge intensive work, and

changing business processes

• Demographics: growing skill gaps, gender diversity, slow workforce growth.

• Market pressure: achieving higher performance, resources efficiency.

• Technology: The dynamic technological ecosystem, connectivity and real-time information,

internet of things, providing the right solution to support nature of work. (Mitchell-Ketzes, 2003)

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2 Theoretical Background

The GSA workplace of the future studies ‘workplace 2020’ is one of the strategic tools that views

workplace as a strategic tool which influences the performance and productivity of employees in an

organization. They analyze that the workplace should support organizational mission and performance

goals, help the organization keep pace with change, optimize the deployment of resources, balance

the variety of asset classes, support human capital needs, enhance corporate image and branding, and

help drive cultural change. They are of the opinion that workplace design is not about workspace

dimensions, cubicle heights, IEQ etc. although these factors still come up to be useful, the first task for

workplace strategists should be understanding their business and how the workplace design can be

used as a strategic tool in achieving business goals and competitive advantage.

Developing better and higher performing workplaces requires a great deal of awareness of how the

workplace can influence employee behaviors and how these behaviors drive workplace performance

(Morgan & Anthony, 2008). These behaviors tend to affect how employees perceive their work and

execute their tasks

2.8 Research Gap

There is a large and growing body of research on how workplace impacts business performance, but

although some research has produced valuable guidance on the magnitude of potential, evidence of a

direct link is still unclear. Existing literature still lack the explanation of what added value would mean

in workplace management and how it can be created. Existing literature also lack to show the

relationship of FM and other departments in the efficient management of the workplace.

None of the literature gives a detailed process of developing workplace strategy, how a workplace

strategy is created and implemented, instead the literature is more focused on the benefits of a

workplace strategy. There is also so much focus on cost reduction as a means of adding value to the

organization in workplace management.

This thesis seeks to build on the existing literature and bridge the gap in research thereby giving a

clearer understanding of what added value in workplace management would mean and how it can be

achieved. It would illustrate the detailed process of how a workplace strategy is developed based on

practical experience from the interview partners and to outline the benefits of this workplace strategy

on employee performance.

3 Research Methodology 21

3 Research Methodology

Over the years, qualitative research interviewing has become a sensitive and powerful method which

investigates participants private and public lives and has often been a democratic emancipating form of social

research (S. Kvale, 2006).

This section shows the specific methods that was used in gathering data and information which would be

used to draw up necessary assumptions and conclusions in other to achieve the goal of the Thesis. The

thesis topic Added Value in Workplace Management focuses on how workplace managers can develop

strategies that in the long run would have a positive influence on the organization. A qualitative approach is

adopted in this research to gather data and information on the subject matter. This method is used to derive

new insights and enable an in-depth study of a phenomenon and also assessing the phenomenon in a new

light (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). To answer the research question, it is required to collect, analyze

and interpret data for both topics.

3.1 Data Collection Methods

A qualitative research interview is an interview with the aim of gathering description of the lifeworld of the

interviewee with respect to interpretations of the meaning of described phenomenon (Kvale, 1996). In

collecting data, interviews were conducted with people referred to as experts with field experience in Facility

management and workplace management. Often it is the most effective and convenient means of gathering

information because it has its basis in human conversation (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). Two forms of semi-

structured interviews are conducted in other to get adequate data from the participants.

They are:

• In-house workplace managers.

• External workplace consultants

The reason for the division of interview participants is because the research focuses on workplace strategy

and it has been observed that in the development of workplace strategies, organizations either carry out the

workplace strategy by themselves with an inhouse facilitator or alternatively request the services of workplace

consultants.

3.2 Sampling

In this thesis the organizations which were considered ranges from larger capacity organizations to smaller

organizations. The organization which participants were selected from are knowledge intensive

organisations, where most of the work and tasks is of intellectual nature. Consultants selected are from

different corporate organizations and private individuals with solid Workplace Management experience.

The interview participants are selected based on their experience and expertise in the field of Facility

management, Workplace management, Real estate management and Change management. A total of

eleven (10) interviews were conducted and one (1) questionnaire was administered to one of the interview

3 Research Methodology 22

participants who was unavailable to have an interview (See appendix C). The questionnaire followed the

interview guideline and had the same format. In total the participants consisted of six (5) Inhouse workplace

managers and six (6) External workplace consultants.

Table 1 List of Interview Partners

PARTICIPANT INFO

INTERVIEW

DATE/MEDIUM

IN-HOUSE

CONSULTANT

MH

Logistics and corporate projects consultant

30th October 2018

Personal Meeting

In house

NK

Head of FM & Services

24th October 2018

Voice call

In house

LR

Key Accounts Manager

30th October 2018

Personal Meeting

Consultant

FE

Real Estate & Workplace Strategist

2nd November 2018

Google Meet Video Call

In house

AS

Workplace Strategy Director

13th November 2018

Voice call

In house

PP

Global Head of Corporate Real Estate

22nd October 2018

Skype Meeting

Consultant

KB

Workplace Specialist

1st November 2018

Voice call

Consultant

SB

Project and Workplace Consultant

6th November 2018

Personnal Meeting

Consultant

JK

1st November 2018

Consultant

3 Research Methodology 23

Change and Innovation Specialist

Skype call

SD

Regional Facility Management & Workplace

Manager

13th November 2018

Questionnaire

Inhouse

FT

User Experience & Workplace Specialist

5th November 2018

Personal Meeting

Consultant

3.3 Semi-Structured Interviews

A semi-structured interview was adopted for carrying out the interviews and typically a semi structured

interview involves preparing questions that are guided by identified themes in a consistent and systematic

manner interposed with probes designed to elicit more elaborate responses. An interview guide is used as a

guideline and structure to conduct the interview. The focus of the interview guide is incorporating a series of

broad themes to be covered during the interview to help direct the conversation toward the topics and issues

about which I want to investigate. The interviews are semi-structured to allow participants to talk openly about

topics and experiences addressed and to explore further areas (Berg & Lune, 2012). Considering the

peculiarity of the two (2) different groups of interviewees, different interview guidelines and questions were

used. The interview guidelines are based on the type of answers anticipated to be derived from each group

of interviewees.

The Interview guidelines follows the structure postulated by Berg and Lune (2012). They started with thanking

the interviewee for accepting to be part of the interview and exchanging pleasantries. This was followed by a

brief introduction of myself and the interviewee, then an explanation of the interview procedures also bringing

to the notice of the interviewee the confidentiality of the interview stating that it would be recorded.

Unfortunately, one of the interviewees refused to be recorded due to data privacy issues of their company

hence, notes were taken. This followed by asking the interviewee about their organization or job, this tends

to make the interviewee feel relaxed.

The interview was divided in three (3) parts,

• General questions: This consisted of general questions in the field of Workplace Management on

issues relating to added value, workplace management and employee performance.

• Workplace Strategy and innovations: This section consisted of questions related to the state of art

concerning workplace strategies, how it can be developed, implemented and how it can be

maintained.

• Reflections; The reflection was the sections of speaking about the interview and having the

interviewee ask questions in return.

3 Research Methodology 24

The language used in the interview was English. All questions were asked but, in some cases, they were

already answered while answering a previous question or unless there were issues with the duration of the

interview. At the end of the interview an interview speech was given and also in some cases a reminder of

the confidentiality of their interview was re-assured. A quick summary of the first impression of the interview

was also written down.

3.4 Procedures

In terms of the interview design process, there are many decisions that must be carefully considered, such

as who to interview, how many interviewees will be required, what type of interview to conduct, and how the

interview data will be analyzed (Doyle, 2004).

The first stage of the interview process was searching for suitable contacts with the required experience in

facility management and workplace management. This was done majorly using social media (Linkedln), and

after these has been done then a list of proposed interviewees was drawn stating reasons why an interview

with them would be helpful.

On deciding which interviewees satisfy the pre-conditions of experience and relevance to the study, private

messages on Linkedln were sent explaining the thesis topic and at the end requesting for their mails for follow

up. A larger number of the proposed interviewees accepted the request and others either didn’t respond or

declined based on unavailability and other unknown reasons. On receiving the acceptance from the

interviewees, a date for the interview is scheduled and prior to the interview the consent form is sent to them

and in some cases the interviewees requested for the questions to enable them to prepare for the interview.

Access to interviewees is often difficult to establish, thus the opportunity to conduct an interview cannot be

taken lightly and careful planning needs to take place before the interview begins (S. Kvale, 2006). In planning

the interview, some measures were taken to ensure that the interview doesn’t lose its focus in other to get

the required results for the thesis. The most important measure was to create a focused interview guideline

with emphasis of the topics that the thesis seeks to cover. The location/medium of the interviews were decided

by the participants, based on their preferences, availability, and geographical locations. All interviews outside

Switzerland were conducted via Skype and phone calls, while Interviews within Switzerland were conducted

at the interviewee’s office, public meeting places decided by the interviewee and also via skype.

3.5 Data Analysis

In analyzing the data received from the semi-structured interviews carried out, different approaches were

undertaken. Two of the interviews were transcribed (see appendix D) in other to begin the analysis including

the already answered questionnaire was also used as a first step in developing the first coding frame. After

these was transcribed the data analysis process began. The interviews were not always transcribed verbatim

- some parts were summarized, paraphrased or omitted to capture the main issues of the interviews. These

transcripts are as close as possible to the original words so that they do not lose the sense of the statement.

3 Research Methodology 25

This means that these procedures were done to still capture the main sense of what has been said and

produce the transcripts.

In analyzing all the interviews, a coding frame was constructed based on the transcribed interviews, and then

applied to all other interviews. “Coding is the process of grouping interviewees’ responses into categories

that bring together the similar ideas, concepts, or themes you have discovered, or steps or stages in a

process. (Rubin/Rubin, 1995). Coding is necessary for systematic comparison of text passages where text

segments are analyzed to discover dimensions which can be used as a basis for comparing different cases

(Keele, 1997). The steps involved in setting up the coding frame involves reading the transcribed interviews

and identifying concepts, codes and themes which leads to setting up categories and subcategories.

