Real estate management: incentives for effort

Abstract

Purpose -The aim is to examine how the real estate owner (decisionmaker) can ensure that the preferred tasks are prioritised. In particular, the incentives to ensure motivation to perform in order to accomplish the strategic goals of the decisionmaker are investigated. Design/methodology/approach -This research is based on an interview study of nineteen firm representatives, six decisionmakers and thirteen management representatives, all from the Swedish commercial real estate sector. Findings -The study conclude that the real estate management organisation in the outsourced management setting is govern by the contract, in detail constituting work tasks, and in the in-house management setting there are a freedom with responsibilities instead of regulations. Research limitations/implications -The research in this paper is limited to Swedish commercial real estate sector Practical implications -The insight in the paper regarding how decisionmakers creates incentives for the real estate management organisation in the different organisational settings can provide inspiration to design incentives for effort. Originality/value -It provides an insight regarding how the industry, depending on organisation setting, prioritise different work tasks and how incentives are created to enable effort.

Who should clean the university? The in-house outsourcing decision from a student perspective

“…But a strong FM service organisation would imply that they take charge of the cleaning in more than one building, even when, as in this case, the building is large (36.209 m 2 ) and constitutes almost half of the University teaching and student areas. Or they could consider outsourcing the full cleaning service for the University and build up a strategic partnership, as indicated by Kadefors (2008), Palm (2017Palm ( , 2018 and Usher (2004) as a way to successfully manage this question. Combining the two forms of organising is also a possibility.…”

“…However, Kadefors (2008) concludes that the Swedish facility management industry is characterised by incomplete contracts compensated by good relations. Palm (2017Palm ( , 2018 also concludes that both forms of organising management services have coexisted in Sweden for several years, and the decision is more in relation to how the real estate owner regards the pros and cons in relation to Usher's (2004) conclusion.…”

“…Previous studies in how FM-services have found different pros and cons with the strategic decision of keeping the service in-house or to outsource. The main pros identified in the literature (Haugen and Klungseth, 2017;Lok and Baldry, 2015;Klungseth, 2014;Palm, 2017;Rhodes et al, 2016;Usher, 2004) can comprise flexibility, cost reduction, focus on core competence and access to specialist competence. However, the same research also identifies a couple of cons with outsourcing FM-services that can comprise giving up control, contractual risk and the loss of competence in the organisation.…”

Creating a strategy framework for investor real estate management

“…P.5 Strategic partnerships: Strategic partnerships were not included in the CREM framework but it is assumed to be a relevant theme in IREM based on the research by Palm (2013Palm ( , 2017Palm ( , 2018. Investors can choose to outsource or insource the different operational management functions or to adopt different solutions for different markets, sectors, or functions.…”

“…A range of different operating models for managing real estate investment portfolios are used and the solutions tend to depend on the property investor type, whether they are specialist real estate investors, multi-asset owners, or institutional investors (McAllister, 2020). Palm (2017) underlined the strategic decision considering how real estate investors organize their property management and leasing activities together with how outsourced managers should be incentivized to achieve the strategic goals of the property investor.…”