Facilities Management Best Practices - Term Paper Example

The paper 'Facilities Management Best Practices' is a great example of a Management Term Paper. Different international organizations define facilities management and its related core competencies. The IFMA defines FM as a profession encompassing a range of disciplines that enable an organization to function efficiently by integrating people, processes, place, and technology. The second organization, BIFM defines FM as a discipline that integrates many activities within a build facility and the management of the impacts of these activities on people and workplaces. The FMAA defines FM as a practice within the business that optimizes people, processes, business assets, and the work environment to enable an organization to achieve its mission objectives (CCCFFAM 2011).

The main role of facilities management is to consistently supply the organization with an appropriate physical environment. This supply enables the organization to continuously stay in operation without failure in its critical infrastructure equipment.

Scope/Extent of Facilities Management (E)
As has been observed by Hassanien and Dale (2013), there has been a lot of controversy on the definition of facilities management and this has caused further confusion regarding the identification of the scope of facilities management. As indicated by Patanapiradej (2013), the scope of FM still remains fuzzy; a fact that has been evidenced by definitions that have been provided. Facilities management is multi-disciplinary in nature because it covers a wide range of activities, knowledge, and responsibilities. Almost all the departments within an organization appear to be drawn into facilities management. However, this controversy has not prevented proponents, scholars, and other people from identifying and classifying the scope of facilities management. For example, towards the end of the twentieth century, the scope of facilities management was classified into three broad areas namely strategic, operational, and tactical (Alexander 1996).

A strategic level represents the level in which facilities managers make key corporate or organizational decisions that concern the organization’s future. In this level, facilities managers are required to have a good understanding of the external competitive environment and how they can utilize the facility's resources to ensure that the organization gains a competitive advantage. Hassanien and Dale (2013) have indicated that at the tactical level, the facility requires managerial decision making on the functioning of its component parts.