Thereafter the motto of the interview is derived, and the coding frame is developed. This coding frame is then

applied to all other interviews.

Thematic coding was used in analyzing the data collected from the interviews which follows the logic of the

grounded theory and stresses comparison, hence adopting a multi-stage procedure. Open/invivo coding were

used in which sentences and words were coded and then the coding categories were developed. The

thematic coding structure follows the structure set by Flick, 2009 & Cassell and Symon, 2004 in which the

first step was to give a description of each case based on the view of the interviewee. This clearly states the

motto of the interview, information about the interviewee and the major issues stressed by the interviewee.

After this has been defined, the next step of the analysis was to deeply analyse each of the interviews to set

up categories and subcategories. The categories are derived from listening to each of the cases over again

to identify relationships between them and to set up a sufficient coding category. This involves the use of

open coding and afterwards using selective coding in some cases. The result of this is to identify and generate

codes, categories, sub-categories, themes and concepts. The coding process breaks down the interviews

into themes and concepts.

This moves on to the next step which is finalizing the identification of codes, categories, themes and concepts.

All codes and categories are cross-checked based on all interviews, when this is finalized upon a thematic

structure was developed. This thematic structure comes in the form of a template and would be used for the

result section. The thematic structure helps to show a comparison between all responses, its groups all the

responses of all interviews into similar groups bringing together similar responses. The template of the

thematic structure follows the categorization used by Cassell & Simon, (2004) where the initial template is

first developed based on the already setup codes and categories. Which would then lead to revising the

already developed template. In revising the template, all transcripts are reviewed systematically to expose

the inadequacies of the template. When inadequacies are noticed, new coded can be inserted which may

have been omitted or which have not been covered during the interviewees but are important in answering

the research questions. Irrelevant codes can also be deleted if noticed that it is not relevant or codes which

have been mis-assigned to wrong themes would also be deleted.

After all the above-mentioned steps have been carried out, the result would be a well-drawn thematic structure

which shows a clear representation of an analysis of all interviews carried out. The used methods of data

3 Research Methodology 26

analysis would enable the creation of the structure (template) to examine the multi-cases presented in the

thesis to highlighting similarities and differences across the data set. Also, themes would give an opportunity

to stay focused and generate results that could be confronted with the theoretical approach later.

Saldaña,2015, p.12 illustrates the whole process adopted for the analysis of interviews with the diagram

below.

Figure 3 Codes to Theory model (Saldaña, 2015, p.12)

The figure above shows the process which was used to create the codes and developing them into

reasonable conclusions that are used to satisfy the purpose of the study.

3.6 Ethical Issue

Considering the importance of ethics in carrying out qualitative research, universities and researchers go to

great lengths to protect the dignity and interest of research participants (Silverman, 2010). This enables the

researcher to develop the interviews and manage the information on the participants in an ethical way. To

satisfy ethical considerations, informed consent was sent to the participants this was written and in verbal

form. Verbal consent was also considered to be appropriate this is based on (Silverman, 2010) which argued

that to limit the excessive formalization of obtaining consent, written consent can be used and also for

maintaining casual relationship with participants. Fritz (2008), also argues that’s the strength of qualitative

3 Research Methodology 27

research lies in the informal way of communication between the participants and also the iterative research

process.

An informed consent form was sent to the participants along with the interview guidelines (See Appendix 1

and 2). The researcher also made sure to assure the participants on the confidentiality of their information at

the beginning stage of the contact. This helped to make the participants more comfortable and willing to have

the interview. The participants were also made to understand that their information’s would only be discussed

with the supervisor of the research and no third party would be involved.

The purpose of the study was clearly explained to the researchers to give them an understanding of the

research and what it entails. This helped in making the participants to decide if they were interested in the

topic or otherwise. At the end of the interview, the participants were debriefed and also reassured that their

information’s will be treated confidential, they were also duly appreciated for their efforts and time.

3.7 Reliability and Validity

In qualitative research it is of great importance to ensure the reliability and validity of the data used during the

research process. Qualitative research is criticized for lacking scientific rigor with poor justification of the

methods adopted, lack of transparency during the analysis of findings and the presentation of findings being

full of personal opinions subject to researcher bias (Rolfe,2006). The issues of reliability and validity are

discussed below.

3.8 Reliability

Reliability in qualitative research refers to the exact replication of the research process and result. It refers to

the extent to which the research remains consistent in different scenarios with the different categories of

participants and the extent to which the findings are generizable (Gibbs, 2002). The reliability of this method

is the ability to produce the same results under same circumstances (Flick, 2009). Silverman (2009) proposed

five approaches in ensuring reliability of a qualitative approach, they are:

• Refutation analysis

• Constant data comparison

• Comprehensive data use

• Including the deviant case

• Use of tables

3.9 Validity

Validity is how transparent the researcher presents the data and other findings during the research. In

qualitative research, validity is the extent to which a researcher presents adequate details to enable the

reader follow and understand the findings (Popey, et al., 1998). Validity can be derived by the extent to which

the data realized from the participants has been duly checked to a point where the data analysis process

3 Research Methodology 28

becomes self-correcting (Gibbs, 2002). Leung (2015), argues that validity can be ensured if all the tools or

data collection, data analysis, and overall research process are consistent. The approach of being consistent

is the major basis used in this research to ensure the validity of the overall research. Also, in carrying out

semi-structured interviews, validity can be easily ensured because the questions asked can be easily tailored

to the participants, and clarifications can be made during the interviews which helps the researcher easily

understand the participants responses.

4 Results 29

4 Results

This chapter would present the results of all twelve interviews conducted during this research and also discuss

the outcome of the responses.

4.1 Results Overview

The interview guideline is grouped into two parts, one for inhouse FM and the other for consultants. The

questions are similar in some cases and also different because of the different roles of inhouse WM and

consultants in workplace management. The interview questions consist of two parts (1) General questions

and (2) Workplace strategy. The interview questions are 24 in total, not all questions were asked, but all

questions were answered. This is because some questions were already answered in the process of

answering another question. All 10 interviews lasted for an average of 45min, it should be noted that all

responses from the interviewees were not relevant in each case as they digressed from the main question in

some cases, in such cases the responses were omitted because it has no significance to the research

purpose. The responses are represented with the use of rows and columns which show the different codes

and themes generated from the analysis, this led to the creation of a matrix outlining all the responses. It can

be seen in the matrixes below that in some cases the bulk of responses varies based on each interviewee,

this is because some took their time to explain their responses, while the others are very brief with their

responses. All responses included in the tables are of high significance and relevance to the research.

Therefore, a total of 10 tables have been prepared to show the analysis of the responses of the interviewees,

table 1-5 consists of responses related to Part A: General questions, while table 6-10 consists of responses

related to Part B: Workplace strategy. They are as follows;

1. Roles of FM in WPM

2. Added Value and Value Creation

3. How do you allocate space in your organization?

4. What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance?

5. How do you measure Employee Performance?

6. Developing WPS

7. Stakeholders involved in developing WPS

8. Elements of a good WPS

9. Implementing WPS and challenges

10. Post evaluation of WPS

These tables are presented in this chapter and not in the appendix to enable the readers understand the

responses and begin to identify patterns to better understand the work of the writer. The tables are shown as

thematic matrix, the codes which were used in drawing up these matrixes are included in the appendix. The

responses are further described in the discussion section of this thesis Chapter 5.

4 Results 30

4.2 Roles of FM in WPM

As it can be established that Facility Managers are highly involved in Workplace management, Q1 of the

interview guideline (What is the role of Facility Managers in Workplace management, is it only about Space

management, or something more?) was asked to answer this question. The responses are illustrated below

in the table 2.

Table 2 Roles of FM in WPM

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

The role of FM in WPM is to make sure that the employees have nothing to think of

when they get to their workspaces apart from their work. In their organization, RE

and FM are different. Real estate organizes moving around the building and

occupancy. The FM is responsible for making sure that the living condition in the

workplace is perfect. Lastly, IT and infrastructure also have an important role in WPM.

NK

The role of FM in workplace is to manage the space efficiently and also make sure

that the employees remain comfortable in their workplace.

LR

The role of FM in their organization is to manage space which is on a very basic level.

FE

AS

A workplace is the physical space FM is taking care of, it is the technological space

and it is also the cultural space which FM oversees. These 3 factors are what is

making FM go into the digital age. The role of FM is to empower the workforce to

have more control of their environment. The role of M is also to be involved in the

war of talents. The strategic role of FM is to begin to make decisions about space,

digital process and empowering workforce.

PP

WPM is one of the functions of facility managers in an organization and the role of

FM is to

KB

Workplace involves empowerment and engagement. The role of FM is to make sure

that is possible by efficiency in resources, efficiency in cost, efficiency in sustainability

but it’s moreover about attractivity, engagement, empowerment, productivity,

performance. Their role is also to create community and different experiences for the

users.

4 Results 31

SB

In an ideal world, the workplace manager is to provide the employees with the perfect

workplace and to the management it is to make sure that it is efficient and not too

expensive.

JK

The roles of FM in WPM go beyond space management. But their role is also

dependent on which level of the organization they are placed. The role of FM should

be combined with HR and IT.

SD

The roles of FM in WPM involve infrastructure, safety and prevention planning,

designing and operating spaces and programs to allow for users to function at their

best, ensuring accessible spaces for those with disabilities, events management and

experience, ensuring the workspace allows for a diverse set of users.

FT

The role is based on the size of the organization. The role of FM should also be

combined with HR and IT.

4.3 Added Value & Value Creation

Added value is one of the key concepts of this thesis as it is one the objectives of the thesis (To develop a

basis for determining added value. Seen in chapter 1.4.2.). The respondents were asked questions on what

is Added value in workplace management and what is value-based facility management? Their responses

are illustrated below in table 3.

