A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals

Honegger, Franziska; Mäder, Melanie; Wattenhofer, Dominik; Hofer, Susanne

Publication type:	Conference paper
Type of review:	Not specified
Title:	A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals
Authors:	Honegger, Franziska Mäder, Melanie Wattenhofer, Dominik Hofer, Susanne
Proceedings:	IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings
Page(s):	34
Pages to:	42
Conference details:	IFMA Academic and Research (A&R) Track, San Diego, USA, 6 October 2016
Issue Date:	2016
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	International Facilities Management Association
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	362.11: Hospitals and related institutions 658.2: Facility Management
Abstract:	Background: In Switzerland, hospitals are now forced to improve their cost transparency to deal with a tightening financial environment. To meet this environment, Facility Management (FM) departments need to be set up organizationally effective and efficient. So far there were no research results available that systematically looked at how these departments are set up. Purpose: This paper is about the research being applied to describe and compare the organizational structures of Swiss hospitals FM departments in relation to each other and to hospitals parameters such as number of beds and staff. Methodology: Mixed methods design within a traditional qualitative research design, underpinned by the pragmatism paradigm and a primarily inductive approach. The inquiry strategy was a mixed methods case study. Case study entity is the organizational structure of seven hospital FM departments. Data collection methods include literature and document research and semi-structured expert interviews with heads of the departments. Data was primarily analyzed thematically, aligned with descriptive statistics. Results: All of the departments are set up functionally. There are three to five hierarchy levels in the departments. The range of the number of total FM staff in relation to total hospital staff is broad between 8 and 25%. There is no significant correlation between hospital size and percentage of its FM staff. Conclusion: The research led to an initial systematic overview of the organizational structure of FM departments in Swiss hospitals. However the findings are limited to the small sample size of the case study. Nevertheless the results provide information of relevance for both practitioners and researchers. Unique value to the body of FM knowledge: It provides not only the results on a systematic look at how FM departments in Swiss hospitals are set up but also ab approved method to broaden the investigation of this relevant topic.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/6218
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Life Sciences and Facility Management
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Honegger, F., Mäder, M., Wattenhofer, D., & Hofer, S. (2016). A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals [Conference paper]. IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings, 34–42.

Honegger, F. et al. (2016) ‘A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals’, in IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings. International Facilities Management Association, pp. 34–42.

F. Honegger, M. Mäder, D. Wattenhofer, and S. Hofer, “A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals,” in IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings, 2016, pp. 34–42.

HONEGGER, Franziska, Melanie MÄDER, Dominik WATTENHOFER und Susanne HOFER, 2016. A systematic look at FM’s organizational structure in Swiss hospitals. In: IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings. Conference paper. International Facilities Management Association. 2016. S. 34–42

Honegger, Franziska, Melanie Mäder, Dominik Wattenhofer, and Susanne Hofer. 2016. “A Systematic Look at FM’s Organizational Structure in Swiss Hospitals.” Conference paper. In IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings, 34–42. International Facilities Management Association.

Honegger, Franziska, et al. “A Systematic Look at FM’s Organizational Structure in Swiss Hospitals.” IFMA Academic and Research Track (A&R) Conference Proceedings, International Facilities Management Association, 2016, pp. 34–42.