Modelling and managing affective psychology in Australian local government facilities

This paper aims to establish a basis for considering and then studying the affective psychology found in subjective assessments encountered in managing facility provision, in this case in Australian local government.

The literature was used to construct a suite of models that provides a legitimate basis to consider affective, subjective and other assessments in the field. A psychologically‐based orientational qualitative enquiry using an Affective Lexicon was used for an empirical study.

The study found that affect is pervasive in the management of local government facilities. It was found in expectations facility management has concerning consequences of its work, stakeholders' expectations and evaluations, and had utility in managing facility projects. A Scheme of Affective Management is proposed that uses a suite of techniques to achieve affective outcomes and consequences from facility management. These results challenge so‐called objectivity in the field.

The empirical study occurred in Australian local government but it is likely that the results are generalisable to other countries and also to the private sector and could apply more generally to effective facility management.

A Scheme of Affective Management is introduced that provides a suite of practices that could be employed to manage facility projects' affective outcomes.

The field embraces the psychology of facilities. This paper is a very early example that demonstrates that considering psychology in the management of facilities is also important.