Table 3 Added Value & Value Creation

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

In their organization, added value is mainly about cutting cost. And this is because of

the peculiarity of the financial industry. Added value is also when the FM activities

help the employees to concentrate more of their work.

NK

Added value in workplace management is in two ways:

• Saving cost

• Making sure that the employees have the best workplace.

Added value is making the employees have the best working environment with

optimal cost.

Saving cost doesn’t mean selecting the cheapest solution but selecting the solution

with the best value at the lowest cost.

4 Results 32

LR

Added value in their organization is creating good solutions for their customers. But

the added value is defined by the client.

Creating value is very evident in their organization by making their clients see the

needs of engaging their employees in change projects involving the workplace.

FE

Added value is to efficiently support the core business. By blending the needs of the

employees and the organization.

AS

Added value is when you can meet the needs of the organization.

PP

Added value and WPM are ambiguous words. Added value is the surplus of the

output of a certain transaction compared to the input. It’s a micro economic term.

Added value in WPM is planning, organizing, leading, executing and controlling any

workplace successfully. Cutting cost is never the primary task of an FM, it is a normal

phenomenon to be economic with resources.

KB

Added Value in WPM is attractivity, productivity, efficiency, sustainability and

security.

SB

Added value in WPM to an employee is when they get to their workplace and

everything works and the have a comfortable workplace.

JK

Firstly, as a consultant it is important to know what added value means to each client.

Added value ranges from enhancing performance, innovation, employee retention,

wellbeing etc. Creating value for the employees and managers is by making them

see that there is no gap in the needs of both levels. So, it’s very important to

understand their needs.

SD

Value is Optimizing the service model and costs to ensure efficiency for our bottom

line while delivering results for our users

FT

Added value in WPM is that the employees feel satisfied with their workplace, they

feel better in the environment, and they feel more motivated to execute their work.

Adding value is also cost reduction. To create more value, the needs of the

employees and managers must be well blended. This can be done by organizing

workshops, focus groups where the workplace games are played. This helps to get

the different perspectives of people.

4 Results 33

4.4 Space Allocation

Distributing space in the workplace is a major issue for workplace managers and it is a strategic decision that

can influence the way employees carryout their tasks. Q4 & Q5 of the interview guideline were asked and to

arrive at the responses below in table 4.

Table 4 Space Allocation

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

In their organization they adopt a flexible way of working all around the building,

which means no personalized space. They have 2700 employees in a building with

2184 workstations. The workplaces are divided into zones. They have zones for

collaboration, concentration and communication. Therefore, each employee has the

choice of choosing what workspace suites their task. They have a very high standard

of workplace hardware so that it can be appropriate for whatsoever task the

employees want to execute.

NK

In their organization, they still adopt the traditional designated desks. This is because

of the size of their company. But it is also a good thing to have flexible workspaces

to foster collaboration and communication within the organization.

LR

The decision of space allocation is made by their clients, they are only in-charge of

advising them on what is best. Space allocation is based on confidentiality of work

and what level the employee is i.e. top-level management tends to have personalized

workspaces.

FE

Their organization still has a personalized desk. But employees have a variety of

other workspaces to execute their work e.g. coffee area, conference rooms, micro

kitchens, library spaces, open lobby areas for hangout and collaborative work.

AS

Space allocation is determined by engaging all employees on different levels

• Combination of interviews and observational studies to get qualitative and

qualitative data.

• Discovery phase which is the pot initiate phase. Interviews with middle

management to get operational requirements and to know how each

department functions.

• Employee surveys to ask the employees what they want

• Utilization studies on how spaces are used.

4 Results 34

After all these have been carried out, the spaces that meet the needs of the

departments are allocated to them and the employees are later educated on how

to use their space

PP

In space allocation, if a person’s work is flexible, then there is a need for flexible

workspace. If the job demands different outputs and different behaviors, then a

flexible workspace would be appropriate.

KB

No response.

SB

In their organization, there are different spaces allocated to employees and this is

based on the task. So, the tasks of the employees determine their workplace. In their

workspace they have 70percent flexible and 30percent traditional workplace.

Allocating spaces is a puzzle that has to be tackled.

JK

Open space doesn’t mean trading workplaces like a farm, they should be activity

based. The change from traditional desk to flexible space remains an issue for

people. In an organization there should be different workspaces based on their tasks.

For example, deep-working.

SD

Space allocation is based on the work done by the employees. To discover this, user

engagement is the best way to find out the unique needs of all groups/teams and

what they need to deliver their work. They have a variety of workstyles which provides

many experiences for, from areas to tap into wellness to locations for heads down

work, zones that allow for collaboration and creative thinking to a simple phone room

for meetings and calls.

FT

Space allocation either traditional or flexible depends on the organization and the

people. The kind of work people do and the kind of people who do the work should

be considered. In determining which department has a specific kind of space, some

tools can be used to measure what employee do i.e. how much time they spend on

their desks, how much time they spend at conference rooms etc.

4.5 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance?

The impacts of WP in employee performance is one of the key issues addressed by the thesis and the

interviewees were asked Q6, Q7 and Q8 to see the view of the interviewees. This is illustrated in table 5.

4 Results 35

Table 5 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance?

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

The most important factor of their workplace that impacts employee performance is

their IT infrastructure.

The other factors that affect performance are:

• Line managers

• Salary

NK

In their organization their workspaces are open workplaces, and this has affected the

culture in the organization and also affects the performance of their employees and

satisfaction.

The other factors that affect performance are:

• Management structure

• Team

• Business environment

LR

The workplace has a huge impact on employee performance. Although it’s not the

main reason. A huge factor that affects employee performance is I.T infrastructure.

FE

The workplace has about 10percent impact on the performance of employees.

The other factors that affect performance are:

• Work Team

• Management

• Tasks

AS

The WP ihas an impact on employee performance, but its is important that the WP

involves physical, technological and cultural space. Specifically, the space can

influence engagement and performance by 3.5%-5%.

Other factors affecting performance are:

• Culture

• Transparency of management

• If employee’s performance is highly values by their superiors

4 Results 36

• Sense of purpose.

PP

Workplace can contribute to the performance of employees, but it is never the major

factor. The level of impact a workplace can have on an employee’s performance is

based on the task given to the employee

KB

The workplace can only have an influence on performance if it is viewed as a strategic

tool. Therefore, if it is well aligned with the business ambition, goals, and strategies.

The workplace in general consists of 3 parts namely: Leadership & culture, physical

workplace and the digital workplace. So, for the physical workplace to have an impact

on the performance of employees, it has to be well aligned to the leadership culture

and digital workplace.

SB

The workplace is a very important factor that affects employee’s performance.

The workplace can influence some other things like satisfaction, wellbeing and

comfort.

Other factors influencing performance are:

• Culture

• Salary

JK

The work environment is just a part of what impacts employee performance. It doesn’t

have a big impact. But if the work environment suits into the work ecology, then all

the factors will have an impact on the employees

Other influencing factors are:

• Management style

• Work processes

SD

Workplace are a major factor for satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A great space can

excite employees and make them collaborate much more, while a closed office would

inhibit productivity. But this depends on the department because some would be

more productive in open spaces and the other in closed offices.

Other influencing factors are:

• Flexible work hours

• Management style

4 Results 37

FT

The workplace has an impact on the employee performance, but this is based on the

kind of work being carried out by the employee. It is difficult to rate the level of impact

workplace can have on employee performance.

Other influencing factors:

• Management style

• Level of control the employee has on their workplace

• Social factors in the workplace

4.6 How do you Measure Employee Performance?

Performance measurement is also a trivial issue in understanding the level of impact the workplace has had

on the performance of employees. Q9 (What measurement system do you think is the most effective in

measuring employee’s performance in their workspaces?) was asked. Find the results below in table 6.

Table 6 What are the Impacts of WP on Employee Performance?

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

Employee performance cannot be measured adequately. It is based on the

individual’s perception.

NK

There are no performance measurement systems used in their company, this is

because the workplace is not the only factor that can influence employee

performance.

LR

As a consultant to other companies, they do not have a measurement system. But

on the contrary it is important to have a measurement system.

FE

Measuring employee performance is super hard. So perceived performance is what

is used by asking employees how productive or how well they have performed.

AS

Their organization uses a 3-point measurement system.

• Physical environment by measuring filter levels noise level etc.

• Employee survey to show employee engagement and how they feel about

their environment i.e. how they communicate more or collaborate.

• HR data for example, absenteeism, cost of employee wellbeing Also the

KPI’s of the organization are also used to measure level of performance.

4 Results 38

PP

NIL

KB

Workplace analytics are used to keep track of employee performance. These

workplace analytics is extremely scientific, it uses digital data on how employees

have performed, and this brings about a lot of insights. Also, it is very good to do it

the qualitative way by sending questionnaires and surveys.

SB

Performance is measured on the hours worked and the salary received for those

hours.

JK

There is no measure of performance the consultant feels is effective. So perceived

performance is what is used, and this is achieved by having surveys with employees

and managers.

SD

Surveys are taken regularly, before moving and after moving to a new space, also

an annual survey to tap into the mood of employees in fall. These gives insights into

the culture.

FT

4.7 Developing WPS

Below are two tables (table 7 & table 8). Table 7 provides answers to the Question (Do you have a workplace

strategy in your organization?) This question only relates to inhouse workplace managers and not

consultants, although some consultants do have a workplace strategy in the consulting companies.

Table 7 Do you have a WPS in your organization?

MH

MW

NK

LR

FE

AS

PP

KB

SB

JK

SD

FT

YES

NO

YES

NO

YES

The table below (table 8) shows the responses of the interviewees to Q11(Part A), Q2 & Q3 (Part B) in the

interview guideline.

Table 8 Developing Workplace Strategy

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

In developing their workspace 2 factors initiated it which are:

4 Results 39

• Cost reduction

• To build a workplace of the future.

The process involved brainstorming with key visionaries, travelling around the world

to see different workspaces. A road map with inputs from all departments showing

their needs. Afterwards, surveys are sent out to better understand employees work

and needs. They do not have a clearly stated out procedure.

