Property managers’ competencies in managing green certified office building in Klang Valley / Syamim Jaafar

The burgeoning green building development in Malaysia has drawn the attention of the
property management industry on the importance of its active role in sustaining the
“greenness” of green building throughout its life cycle. Moreover, many building owners
believe that property management may increase the capital value of their buildings and at
the same time maintaining its life span. However, the lack of property managers’
competencies has overshadowed the benefits of the green building development. A
property manager faces challenges in the management activity due to lacking knowledge
and skill of green material and technology adopted in the green building make it difficult to
manage. Therefore, the objectives of the research were to identify the competencies needed
for property managers in managing a green certified office building, to determine the key
competencies for property managers, and to evaluate the relationship between
competencies and property management performance of green certified office buildings.
The scope of this study is the property manager who involved in managing 44 green
certified offices building listed under the Green Building Index (GBI) in Klang Valley,
Malaysia. The study uses a quantitative method and purposive sampling technique. The
research outlines 56 KSAOs items for property manager and 12 dimension of property
management performance based on review of existing literature review and validated by
three expert property managers practicing property management in green building.
Questionnaires were distributed through email and a response rate of 62% was obtained.
The results showed that all the KSAOs items listed were rated as important for a property
manager in managing green certified office buildings. An Exploratory Factor Analysis
(EFA) was also applied and extracts 36 items on four main categories, namely Green Skill,
Ability, Knowledge, and Personality which explained 47.1% of the property manager
competencies. The result shows that technical and technology skill items, oral expression
and oral comprehensive items, self-confident as well as business and marketing
management are the key competencies that has contributed to property managers. A path
analysis (SmartPLS version 3) was also conducted and the study found that Green Skill and
Ability have a significant relationship with property management performance in green
certified office building. The findings may provide significant input related to property
manager professions such as increasing their knowledge and skills leading to a higher level
of professionalism in Malaysia.