Strategic Asset Management and the Evaluation of Office Workplace Utility

The performance of the office workplace can be measured in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the strategic management of the facility. This paper provides a critical review of strategic corporate real property management. The paper reviews research on establishing strategic asset management and research indicating levels of adoption of asset management by business. Research indicating the development of asset and facilities management methods by business is compared over several decades. The research findings are tabulated and compared to indicate the growth of professional property management. The paper shows that, despite considerable developments in corporate facilities management, the take up by business has not kept pace with the expectations of the profession. The paper goes on to highlight the current trends toward workplace effectiveness and utility measures which could serve to further enhance the productivity outcomes of workplace provision but face constraints in achieving widespread implementation within the corporate real estate profession. The findings indicate that business is still ambivalent to its real property assets and is failing to recognise developments in the profession. The reasons behind this lack of strategic management pose a challenging research question of considerable importance to the future of the profession.