NK

In developing the strategy what is important is knowing the needs of the organization.

This need would setup the foundation of the WPS.

LR

In developing new workplace strategies for organizations, it is important to know the

needs of the client. Meeting their needs is what creates value for them. Developing

strategies should involve different departments. The FM should not solely develop

the strategy. The culture should be considered when the strategy is developed. The

culture is a big thing. The project team should be consisted of individuals from

different departments who will be able to cover the interest of their department.

FE

Collecting a lot of data on more successful and less successful workplaces, data on

satisfaction to know how people perceive their space. Their organization is more data

driven and dynamic so there isn’t a specific process in developing their WPS. After

collection of data, a concept is developed, implemented and afterwards it is

measured and improved. There is no centralized department or group in-charge of

developing WPS.

AS

All over the world they have 80 workplace strategies. These strategies are developed

by engaging the right stakeholders, having a project kickoff. Evaluation data,

benchmarking processes, having a project program. Developing KPI’s to enable

measured process is also very important. After meeting all these conditions,

qualitative and quantitative date would be realized. Then the WPS is birthed as a

report, analysis or recommendation. Once the WPS is developed, a change manager

is needed in all departments.

PP

Their WPS was developed overtime, people experimented things that were working

and what the employees feel would work. Before developing the strategy, there must

be consent from the management that a new WPS should be developed. The

process then involves data gathering, analysis of data, solution development of

various solutions that will be evaluated, then finally selecting the final solution. It is

important to involve the stakeholders in development of the strategy.

4 Results 40

KB

Workplace strategies are developed to make it possible for employees to have an

autonomy and freedom of choice in selecting what workspace can make them

perform their tasks. In their organization there is no workplace strategy, this is

because the workplace is consisted of the physical workplace, cultural, and

technological space. Also, there is no one in charge of developing workplace

strategy. How it is done is that HR, IT, RE, and FM develop their various strategies

and try to align it together. A big problem in developing workplace strategies is that

RE, FM and IT are mostly under the CFO and they don’t drive empowerment, they

drive more of the efficiency.

SB

In developing a WPS it is important to know the people, the work they do and where

the company wants to go in the nearest future. Developing WPS in their organization

is top-down, the management has to be sure of what they want, and this is also

communicated to the employees by the management. The workplace strategy should

have the views of the different age groups in the organization.

Developing WPS starts with finding out how things work today and how the

employees are happy with it and how it can be adjusted or developed to be better.

This is done by sending surveys and questionnaires. In the development of the

strategy it is important to make the employees understand the benefits of the

strategy. It is also important for the management to believe in the strategy and also

drive the strategy. When developing the strategy, it is important to also note that

things change, people change, work changes and in turn work with it continuously

and try to adapt to it all the time.

JK

Developing WPS is mostly based on company size. Small companies do not

necessarily need a WPS, compared to bigger companies.

First there is a conversation with the contractor/ principal which is the person in-

charge of workplace. This conversation helps to understand their goals and to create

awareness. Then a vision workshop is setup with the high-level management to

enable the consultant to know the present ways of working, their futuristic needs,

K.P. I’s, measure of success and goals. This enables them to understand the need

of adopting a good workplace strategy to support their corporate goals.

Next step would be to get qualitative and quantitative data, like surveys, user

research. This helps to understand the employees fears and objects of resistance.

SD

Developing WPS is a function of their workplace team, it starts with reviewing

feedback and survey inputs, engaging the users and also taking into consideration

the war of talents especially the young talents. The company culture is a crucial

4 Results 41

point that should shape the vision, it is the foundation. Some questions have to be

kept in mind before developing the strategy they are:

• Where can we add and develop new spaces?

• What is or isn’t working in the current space?

• Who are we solving for?

After all these are answered, the strategy can be successfully developed.

FT

It starts with looking at the current situation and the kind of work people do with an

in-depth understanding of the organization.

Also, the budget and taking people along in the process from the beginning is key

4.8 Stakeholders Involved in Developing WPS

Table 9 below presents the responses of the interviews to Q4. (Who are the stakeholders involved when

developing workplace strategies?) & Q5. (Which stakeholder should you consider first?).

Table 9 Stakeholders Involved in Developing Workplace Strategy

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

All stakeholders were involved from the beginning. The stakeholders are the users

of the building.

NK

The two stakeholders are the employees and management.

The management are the most important because they facilitate the strategy

financially.

LR

The management and employees are very important in developing WPS.

Developing WPS should be a top-down approach, so the management has a more

important role.

FE

Employees views on what they want.

Management board is also very important because they give a view of where the

organization is going to be in some years to come, and this enables them to have a

futuristic view and also to have the organizations aspirations in mind.

4 Results 42

HR department

IT department

The most important stakeholders are the employees.

AS

The following are the various stakeholders involved in developing WPS, they are:

• Project sponsor who is a member of the C-level

• A representative of each department

• Project team including HR, IT, CRE, FM, legal, finance and line directors.

There is no most important stakeholder to be considered.

PP

KB

The employees and the management are the stakeholders involved.

SB

The stakeholders are the following:

• The employees

• Potential talents(employees)

• The clients

JK

Stakeholders involved are representatives from every level of management, IT, HR,

FM.

As a consultant, the most important stakeholder is the principal

SD

The following are the stakeholders involved in developing their WPS:

• Facilities and real estate team

• Architects and designers (if working on a new space)

• Project manager and team

• Local resources and business clients

The clients are the most important stakeholders because they are the ones using

the building.

FT

Stakeholders involved are the people organizing the workplace change i.e. FM, IT,

and HR.

4 Results 43

4.9 Elements of a Good WPS

The table 10 below shows the responses of the interviewees to Q6. (What are the elements of a good

workplace strategy?) & Q12. (What would you say are the benefits of having a good workplace strategy that

focuses on employees and the overall vision and mission of the organization?). The responses also capture

Q7. (How do you go about factoring in futuristic needs of your organization in developing workplace

strategies?)

Table 10 Elements of a Good WPS

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

A good workplace strategy should outline the processes and the change. It should

support the work of employees.

A workplace with futuristic outlook is dependent on trends. But in their organization,

they are not so much into factoring the future.

NK

The strategy needs to be very flexible, it needs to be easily reviewed. Also, it has to

be focused on the employees and organizational goals.

This would in the long run support the corporate culture.

LR

A good workplace strategy should cover the needs of the employees, it should also

be cost efficient. These are the two biggest elements of a good WPS.

It is also important for the strategy to be flexible to accommodate for changes.

FE

The organization has 4 buckets:

• Google experience

• Helping wellbeing and performance

• Combining sustainability and inclusion

• Fostering Collaboration

The outcome of these buckets are as follows:

Identity and Corporate branding

Productivity at the desk which enables employees to execute their job, which could

also mean performance for knowledge workers.

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Employee talent attraction and retention.

Diversity & Inclusion (Building services for each group of employees).

Collaboration and innovations.

Also, a good workplace strategy should have a futuristic outlook, in their organization

the future is factored in by the leaders of the company who decides the future of the

company.

AS

The following are elements of a good WPS:

• It should be wholistic (Engaging the entire organization)

• It should be evidence led

• It should be measurable

• It should be efficient

• It should support talent attraction and retention

In creating a WPS that has a futuristic view, big opportunities and challenges should

be considered. Where the organization would like to be in the nearest future should

also be incorporated into the strategy. Lastly, flexibility in mindset, technology, and

space is very important.

PP

A good WPS is a product of adequate collection of appropriate data, evaluation of

data and successful implementation.

KB

A WPS has to be smart and not good, smart means it is exposed, it is engaging and

empowering, productive, efficient, sustainable and secure.

A WPS must be people-centric, holistic and it should be flexible.

SB

A good WPS should reflect the vision and mission of the company or at least connect

it to the workplace environment. It should reflect the needs of the employees.

The benefits of a good WPS is a smooth-running business because it is based on

the overall goals of the company.

JK

A good WPS is a strategy that captures all the different views inside the company

and aligning it with the corporate strategy. It also has to have futuristic goals.

A workplace with futuristic outlook should be flexible, and adaptable to change in

processes. The least that a workplace strategy should be carried out is 5years.

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SD

A good WPS should have a universally accepted design, inclusive perspectives,

space that encourages wellness and flexible spaces that can deliver different

experiences for whomever is using it. It should also be shaped by the company

culture.

In factoring futuristic needs, runway space for growths are created and the key is

flexibility in budgets. This helps to easily adapt and deliver new spaces, programs

and experiences to meet changing team needs or demographics.

FT

A good WPS is a strategy that focus on two things; The goals of the organization and

the needs of the employees.

The benefit a good WPS has is that it can reduce cost because it will reduce constant

investment in changes due to dissatisfaction. It increases satisfaction, it contributes

to the image.

4.10 Implementing WPS and Challenges

The table shown below shows the responses to Q8. (How do you implement workplace strategies?),

Q9.(What are the challenges you face in implementing workplace strategies?) & Q10. (How do you deal with

implementing workplace strategies in a new building and in an already existing building?).

Table 11 Implementing WPS and Challenges

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

Managers are involved in implementation; the employees are also involved but it is

important to let them know that not all their views can be implemented.

In their organization, the project team is in-charge of implementation and they also

execute the change. There is no dedicated team of change managers.

Challenge faced is: Convincing the managers and employees to accept the new

strategy.

NK

Implementation should be done from the management level. If it is successfully

adopted by the management, the employees have no choice but to accept it also.

LR

The project team should be actively involved in the implementation, especially in the

aspect of communication. In implementation they carryout pilot projects to test the

feasibility of the strategy. Also, during implementation, a change manager is

4 Results 46

important. The change manager should be involved in the process from the

beginning.

FE

In their company it is called launch and iterate culture where the WPS is tested on a

small scale, implemented. Then focus groups are created to see what works and

what doesn’t work. Then continuous improvement is introduced all through the cycle.

