Abisuga, O (2020) Integrated collaborative facilities management framework for post-occupancy evaluation of higher education facilities. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract
Current facilities management practice is characterised by adversarial relations and poor interactions between facility managers and users, which negatively impact the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) process for capturing user feedback and improving facilities performance. Only few studies that focus on improving the collaboration between facility managers and users in the evaluation of higher education facilities. In order to fill in this research gap, this research has investigated three major aspects of the facility manager-user collaborative relationship: feedback channels, facility management (FM) response dimensions, and collaboration determinants, and their impacts on user collaboration tendency in POE.Two educational buildings were selected for case studies in this research, one in Australia and the other in Nigeria. Online questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted in both cases. The collected quantitative data were analysed using a range of statistical methods and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic and content analyses. The findings of the two case studies were compared, interpreted and integrated. The research results confirmed that the level of collaboration in FM practice is low in the POE of higher education facilities. This research also pointed out that feedback channel, determinants of collaboration, and FM response dimensions are significant predictors of user collaboration tendency. Mobile application was also identified as an essential feedback channel, and a POE mobile application tool was developed and evaluated. It shows that there is a significant positive relationship between the tool’s learnability, understandability, effectiveness, and efficiency and its ability to improve user collaboration tendency. Based on the research findings and Activity Theory, an integrated collaborative FM framework for POE was proposed and discussed. The original contributions of this research to knowledge of FM include advancement of POE literacy, facilitation of continuous collection of real-time POE data, enabling capturing user-centred information, evaluation of individual educational spaces, and the management and generation of FM analytics. Practical recommendations such as provision of effective feedback mechanism, clearly defined policy guidelines, and training and development were proposed to promote FM-user collaborative relationships. This research leads to more consistent, continuous and efficient POE process to inform existing and future design of higher education facilities.
Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
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Thesis advisor: | Wang, C and Sunindijo, R |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | facilities management; collaboration; collaborative practice; feedback channel; higher education facilities; mobile application; post occupancy evaluation |
Date Deposited: | 16 Apr 2025 19:35 |
Last Modified: | 16 Apr 2025 19:35 |