Facilities Management Relevant Competencies for Malaysian Public School

Abstract

The question of whether one is actually practicing Facilities Management (FM) or an FM practitioner in the Malaysian industry is very common as the definition of FM continues to be under debate. Nevertheless, FM competencies have been defined by international FM professional associations with the main purposes of professional recognition and training in this area. Two pioneer associations in the field that are of distinguished reference internationally were the first in the effort of establishing the list of competencies for FM professionals. The process of defining the competencies however was very challenging given the fact that FM itself has not been able to be unanimously defined in its practice. The fine line between FM and other disciplines in the built environment also affects FM associations and their potential members, especially on whether or not they belong to each other. Despite this uncertainty, FM as a profession and an area of management is increasingly accepted and acknowledged all over the world, including Malaysia. This study aims at identifying the position of the practice of managing Malaysian public school within the context of FM, through relevancy of the defined competencies for FM by the international FM associations to the required competencies in the management of Malaysian school building and facilities. A survey was carried out amongst the school administrators from all parts of Malaysia and the data was analysed with factor analysis. The findings indicate that although by definition the management practice carried out by the school administrators does fall under the FM, less than half of the competency list proposed by FM organizations was found to be significant as far as Malaysian school facilities management is concerned.