In their organization, everyone is a change manager so there is no dedicated team

of change management. Also, implementation of WPS in an existing building or old

building should be the same.

Challenges faced are:

When users do not like the idea they complain of not being productive. And what is

done is to evaluate the reason why they are not productive and redevelop the

workspace.

AS

Implementation is done by Change management, they engage with all staff. Also, the

employees are trained on how to use their space. Global workplace design guidelines

are used to implement they change.

Challenges that could arise are:

• Not having the right stakeholders

• Not having a sponsor from the C-level.

• Not investing in change management and training employees

• Speed of adoption of the workplaces.

• Talent retention

PP

In their organization there are 7 psychologists who are neutral and have no idea

about workplace management or the day to day business. Their job is to evaluate

peoples behaviours and interest. They are more like change managers.

Implementation can easily be pulled through if the steps mentioned during the

strategy development stage are followed. It should also be noted that there would be

people that would resist change, and any organization carrying out workplace change

should be ready to lose employees.

KB

WPS are implemented by the change managers and the top down approach where

the managers drive and communicate the change to the employees.

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Challenges likely to be faced during implementing workplace strategies is when they

are not working on it continuously, holistically, and not employee-centric. Another

challenge could be when the strategy is not driven by the management.

SB

Implementing workplace strategy is a change process so it is important to have a

change management process. The implementation should begin with the

management down to the employees. In implementing the strategy, it is important to

speak with the employees to know their fears concerning the change and also to lead

them through the change process.

Challenges that can be faced during implementation is as a result of poor

communication. And this starts from the development stage of the strategy.

JK

What is very important is to understand the company and afterwards make a draft

of the processes. Also, while implementing it is important to make it a dynamic

processes that can change overtime. It is also important for the top management to

firstly adopt the WPS. Also, implementing WPS in an old building is not totally

different in an existing building. The only difference is the emotions attached to

changing workspaces within buildings employees are already used to.

Challenges faced are: Making the client understand the vision behind the change.

Making them understand that the culture and communication styles won’t change.

Time constraint in serious change projects is most times a problem.

SD

Communication is key in implementing WPS. This is done by multiple means such

as, emails, town hall meetings, brown bags (casual discussion over lunch), site pages

etc.

Challenges faced are:

• Resistance to change

• Budget constraints

• Also, the situation of one’s up Manship i.e when everyone wants the latest

shiny workspace.

FT

In implementing WPS, it’s good to have pilot projects to try out the feasibility of the

new strategy.

A change manager wouldn’t be necessary in small projects, it can be the FM that

effects the change.

4 Results 48

4.11 Post Evaluation of WPS

Table 12 below presents the responses of the employees to Q13. ( What measures do you put in place to

ensure that the performance of your employees is affected by the strategy OR measuring the success of your

workplace strategy?). Their responses are presented below in table 12.

Table 12 Post Evaluation of WPS

INTERVIEWEE

RESPONSES

MH

Evaluation is done through surveys from employees and users of the building

NK

Post evaluation are done by sending out questionnaires, surveys. The main thing is

to make sure the employees can give feedbacks annually. Another way is to have

informal meetings with employees over coffee breaks.

LR

Post Evaluation are done with the clients after the pilot has been carried out. So, the

employees of the organization provide feedbacks in the form of survey, and the

results of the survey are evaluated.

FE

Employee surveys 2 months after implementation.

Qualitative interviews carried out by UX researchers.

Space Utilization studies with the aid of technical systems.

Focus groups.

Keeping in touch with organization leaders.

AS

P.O.E are used based on the already set KPI’s set during the development stage and

engaging stakeholder management. Exactly same surveys sent at the project

initiation stage is used to see the differences

Focus groups are also used to get feedback. Continuous feedback is very important

which means feedback should be constant.

PP

Feedback is very necessary, and the feedback system used is Post occupancy

evaluation. Looking at the strategy, it should be constantly changing overtime.

KB

No response

4 Results 49

SB

Questionnaires are given to employees to know their views on the change. Regular

lunch exchanges where the CEO and CFO are present to inform the organization on

recent developments and possibilities to give reviews

JK

Surveys are used to evaluate the strategy after implementation.

SD

No response

FT

The following can be used:

• Playing the workplace games

• Surveys and questionnaires

5 Discussions 50

5 Discussions

The purpose of this chapter is to describe and interpret the findings of the responses presented in the previous

chapter (Chapter 4). The responses are used to answer the research questions of the thesis in chapter 1 and

also follows the literature review in chapter 2. This chapter does not contain just responses from the

interviewees or an array of responses but a clear interpretation of the responses in relation to the research

objectives and theoretical framework.

Each of the research question outlined in chapter 1 would be answered using the 10 main topics addressed

in the previous chapter:

1. Roles of FM in WM

2. Added value & value creation

3. Space allocation

4. Impact of work environment on employee performance

5. Measuring employee performance

6. Developing workplace strategies

7. Stakeholders involved in developing WPS

8. Elements of a good WPS

9. Implementing WPS and its Challenges

10. Post Evaluation of WPS

5.1 How can facility managers add value in workplace management? (RQ1)

The results from the interviews show that it is important to note that the word workplace management doesn’t

concern only the facility managers in organizations. Workplace management is carried out by 4 departments

in organizations:

• Facility Management

• Real Estate

• Human resources

• IT

These four departments oversee managing workplace, most of the interviewees agree that Facility

Management and Real Estate can be group as one department working together, but in IP MH case, these

departments have a separate role in workplace management. In their case, the Real estate team oversees

relocations around the building while the FM is responsible for making sure that the workplace is in good

condition for the employees. IP AS & IP KB have something in similar as they are of the opinion that the

workplace is made up of three constituents:

• The physical workplace

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• The technological workplace

• The cultural workplace

Considering the above-named points, it is importance for FM to be conscious of the fact that the workplace

is a strategic tool and should be managed bearing in mind these three issues. The physical workplace

consists of the physical environment, spatial distribution of workspaces, and every other tangible part of the

workplace. The technological workplace is the IT infrastructure in the workplace, it is important to note that

some interviewees IP LR & IPMH stated that their IT infrastructure is the most important part of their

organization’s workplace. Cultural workplace although an intangible component of an organization, has a

very important influence on the workplace as a whole and this is also considered as a strategic area that can

make or mar the workplace.

From all the responses, four (4) main roles of facility managers in workplace management were derived.

Since this is not the focus of the thesis, they are only listed below.

• To make sure that employees are comfortable in their workplace

• To make strategic decisions on space and digital workplace

• To empower and engage the employees

• To provide the employees with a variety of workspace to make them more productive

IP JK & IP FT states that the role of the FM is dependent on two things, the level in which the FM is placed

in the organization and the size of the organization.

5.2 Added Value in Workplace management

The term Added value has different meanings to different people and this is also evident in the responses of

the interviewees as they show different views on what Added value means in WPM. Added value varies

between consultants and In House FM, IPJK and IPLR are consultants describe added value as a function

of what the client views added value as. This is considered as a crucial point because it is easy for WPM

to know how to create and add value for organizations when they know what the organization views as added

value. This brings us to another valuable point that added value is knowing the needs of the organization and

delivering services in line with the needs of organization. Every organization in its own sense has a

goal/mission, therefore the workplace managers should be able to support this goal by creating the perfect

workplace for them.

In-house FM/WPM view added value to be in different ways in their organizations it ranges from making sure

that the employees have a comfortable workplace to execute their tasks, planning organizing, leading

executing and controlling any workplace successfully. IP KB is of the opinion that added value in workplace

management is making sure the workplace is attractive, efficient, that the employees can perform their tasks.

The IPKB also mentioned that to successfully add value, the employees have to be empowered in their

workplace and also well engaged at all levels, IPLR also agrees to engagement as an important part of added

value, she views it from a consultant view which is that creating value is making clients see the need of

5 Discussions 52

engaging their employees in the workplace. If FM can take charge of the workplace in such a way that the

employees do not have any need to be dissatisfied with their workplace, added value can be achieved.

Creating workplaces which support the employees to concentrate more on their work and also have time for

some fun time is added value in its raw form.

Cost cutting is also seen as a way of adding value to an organization. IPNK, IPMH, IPPP, IPFT & IPSD

mentioned that the ability for the WPM to cut down cost/ manage resources efficiently is a way adding value.

IPMH who is in the finance industry mentioned that for their organization the major requirement for adding

value to the management is by cutting down cost. This is understandable because it is a financial organization

and they are more of managing resources efficiently. IPNK raises an important notion that cost cutting is

not about providing inferior solutions but providing solutions with the best value at the lowest cost.

IPSD opinion of cost cutting is that when creating service models, the cost must be efficiently selected which

would lead to optimization and this would be able to create added value while delivering results to the users.

Nevertheless, IPPP strongly believes that cost efficiency is not a role of FM only, but the responsibility of

anyone in an organization.

The role of FM in workplace management in creating added value is also considered to be a strategic role in

two ways:

• Harmonizing the strategies of HR, RE, & IT: To create value, FM has a strategic role of in a way blending

the strategies of these 3 distinct department of an organization in delivering value for the organization.

IPFT & IPJK strongly support this point that to add value to an organizations workplace, the HR strategy,

RE strategy, IT strategy has to be reviewed by the FM or WPM as the case may be to better understand

the organization. This can be linked to the response of IPAS and IPKB that the workplace consists of

three parts, the Physical workplace which the RE and FM is concerned with, the cultural workplace which

HR coordinates and the Technological workplace which the IT is in charge of. The FM/WPM has to be

strategically placed in the organization to actively relate with these departments so as to deliver value

through workplace management.

• Understanding the needs of the Management and Employees: This is another strategic role and step in

delivering value in workplace management. All of the IP agree to the fact that meeting the needs of the

organization would let to delivering value. It is important for WPM to be able to blend the needs of the

employees and the management. In most cases these needs are what makes up the workplace strategy.

