Navigating the logics of changing public facilities management

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how a multitude of demands and challenges faced by public facilities management organizations’ (PFMOs) particularly in relation to a large building stock in need of measures’ are acted upon and negotiated in practice. Specifically this study asks: What are the institutional logics (IL) that constitute the organizational context of PFMOs? How does an institutional worker navigate to create change in PFMOs? Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a case study of a public facility management organization and include interviews, a questionnaire, observations and organizational documents. The analytical focus is the work of a single actor, a project manager portrayed as “the navigator” and his institutional work (IW) of developing and implementing new organizational practices, to meet current challenges and develop a more “strategic” facility management. Findings The complex institutional landscape faced by officials in PFMOs enforce officials responsible for implementing and developing new practices to become navigators. Originality/value The findings offer a rich practice-based account of the day-to-day IW carried out by actors that try to navigate complex institutional landscapes, consisting of multiple and, at times, conflicting IL. Current challenges for PFMOs are to be portrayed as multi-dimensional and the actual work to transform organizational practices in this context is highly complex, unordered and messy. The findings point towards a need for new competences and roles to tackle current challenges; geared towards integrating different logics and perspectives.

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“…Vermeulen et al (2016 and distinguish different options for dealing with institutional complexity: strategies can be aimed at compartmentalizing or subsuming different logics. While the traditional literature distinguishes two generic incompatible institutional logics (exploration and exploitation), more recent studies on multiple logics within the same organization have become available (e.g., Svensson and Löwstedt, 2021). These indicate that there are many incompatible logics that can generate tensions and managerial challenges, and also indicate that such tensions can lead to innovations (Battilana et al, 2017;Jay, 2013).…”

“…Both types of institutional complexity may result in various tensions for the organizations involved. and Svensson and Löwstedt (2021) discuss the tensions caused by institutional complexities in a facilities management (FM) organization. From an institutional theory perspective, tension refers to an incompatibility in goals, or courses of action, that manifests itself in relationships between members of different interest groups .…”