Integration Of Stakeholder Management Into Facility Management (Fm)

The question treated in this paper is how different interests and claims of individual groups can be integrated into facility management (FM). Enterprises increasingly find themselves confronted with demands and claims of todayís society, which requires a new understanding for the role of the enterprise. These requirements no more include primarily traditional market relations, but also fields of environmental, health and consumer protection, which continually gain importance for the enterpriseís future. Todayís environment is a highly complex system, in which the individual enterprise, as a subsystem of the entire economic system, is in constant mutual relationships with other subsystems. In order to cope with this network of relationships a broad view of the relevant surroundings of the enterprise and an understanding for social developments are necessary. These services are not sufficiently reflected in current FM-concepts. However, especially in real estate management, inconsistent situations of interest meet, which have to be balanced out: such a typical situation of conflict is not only carried out between constructor (i.e. designer and / or project manager) and user (i.e. tenant as well as owner of the finished real estate), but in many domains it exists beyond a lifetime. In this sense remarkable is the integration of neighbors or a positive contact with authorities ñ these challenges can be decisive for success or failure. The ìstakeholder managementî would provide a solution for that question: This concept was adapted for management science in the United States by Freeman in 1984 (German in 1991) and was further developed by Frederick / Davis / Post in 1988 ñ in the meantime the approach disposes of a considerable and consistent tradition. Stakeholders are all directly articulated and organized interests and environmental influences respectively taken to the enterprise as well as all those interests and groups who are affected (or can be affected) by the managementís activities. Stakeholders are not only those groups identified as such by the management of the enterprise, but, moreover, all those considering themselves to have a claim. The characteristics of the approach can thus be summarized as follows: 1. In a descriptive perspective it describes the nature of the activity as ìpublicly exposedî and as virtually-public (social) organization. Stakeholder management is geared to the relation of a recursive structure (duality and recursivity) of organization and society. The stakeholder approach is also suitable as a theory for the communication of the organization. Stakeholder management thus enables the ìreturn of societyî into the organization via integration of interests (claims ñ ìstakesî), which are affected by decisions of the management and which affect those. 2. In an instrumental perspective the approach concentrates on the management of interaction with the claiming-groups and on related organizational and institutional processes. In this connection it essentially focuses on the results of the enterprise. According to Freeman the approach is meant to extend and supplement traditional business managementconcepts, especially ìshareholderî and ìstockholderî concepts respectively. 3. In a normative perspective it emphasizes the necessity of including all (legitimate) claims (stakes) into management decisions. Thus, not only the interests of stockholders should be represented but all other rights (of legal and ethic nature) and interests as well as claims to management decisions should be considered. This is relevant both, from a meta-economical (individually formulated not user-oriented) ethical objective, and from a (management strategic) induced anticipation of social and cultural changes, which allows to actively anticipate such changes. Therefore, this proactive strategy offers a simultaneous improvement for all stakeholders. // In order to provide an answer for how to integrate the stakeholder-approach into FM, it is necessary to define relevant stakeholders for real estate enterprises and to determine an integrated communication model suitable to be put into practice. The conversion is explained and illustrated by means of concrete examples from practice.