If the needs are not clearly understood and taken into consideration, it could lead to a failed workplace

strategy. The needs of the employees can be understood by engaging the employees on every level,

these engagement can be through the use of surveys, organizing workshops, focus groups etc.. IP FT

made mention of a tool used to engage the employees called the “workplace game” which is a game

played with a set of cards with different questions which the employees have to answer. After

understanding the needs of the employees and managers it is necessary to harmonize the needs of both

sets of people. This role falls on the FM/WPM because this would be translated into the workplace

strategy and this would create more value for the organization. IPJK believes that there is really no gap

between the needs of the management and the employees, all that matters is that the FM/WPM as the

5 Discussions 53

case may be has to carefully blend these needs together to reach a consensus. The FM has to make

them see that there really is no gap, and they all want the same thing but in different terms.

Considering all of the above-mentioned cases, added value would have some benefits on the organization

as a whole, below is a list:

• Increased performance

• Increased productivity

• Increased attractivity

• Wellness

• Cost efficiency

5.3 How can workplace strategies be managed in organizations to add value to the core

business? (SRQ 1)

From the interviews conducted, a workplace strategy is put in place in different organizations, but 2 of the

interviewees (IPNK & IPKB) do not have a workplace strategy in place, they operate the workplace according

to the needs of their organization, while all of the other interviewees have a workplace strategy in their

organization. IPNK, states that the reason why there is no workplace strategy in their organization is because

of the size of their organization. They still adopt only the traditional workplace concept in their organization,

the interviewee also states that if the size of employee increases there would be a need to develop a

workplace strategy for the organization. From all the responses the theoretical definition of a workplace

strategy still remains The dynamic alignment of an organization’s work patterns with the work environment to

enable peak performance and reduce costs. In other to align the organizations work pattern to the

environment, it is necessary to know the needs of the users of the building and also understand the work

done by the employees.

Space allocation within the workplace should be based on one thing, which is to meet the needs of the

employees in successfully carrying out their tasks. Considering the responses of the interviewees, flexibility

is of major concern in developing WPS. Prior to distributing space in the workplace, there are some necessary

steps highlighted by the interviewees. IPAS gave a more analytic view of how the needs of the organization

can be optimized in delivering the right space for the right task. There are 4 ways this can be done:

• The use of interviews and observational studies: Interviews with employees can be carried out in the

organization to get qualitative and quantitative data that would later on be analyzed to determine which

group of employees require a flexible space and which do not require flexible workspace. Observational

studies should also be carried out by the FM/WPM as the case may be to observe the nature of work

carried out by each unique set of employees.

• Interviews with middle management: to understand the operational requirements of each department.

This would involve meeting with line managers and departmental heads to get insights of the functions

of their teams and their departments

5 Discussions 54

• The use of Employee surveys: Open surveys are also used to get feedbacks from all levels of employees

in the organization to know the needs of the employees with regards to their workplace. This survey

should be as open as possible to enable the employees communicate their needs.

• Utilization studies are also a valuable point in understanding the way people work in an organization.

Some employees spend less time at their workplace because of the nature of their job, some spend more

time in meeting rooms all day long, this is the need for utilization studies to know how utilized their

workplace is. Utilization studies can be done by observation and also through the use of technological

solutions. IPFE states that in their organization, various technological solutions are used to carryout

utilization studies e.g sensors technology.

A combination of all these activities would assist the WPM in deciding on the best space to facilitate

employees’ tasks. Data acquired from this process has to be carefully analyzed by the WPM and it should

be the basis for creating the workplace strategy.

Creating a variety of spaces for employees to choose from is becoming a trend in workplace management

as some organizations give the employees the choice of selecting what kind of workplace suites them. IPMH

describes their workplace to have different zones for different kinds of work depending on the task of the

employees. They adopt a 3’C principle which are zones for concentration, collaboration and

communication. Employees can choose from which zone they want to execute their job based on their

tasks. Creating spaces should also not leave out spaces for other activities in the workplace that can provide

the employees with many experiences in the workplace. It is also worthy to note that not all work tasks can

be flexible, some departments are considered flexible in their tasks and can execute their tasks in any

environment, but some other need concentrated spaces for their work. For example, HR and Finance in most

cases because of the level of confidentiality of their job, may need a dedicated area in the workplace to

execute their tasks.

From all the key points mentioned above, space distribution and allocation in the workplace should be majorly

based on the nature of work of the employees.

5.4 Developing Workplace strategies

Developing a workplace strategy is a process that involves the engagement of different levels of employees

in an organization. Workplace strategies ideally is not only developed by the FM in organizations, in most

organizations the HR, IT, RE and FM come together to develop the workplace strategy. For the purpose of

this study the FM is considered to still have the highest role to play in developing workplace strategies.

10.4.1 The Workplace Strategy Process

This process can be divided into 3 parts:

1. Strategy development stage

2. Strategy Implementation stage

3. Post evaluation stage

5 Discussions 55

1. Strategy development stage: This is the first stage in creating a workplace strategy and it consists of

various actions by the workplace team to get as much data as possible on the current workplace to

develop a workplace strategy. This stage starts with looking at the current situation and the kind of

work people do with an in-depth understanding of the organization. There are 3 key steps in

developing a WPS strategy, they are:

• The needs of the organization: The needs of the organization is very important in developing

workplace strategies. To be able to deliver value to the organization through the workplace, the needs

of the organization has to met. These needs can be investigated through the use of various tools like

employee surveys, interviews, town hall meetings etc. The needs of every department is unique and

has to be understood by the workplace team to develop a workplace that is suitable for their activities.

In some cases, the needs of the organization might be to reduce th number of workspaces just like

in the case of IPMH, this would mean that the WP team has to make sure that this need is met

through the development of the new workplace strategy. It is also of importance to know the corporate

goals of the organization when developing a work place strategy, this would help the workplace team

to develop the strategy that follows the vision and mission of the organization. To develop a strategy

that is based on the needs of the organization it is important to engage the right stakeholders.

Stakeholders involved in a workplace strategy development would range from the management team

to the employees not leaving out the project team consisting of FM, RE, IT, and HR. These

stakeholders are the distinct groups that decide on the needs of the organization. The view of each

stakeholder is very important and should treated with high relevance. IPSD, IPFE, IPMH are of the

opinion are the most important stakeholders to be considered when developing the strategy because

they are the major users of the facility. But on the contrary, IPNK is of the opinion that the

management should be given much higher priority because they facilitate the strategy financially.

Engaging the right stakeholders would not only help in developing the right workplace

strategy but also during the implementation of the strategy.

• The nature of work: The nature of work of each department is unique and has to be considered in

developing WPS. The nature of work can either be flexible or inflexible. The WP team must engage

the employees to understand the nature of their work. By doing this, employees can perform their

tasks more effectively. This can be done by having meetings with line managers or departmental

heads to understand the way they work presently and the future of their work.

• The culture: Organizational culture is a very strategic factor that can influence the way the

organization thrives in their business. It is important to consider the culture of the organization while

developing workplace strategy. The culture is the foundation of every organization that has to form

the basis of a workplace strategy. The WPS must be harmonious with the culture of the organization.

The HR plays a very important role in this part of culture, they mostly have more insights into the way

the organization functions on each level. The management structure must be considered in

developing workplace strategy.

IPSD suggests 3 questions which can be asked when developing workplace strategies, they are Where can

we add and develop new space? What is or isn’t working in the current space? and Who are we solving for?

5 Discussions 56

After considering these points, all data received are analyzed and reviewed by the workplace team. These

data should be used to create performance measurement systems and also KPI’s for the workplace strategy.

KPI’s should be set from the beginning of the strategy development process to enable them to have a

measured process. Different workplace solutions should be selected after analyzing all the data and the most

suitable workplace solution should be selected based on the needs of the organization, the nature of work

and the organizational culture. When developing workplace strategies according to IPSB, it is important to

make the employees understand the benefits of having a workplace strategy. Opportunities should be

highlighted to make the employees understand the need for a workplace change. This helps to understand

the employees fears and objects of resistance. This would in the future increase the speed of adoption of the

strategy. A strategy that would thrive must be well understood by the management, in most cases the

interviewees believed when the management drives the workplace strategy it makes it easy for employees

to accept the strategy.

IPJK from the point of view of the consultants agrees with the above-mentioned points but the interviewee

would rather focus on the need of the principal when developing a workplace strategy for an organization.

IPLR also agrees with the point that the needs of the client are what is more important and when the needs

of the client are known it is easy for the WPM to create value for the organization. After getting information

from the principal/client, the consultant proceeds towards the employees to go through the above listed steps

and then the workplace strategy can be created. Also, when developing the strategy it is important to

also note that things change, people change, work changes and in turn work with it continuously and

try to adapt to it all the time.

2. Strategy Implementation Stage: The implementation stage is the point where the workplace strategy is

executed and passed on to the organization. The interviewees have different views of implementing

workplace strategies. IPSB views implementing workplace strategy as a change process that should

involve a change manager. A change manager is the person in charge of walking the whole organization

through the change. IPAS & IPLR are of the opinion that the change manager should be Involved

immediately the strategy is developed. Change managers can be internal i.e. people within the

organization with experience in executing change projects. IPFE & IPMH says that in their organization,

there is no dedicated team of change managers, so everyone in the Facility department/WP team is a

change manager. IPMH says that in their organization, all departments have a representative who

oversees the change and this person helps in driving the change with their colleagues. On the other

hand, for consultants, they are professional in managing change and when working with clients, they

effect the change and work as the change managers.

In implementing workplace strategy, communication is key. The interviewees are of the opinion that if

there is adequate communication with the employees, the change would be successful. IPSD gives certain

ways of communicating with the employees, they are through emails, town hall meeting, brown bags (casual

meetings during lunch/coffee breaks) and via company website. The workplace implementation is a process

and this process needs to be first documented by the workplace management team. According to IPJK, the

process must be dynamic and not too rigid, the process should be subject to change and well detailed. This

5 Discussions 57

process should be then communicated to employees, so they can understand how the process will be, what

is required of them and the benefits of the change. If the employees do not understand the change and the

positive reasons for the change, it makes it hard for them to adopt the change. IPSB is of the opinion of

speaking with the employees to know their fears concerning the change and also to lead them through the

change process.

