People matter: a hermeneutic exploration of reflective practice and facilities management

This is a hermeneutic study exploring the use of reflective practice in the context of facilities management. This study engaged facilities management practitioners who had all completed a part time undergraduate certificate in facilities management, delivered via block study and distance learning. The research drew on their life histories and explored how professional facilities management students have engaged with reflective practice in the workplace. The two main drivers for the research were to understand how reflective practice was used by facilities managers and to comprehend whether reflective practice had benefitted individuals from a personal and from an organisational/professional perspective. Four key themes emerged from the research. These themes were drawn from the interview text and the life histories, they were: how reflective practice was used in the workplace; the use of reflective practice in decision making; the impact that reflective practice had on blame culture; and finally, the use of reflective practice in personal and professional development. The thesis has provided a greater understanding of reflective practice in facilities management, as there was a dearth of literature in this area; secondly, there was an unexpected finding in relation to blame culture which led me to exploring how reflective practice can be used to address this. In relation to practice the research has evidenced that there are benefits to facilities managers being more reflective in their working practice and whilst this seems to be nominally added into the ‘requirements’ of the professional body, this needs to be better understood and articulated to the facilities management profession. Secondly, reflective practice should be embedded into all facilities management education and be a core part of the curriculum; and thirdly,facilities managers need encouragement to become reflective practitioners and therefore contributing to the wider organisation through improved service and innovation.