General Administration & Management

The leadership and business foundations of facilities management — budgeting, strategy, human resources, communication, and organizational effectiveness.

Budget Recharge, Cost Recovery, and Rates Recovery and recharge were generally initiated as a methodology to recapture and recover costs incurred for “non-maintenance” minor remodeling in the 1980s. Today, many institutions use some method of cost recovery to finance both minor and sometimes significant construction, services to auxi...
Budgeting Practices and Strategies Those charged with developing and preparing a facilities management department budget will benefit from understanding how issues facing higher education have affected facilities management over the past several decades. More recent external environmental factors, from the recession in 2008 to the...
Change Management Change and expectations of change are increasing exponentially, especially with websites and email that encourage demands for timely information. This is true for universities as a whole and for facilities departments. Organizational and individual change management provide a structured basis f...
Communication Communication is a core skill for successful leaders. Effective communication includes speaking, writing, listening, and matching words and actions. Leaders speak many times a day, so achieving outcomes is important (e.g., educate, motivate, persuade). Such communications entail (1) technology su...
Customer Service “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a f...
Effective Talent Management As leaders in facilities management, developing an effective workforce is critical to the success of our organizations. Several key human resource factors must be addressed to build an effective workforce. The scope of facilities management responsibilities is vast. From operational services to ...
Financial Analysis and Control Since the 1600s, organizations have used financial and nonfinancial information for managerial decisions. Managers used financial accounting data mainly to control individual and production unit work until the 1950s, when they also began applying data to enterprise financial planning. The result...
Leadership Historically, great military, political, religious, and industrial leaders faced very difficult challenges and led people, institutions, and sometimes societies toward a vision of the future. Equally important, the power and importance of leadership are demonstrated daily, and organizations can a...
Managing Ethically What Are Ethics The ability of individuals to be ethical lies at the heart of competent leadership. Ethics do not rest on absolute principles, but reasonable workplace guidelines for ethical action can be developed and used. The basic premise concerns (and balances) the good of others and not j...
Organization The chief facilities officer is responsible for the design of the facilities management organization, which faces new challenges (e.g., customer service, economics, workforce, information technology). Managers must redesign organization structures, strategy, and purpose as service requirements an...
Overview of Accounting Systems Most educational institutions are not-for-profit organizations (NPOs), as defined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). NPOs must earn profits to replace assets and grow. For-profit firms exist primarily to enrich owners, while NPOs exist mainly to serve a worthwhile social good. Ac...
Staff Development Facilities organizations in particular confront changes in technological, legal, and environmental issues and workplace demographic shifts that can lead to shortages of skilled workers. The organizational and staff development discipline addresses the process of identifying organizational objecti...
Strategic Role of Human Resources Facilities management leaders often face unexpected events (from small power outages to major catastrophes) and deal with advancing technologies, uncertain environments, personnel cutbacks, and shrinking resources. Leaders must shift gears quickly while still handling daily operational issues and...
Strategy and Leadership The future of higher education is unclear. Polls show the public viewing universities as a positive benefit for society and as a good personal investment but worrying about the price tag, student debt load, and school responses to environmental changes. Institutions face changes such as increasin...
The Five Styles of Negotiation When we hear the word negotiation we often imagine an acrimonious process between management and labor over contract terms or a stuffy boardroom of well-dressed people debating a complex business acquisition. Certainly, these situations involve complex negotiation processes but the concept of n...