Two important strategies identified from the responses when implementing workplace strategies are:

• Top-down approach: A top-down approach is a way of implementing strategies as identified by

IPSB, IPJK, IPKB, IPSB & IPNK. They are of the opinion that the management should be the first

to adopt the workplace strategy before passing it on the employees. It was also gathered from their

responses that the management should drive the change. They should be on the fore-front of the

change process, hence leading the strategy implementation. If the change is successfully adopted

by the management, it is very likely to be adopted by the employees. According to IPJK, the

management must understand that the strategy would not change the culture and communication

style of the organization. Management should be involved in communication of the new workplace

strategy to the employees. IPAS also says that there has to be a project sponsor from the

management level in-charge of implementing the change.

• Implementing with pilot projects: Pilot projects are schemes to test-run the feasibility of a new

workplace strategy. These projects are done on a small-scale to test the likelihood of the success

of a project. In IPFE’s organization it is called a launch and iterate process where the workplace

strategy is tested on a small scale and implemented if it works. These pilot projects can be

implemented with focus groups to test the strategy and to see what works and what doesn’t work.

IPFT & IPLR also agree to the fact that pilot projects to test a new workplace strategy are essential

in successfully implementing the strategy.

After implementing the strategy, the last step would be to train the employees/users of the building on how

to use their space. Time and effort have to be put in by the workplace team to make the employees

understand that all spaces in the organization has different functions and has different uses. During the

implementation of the strategy, IPPP states that the organization is likely to lose some of its employees and

this could pose some challenges to the organization. Below are the factors that can spring up challenges

while implementing workplace strategies:

• Lack of proper communication with management & employees.

• Not having the right stakeholders.

• Not having the management to drive the strategy.

• Time constraints.

• Budget Constraints.

5 Discussions 58

All of these above listed items can pose great challenges for the implementation of the strategy and it could

lead to low rate of adoption, it could also negatively affect the organization on the war of talents and

resistance.

3. Post evaluation stage: This is the final stage of the workplace strategy cycle where the workplace strategy

is steadily evaluated to see the impact it is having on the employees and the organization. Post evaluation

of the strategy can be done in several ways depending on what works best for the organization. This can

also be called post occupancy evaluation. In cases where a pilot project was initiated to test the

workplace strategy, the post evaluation has to be carried out first after the pilot project and secondly after

implementing the WPS. IPAS gives a basis for evaluating the workplace strategy which is the use of a

set of K.P. I’s set at the strategy development stage and when engaging stakeholder management. This

is good to see if the strategy outcome has met the already set K.P.I.’s. A feedback system should be put

in place to evaluate the impact the workplace strategy is having on the organization. The feedback system

is used to evaluate the strategy after implementation. The process of getting feedback can be formal and

informal depending on the case. Formal actions to get feedbacks could be using employee surveys,

qualitative interviews, and focus groups. The outcome of these feedbacks would be a set of quantitative

and qualitative data that would help the workplace team understand the way the employees are reacting

to their workplace. Informal ways of getting feedbacks are through informal conversations at breaks with

the employees and playing the workplace game as mentioned by IPFT. Space utilization studies can also

be evaluated using technical systems in the organization. HR and IT shouldn’t be left out during this stage

because HR data and IT data is also very useful in post occupancy evaluation.

Feedback systems should be continuous meaning that they should be carried out from time to time. It

should be a constant activity that engages both stakeholder management and the employees. According

to IPFE, in their organization the feedbacks are collected 2 months after implementation has been

successfully carried out. The need for post evaluation is to provide for continuous improvement.

5.5 Elements of a Good Workplace Strategy (SRQ2)

A good workplace strategy has a lot of benefits to the organization. These benefits are considered as what

adds value to an organization which one of the focuses of this thesis. There are several elements of a good

workplace strategy but this thesis focus on the most important and tangible elements that can make up a

workplace strategy. The following are elements of a good workplace strategy:

• It should be Holistic: A workplace strategy should be holistic in the senses that it engages the whole

organization, it should be based on the premises of the needs of all the levels of the organization.

This strategy should engage the different classes of employees in the organization from the youths

to the adults. By being holistic, it covers all the departments in the organization from IT, HR, finance

and even to the cafeteria workers.

• It should be people-centric: The workplace has to be based on the needs of the employees.

Employees should be able to see their views incorporated into the workplace strategy, this helps

5 Discussions 59

them willing to accept the workplace strategy. A people centric workplace strives better than any

other workplace strategy.

• It should be data driven: According to the response of IPPP, a good workplace strategy is a product

of adequate collection of appropriate data, the evaluation of the data and successful implementation

of the data. It should be noted that not all data received during the strategy development process is

useful, therefore the WP team should be able to prioritize which data is relevant and which is not

relevant. All these data are what makes up the strategy and should be used in developing the

strategy. A data driven workplace strategy must be measurable in the sense that processes has to

be benchmarked, KPI’s have to be developed and the impact of the workplace itself on the

organization must be measurable.

• It should be flexible: A good workplace strategy should be flexible in mindset, design and

technology. Flexibility in mindset refers to being flexible enough to understand the futuristic goals of

the organization. This helps to create a workplace strategy that would remain relevant in the future.

This flexibility can be provided for by getting information from the top management to know the

company’s goals for the nearest future. Flexibility in design is very important in workplace

management as workplace trends are changing therefore, the workplace strategy must provide for

different workspaces ranging from collaborative workspaces, concentrated workspace and

communication. The workplace team should try to make the employees flexible enough to select

which workspace they feel is best to carry out their task at any point in time. Flexibility in technology

follows that the workplace should be designed to be able to accommodate future development in

technology. The IT world is dynamic and changes from time to time, different workplace solutions

are constantly being developed and therefore a workplace strategy has to remain flexible to be able

to accommodate new technology. According to IPSD flexibility helps to easily adapt and deliver new

spaces, programs and experiences to meet changing team needs or demographics.

• It should be based on the organizational culture: The culture of the organization is the foundation of

that must form the basis of a workplace strategy. The way of life of the employees and management

has to be considered when setting up a workplace. The organizational culture would also involve

the management structure in the organization, the hierarchical situation in the organization. When

developing a workplace strategy all elements of an organizations culture should be considered. The

strategy should be in no way detrimental to the culture of the organization.

• It should be user experience inclusive: The strategy should be able to provide the employees and

users of the building with a range of user experience with various touchpoints based on the desire

of the employees. Employee journey needs to be taken seriously when developing workplace

strategies because it helps in creating a good work experience for the employee.

When all the above listed elements are included in a workplace strategy it impacts the organization in a lot of

ways namely:

• It fosters corporate identity and branding

• It provides for collaboration and innovations

• It boosts employee engagement

5 Discussions 60

• It promotes employee wellbeing

• It increases satisfaction

• It plays a very vital role in the war of talents.

• It boosts employee performance (for knowledge workers) and productivity.

5.6 What influence does Workplace strategy have on employee performance? (SRQ3)

The workplace strategy can have various influences on the performance of employees. This thesis focuses

on the positive impacts a workplace strategy can have on the employees. From the responses of the

employees, performance is an act of executing a task. When performing a task, two things are important, one

is the environment in which the task is being executed which comprises of the physical environment, the

cultural environment and the technological environment while secondly is the task given to the employee in

question. An employee can successfully carry out his task if both factors are complimentary. If the workplace

environment compliments the task, then the employee has a greater likelihood of successfully executing their

task. The term productivity cannot be ascribed to knowledge workers as stated by IPPP. Productivity is a

measure of output in relation to input and these poses a problem in defining what the input and output of

knowledge workers is. Therefore, the term performance was adopted in this thesis to mean the successful

execution of the tasks given to employees. It is of a fact that the workplace can contribute to the performance

of employees. IPNK says that in their organization their workplace strategy adopts an open plan layout, and

this has changed the working culture of the employees which in-turn has influence their staff performance in

a positive manner. IPAS & IPKB are of the opinion that the workplace significantly boosts the engagement

and performance of employees by approximately 3.5%-5%. But they went ahead to re-state that for the

workplace to influence performance, it must involve the physical, technological and cultural workplace. IPLR

& IPMH believe that the technological workplace plays a much more vital role in influencing employee

performance. IPFT is of the opinion that the level of impact the workplace has on the employees is difficult to

rate because performance also depends on the kind of work being carried out. IPPP, also agrees that the

level of impact the workplace can have on employee performance is based on the task given to the employee.

However, it should be considered that the workplace is not the only factor that affects the performance of the

employees, they are as follows:

• Management structure

• The nature of work done

• Flexibility in work hours

• Salary

If all the above listed factors are linked to the workplace it is certain that employee performance would be

high. IPJK says that if the work environment suits into the work ecology which comprises of the management

structure, nature of work done, flexibility and salary, the would be a positive impact on the employee.

Measuring performance is a trivial issue in understanding the level of impact the workplace has on the

performance of employees. Majority of the employees do not have a concrete way for measuring performance

5 Discussions 61

which makes them to rely on perceived performance. Perceived performance involves engaging the

employees and managers to know what their views on what makes them perform adequately. It is used to

know how productive employees are and how well they have performed. Performance to a certain department

would vary from what is concerned to be performance in another department that is why it necessary to treat

every department separately when assessing performance. Perceived performance according to the IP’S are

derived through handing out surveys, interviews and having conversations with management and the

employees. These surveys show employee engagement and how they feel about their environment i.e. how

they communicate more or collaborate. IPNK also gives a valid point as to why perceived performance is

appropriate which is because the workplace is not the only factor that can influence employee performance.

IPSB on the contrary gives a very finance focused response on measuring performance which is that

performance can be measured based on the hours worked and the salary received. The IP is the only person

that agrees to measuring finances based on the input(work) and output(salary). IPKB says that in their

organization they keep track of employee performance using workplace analytics. The workplace analytics

are extremely scientific solutions that can be used to peep into different performance metrics of employees.

