Abstract
This study analyses the role of the Facilities Manager [FM] as a key actor in organisational energy management. This builds on the idea that ‘middle’ agents in networks can be an important lever for socio-technical change. The study demonstrates the considerable impact the FM can have on workplace energy consumption, whilst identifying a number of factors that constrain their agency and capacity to act. These include demands to meet workforce expectations of comfort; a lack of support from senior management; and a shortage of resources. Underlying these challenges, the study identifies three different energy rationales – that is to say conceptual frameworks – which are deployed by different groups of organisational actors. The challenges of reconciling these at-times-contradictory rationales results in a picture of energy management which to the outsider can appear highly irrational. The paper concludes with a consideration of how policy makers can apply these insights to support energy reduction in workplaces.
Highlights
IntroductionThe need to pursue energy efficiency in response to climate change and energy insecurity is well established
The FM interfaces between senior management [Senior manager (SM)]; the organisation's energy strategy; employees; and the building's equipment and infrastructure. Perhaps because of, this central position, the Facilities Manager should not be assumed to be the energy manager – that is, an individual whose job is to optimise energy use
The FM is, as middle-out perspectives argue (Janda and Parag, 2013; Parag and Janda, 2014), more than just ‘filler’, as the foreman was once described (Whyte and Gardner, 1945; Wray, 1949). This perspective emphasises the influence that may be directed outwards from the middle. This was the case with the FMs studied, and yet much of this influence was curtailed in practice by organisational factors
Summary
The need to pursue energy efficiency in response to climate change and energy insecurity is well established. The UK, where this research took place, has targeted reductions in carbon emissions of 80% by 2050. From the commercial and public administration sectors, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) targets electricity reductions of 52 TW h by 2030 (13% of UK total) (DECC, 2012). We analyse the management of energy within organisations from the perspectives of those who directly control it, demonstrating the necessity of understanding energy use as a social process, and its management as an outcome of often complex organisational dynamics. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings
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