It uses data from the daily work of employees on how well they utilize their space, how many tasks they

execute daily, how well they communicate, how well they collaborate etc.. The workplace analytics are

beginning to be adopted in many organizations e.g. Microsoft. Workplace analytics solutions help to drive

workplace efficiency and engagement. The outcome of this workplace analytics is a series of employee

performance metrics that can be used to determine the performance of employees in the workplace. IPAS

goes further to give another way to measure employee performance which are using HR data, i.e. discovery

the level of absenteeism from the office, the frequency of sick leaves and also cost of wellbeing. There a lot

of other HR data that can be derived by actively working with the HR department.

5.7 Limitations of Study

The limitations of this research are evident on the premise that the interview participants are spread around

different countries which means the results can’t be attributed to a country because it has a wider focus.

Secondly, another limitation is that the organizations considered are knowledge-intensive organizations

where majority of their work is done at their desk. This means that other organizations are not considered

and the results from this research cannot be generalized to labor-intensive organizations.

As mentioned in the methods chapter one of the interviews was carried out via email in which the IP provided

answers to the questions in the interview guideline, but it was unable to get clarifications to some of the

answers given.

6 Conclusion 62

6 Conclusion

The workplace is beginning to be a strategic tool in achieving business goals and various organizations are

beginning to see the need to treat the workplace as a strategic tool. Workplace is strategic tool that consists

of three parts: the physical workplace, the cultural workplace & the technological workplace. The physical

workplace is made of the tangible elements of the workplace, the distribution of various workspaces within

the workplace. The cultural workplace is the intangible part of the workplace which is comprised of the

management style, leadership culture, the mission and vision of the organization and the ways of working

the organization. The technological workplace comprises of all IT infrastructure within the workplace that

enables the smooth-running operations of an organization. All of these 3 components of the workplace is

what FM is in charge of controlling. The 3 trends in workplace management are wellness, digital technology

and flexible working and to successfully manage the workplace, FM should be able to strategically integrate

these three components of the workplace to deliver value to the organization.

Adding value in workplace management is characterized by the needs of the organization, different

organizations view added value in different ways and it is important for FM to understand the corporate needs

of the organization and its employees to adequately deliver value to them. Organizations have their unique

mission and it is important for FM to support the actualization of these mission through workplace

management. The role of FM should not be limited only to maintaining and cutting costs processes as

unfortunately it can be observed in some companies (Duffy, 2000). The most strategic role of FM in workplace

management should be based on delivering value to the organization.

Added value in workplace management refers to delivering spaces that are attractive and efficient to enable

employees perform their tasks.FM can create value for employees by creating a workplace environment that

enables the employees to concentrate more on their job and not have to bother about the slightest workplace

inadequacies. To add value to an organization, the employees must be empowered in their workplace to

drive them to take control over their space. When employees are empowered through their workplace it

increases workplace engagement which raises commitment and motivates employees while in the

workplace. The increase in workplace engagement leads to added value and can create competitive

advantages for the organization. Added value also includes creating various workspaces that present the

employees with various experiences within the workplace. These experiences include creating spaces that

can be used for different formal activities and social activities.

To successfully create added value for an organization, FM/WPM has to occupy a strategic position within

the organization. This strategic positioning of FM should enable them to have access to HR, IT, and RE

departments within the organization. These 3 departments must be in close relationship with FM while

developing the workplace so as to create value for the organization. HR, IT and RE strategies should be

integrated into the workplace strategy to add value to the organization. This is because as mentioned earlier,

the workplace consists of the Cultural environment which HR oversees, IT environment which The IT

environment oversees and the physical environment which RE oversees in most case. Therefore, FM has to

be able to integrate these 3 components in other to deliver value to the entire organization. When FM is

6 Conclusion 63

placed in a strategic position within the organization, they can assess the needs of the employees and the

organization and this will enable FM to create value for the organization by translating their needs into the

workplace strategy. When the needs of the organization are met, Value is created. This value will then

increase performance, increase productivity, increase attractivity, boost employee wellness and also impact

cost efficiency.

To create value to the organization, a workplace strategy is needed to reflect the needs of the organization

and the processes which would support it. A workplace strategy is a strategy that entails the integration of

the day-to-day activities of the organization within the workplace and the working environment to create value

for the organization as a corporate entity and the employees. Space allocation is included in the workplace

strategy showing the different usage of spaces within the workplace. Delivering the right space for employees

to carry out their work is very important in delivering value for the organization. Creating a variety of space

for employees to choose from is a strategic decision that can be adopted by the workplace manager and

thus gives empowers employees to be able to determine which workspace would make them more productive

at the workplace. This accounts for flexibility while developing workplace strategy. Workplace can be divided

into using the 3’C principle of having zones for concentration, collaboration and communication. Space

allocation should be based on the job of the employees at any point in time, this distribution of space should

be kept flexible because the job given to an employee can vary from day to day, hence the need for different

kinds of space to execute the tasks. There are various ways to carryout out investigations into the way space

is used in various departments in the organization. They are the use of interviews, surveys and observational

studies to understand the nature of task each unique department operates in. Interview with line managers

or departments heads are also useful to understand the operational requirements of their departments.

Space utilization studies can also be used using technological solutions to determine the extent to which

employees use their present workspace. By doing this, the workplace managers are able to determine which

employees/departments require a flexible workplace and vice-versa.

Developing workplace strategies involves a process of engaging the whole organization in determining what

makes up the strategy. This process involves examining the current situation, the employees, the way they

work and the organizations goals. This strategy should be developed consciously by the FM/WM with the

support of other departments in the organization involved with the work environment specifically HR, IT and

RE. The FM needs to harness these three parts of an organization to be able to develop a workplace strategy

that would fit into the organizations mission. The workplace strategy development process is a cycle that

needs to be reviewed constantly. The process begins with gathering as much relevant data as possible from

various members of the organization. These data ranges from data to understand the nature of work of

various individuals, data on the needs of the organization, data on the needs on the employees/users of the

building and finally, data on the organizations culture. All the data received would play a vital role on actions

to be taken while developing the workplace strategy. In most cases, data on external factors can also be

useful for example data on the kind of workplace prospective employees demanding. This helps to provide

for opportunities for the organization to find the best talents. This strategy has to be well understood by the

management, and the employees to enable the strategy to thrive. It is important to treat the needs of

employees and management as important when developing the strategy because when their needs are

6 Conclusion 64

addressed through the workplace strategy, then they tend to accept the strategy without any issues. In order

to be able to track the progress of the workplace change, KPI’s can be developed at the beginning of the

strategy process to determine the effectiveness of the strategy on the employees.

The developed workplace has to be holistic by engaging the different classes of employees, it must be people-

centric focused on the need of the employees, It should be data driven with only relevant data from all

stakeholders, it should be flexible in mindset, design and technology, It should be based on the organization

culture and mission and finally it must be user experience inclusive. All these factors are what makes up a

good workplace strategy. A good WPS is such that it captures all the different views inside the company, and

it aligns with the corporate strategy. Benefits of such a strategy is that It fosters corporate identity and

branding, It provides for collaboration and innovations, It boosts employee engagement, It promotes

employee wellbeing, It increases satisfaction, It plays a very vital role in the war of talents and most

importantly It boosts employee performance (for knowledge workers) and productivity which creates

competitive advantage for the organization.

While implementing a workplace strategy, communication is key. Communication doesn’t mean inquiring on

the needs of the organization, it also means helping the organization to understand the implementation

process and the benefits of the change. As mentioned above workplace engagement is a way of keeping

employees abreast of whatever situation. By engaging them from the beginning of the strategy development

process, they are already into the change and would feel a sense of purpose during the implementation

stage. The implementation stage is a process and must be documented by the workplace management team.

This process has to be very flexible to provide for changes and allow for opportunities. Change managers

are needed in most cases while implementing workplace strategies, change managers help to walk the entire

organization to walk through the change process. The need for a change manager could arise depending on

the size of the organization and the extent of change. For a faster and more effective implementation of the

workplace strategy, the management should be on the fore-front of the change project. They should be

involved in communicating the change to the employees, and from experience this tends to be one of the

quickest ways of carrying out workplace change. These implementation process can be through pilot projects

to test the feasibility of the strategy. This can be tested with small focus groups to determine the success

strengths and weaknesses of the strategy. After successful implementation of the strategy, continuous

feedback and continuous improvement is required to keep track of the progress of the strategy. This would

involve repeating the same actions taken during the strategy development process to obtain information on

how the organization views the new WPS strategy and also through the use of other performance

measurement systems and KPI’s. These performance management would help to identify success, identify

whether the organization meets customer requirements understand their processes, identify where problems,

bottlenecks and waste exist and where improvements are necessary ensure that decisions are based on

facts, not supposition, emotion or intuition and show if the improvements planned, happened.

6.1 Further Research

From all the gathered findings of this research it was discovered that some organizations are yet to begin to

see the workplace as a strategic tool that can have an impact on the employees. Although some already view

6 Conclusion 65

the workplace as a strategic tool, it can’t yet be generalized that employees view the workplace as a factor

that influences employee performance.

Further research should be carried out in the area of determining what exactly is added value in workplace.

Literature now only focus on added value in FM, although this thesis explains what is meant by added value

in workplace management, a couple of more research would be able to stand as a benchmark for researchers

to understand the issue of generating value in workplace management.

As it is right now there is a need for justification of the fact that workplace can influence the performance.

This can be done by a quantitative survey to investigate what level of influence the workplace plays on

employee performance. The reason why the findings of this thesis cannot be generalized is because of the

number of interviews carried out and because of the qualitative research method applied.

Finally, this thesis has been able to give a background for researchers interested in the strategy development

process. Therefore, it would be more beneficial for the FM profession to also carryout more research into the

process of developing workplace strategies.

7 Bibliography 66

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ADDED VALUE IN WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT A FOCUS ON WORKPLACE STRATEGY

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