Short Course - Management and Professional Office Proced 15-6-11

UPDATE COURSE 2011
Management & Professional Office Procedures
The Mackintosh School

University of Strathclyde
University of Dundee
Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 1

Professionalism
Professionalism
It is necessary for an architect to be competent and have the ability to conduct

him or herself with integrity, in the ethical and professional manner
appropriate to the role. It is an essential part of professionalism to be able to
undertake effective communication and presentation, organisation and self-
management. The professional architect must be capable of autonomous
working.
The architect has an obligation not only to his or her clients but to society and
the profession. Therefore a young professional architect must have sufficient
awareness of the limits of his or her competence and professional experience
to ensure that he or she is unlikely to bring the profession into disrepute.

Professionalism
The emerging Part 3 criteria state in respect of professionalism that demonstration of an

understanding of the following will contribute to the criterion being met:
 Professional ethics
 The architect’s obligation to society and the protection of the environment
 Professional regulation, conduct and discipline
 Institutional membership, benefits, obligations and codes
 Attributes of integrity, impartiality, reliability and courtesy
 Time management, recording, planning and review to assure competence
 Effective communication, presentation, confirmation and recording
 Ability to negotiate effectively and adapt to changing circumstances
 Autonomous working and taking responsibility within a practice context
 Continuing professional development
The list can be divided into three: Ethics, Institutional Conduct and Management.
Professionalism
Ethics
Ethics in public life have been under close scrutiny recently. In all respects
the architect is under the scrutiny of the client and all those with which he or
she engages in business. Integrity, impartiality and reliability are essential
attributes of the architect as is courtesy in all forms of communication. Lack
of courtesy generally reduces the impact of what is communicated, in addition
to exhibiting a lack of respect for others and generally brining the individual
and the profession that he or she represents in to disrepute.

Professionalism
Institutional Conduct
ARB, RIBA and RIAS all have codes of conduct, which members must follow.
An architect need join only ARB, as it holds the right to the use of the title.
RIBA and RIAS are learned societies whose aims include the promotion of
excellence in architecture. Membership of them is not mandatory.

Management
Management is the social process of planning, coordination, control and

motivation.
Management is the art of getting things done through people.
To manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate,

and to control.
Management is responsible for the creation of conditions to bring about the

optimum use of all resources available to an undertaking in men, methods
and materials (RIBA 1963).
The key variables that a manager has to grapple with
•People
•Work and structures
•Systems and Procedures

Management
Constraints
The goals of the organisation

The Technology available
The culture of the organisation and
Conflicting views
The pragmatic approach for Individuals is to consider that all

managers will work at doing various types of stuff.
•Executive Stuff
•Supervisory Stuff
•Design Stuff
•Process stuff
•Administrative Stuff and
•Stuff

Management
Risk Managment
It is essential in an Architectural Practice to engage in management

procedures that will prevent:
• Financial failure due to inefficiency.
•Financial failure due to cashflow / profitability / poor marketing
•Financial underperformance
•Administrative failure through inadequate recording or under-resourcing
•Marketing failure due to poor product development
•Legal liability
•Criminal liability
Management Overview
Resource Management
• Employment law
• Company structure
• Staff/employer relationship
• Staff development
Professional Office Procedures

• Control Mechanisms
• Recording Procedures
• Project Administration
• Quality Assurance

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION TO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The Cost of Staffing

• As an employee, you are an overhead, a cost to your employer. It is necessary
for you to produce work that creates income sufficient to justify your
employment. This is usually 3 times your salary.
The Cost of Supervision

• Supervision of employees is a very unrewarding activity, financially.
Improving employee competency through training makes good financial sense
in the long run, though it can be costly.
Fixed and Variable Costs

• Fixed costs are those which are borne by the practice irrespective of workload.
Variable costs depend upon workload. Administrative staff are generally a
fixed cost, whereas drawing and project running staff are variable.

TEAM MANAGEMENT
MANAGING OTHER PEOPLE
• Communication
• Reporting Systems
• Motivation
Effective Communication:
• Be clear, be heard
• The unimportance of the message
• Use the right medium
• Record what was agreed
• Develop assertiveness

TEAM MANAGEMENT
MANAGING OTHER PEOPLE
Meetings:
• Effective agendas
• Running meetings
• Brainstorming
• Conflict Management
• Negotiate
• Separate the person from the problem
• Focus on Interests not Positions
• Concentrate on the Win-win

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
EMPLOYMENT LAW
Employer’s Obligations
• The employer is obliged by law and by the contract of employment to provide
safe and suitable accommodation or conditions for the employee to carry out
his/her activities.
• The employer is also obliged to pay the salary, usually monthly, on time.
• An employer should not endanger and employee or ask him/her to do

something that is not in his/her job description or beyond his/her capabilities
• For an architectural practice, there may be further obligations in relation to

training and treatment of qualified staff to meet ARB or RIBA criteria.
• The employer should give the employee a contract of employment which

outlines working conditions, requirements, restrictions, holiday entitlement,
provisions for sickness, disciplinary and grievance procedures, etc.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
EMPLOYMENT LAW
Employee’s Obligations
• An employee is required to be punctual and to work as instructed.
• An employee should obey the employer’s rules and should be loyal to the
employer.
Employment Contracts
• A contract is created by statute after 13 weeks employment, even if the
employer does not issue one. It is good practice for the employer to do so.
• After six months more rights are accrued by the employee.
• An employee cannot be made redundant – their post is made redundant.
Exclusivity of Contract
• An employee should not work for a second employer without permission
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
COMPANY STRUCTURE
Reporting Relationships
• Reporting relationships are noted within the staff handbook. One grade
above is usually responsible for management, except in large teams.
Grievances and disciplinary matters

• Staff and employers must understand these processes. Both involve 3
stages. The effective resolution of grievances leads to staff retention.
Appropriate disciplinary procedures prevents relationship breakdown.
Leadership development
• Well-managed companies undertake senior staff development. Bad
leadership can lead to staff dissatisfaction, loss of morale and inefficiency.
Climbing the tree

• Staff will gain seniority through completion of continuously more onerous
tasks. Ensure that senior staff are aware of such development.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
STAFF/EMPLOYER RELATIONSHIP
Induction
• Carried out on beginning employment. New staff should be provided with
an Induction Handbook. Health & Safety and office procedures should be
addressed.
The Staff Handbook
• Provides all detail necessary to fully understand the contract of
employment.
Communication and Reporting Systems
• Effective communication between staff and employers is essential. Staff
meetings allow the monitoring of staff progress as do assessment and
review meetings.
Motivation
• The motivation of staff is complex but it is a mix of psychology,
remuneration, communication, leadership, training and development.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Training
• Staff are most effective when properly trained and when they are involved
in their own self development.
CPD Requirements
• Under the ARB code, it is necessary for architects, both employers and
employees to undertake CPD.
• The RIBA require “Core Subjects” to be covered. 35 hours of CPD should
be recorded each year, 17 hours of which should cover “Core Subjects”.
• There is no policing of CPD, but if an error occurs as a result of a lack of
competency, the lack of recorded CPD could stand against the architect.
Training and development plans and Investors In People
• IiP creates training and development plans for staff, dovetailing staff and
company aims. Continuous updating ensures that personal goals are met
and the company makes best use of the employee as a resource.

PROFESSIONAL OFFICE PROCEDURES
CONTROL MECHANISMS
Training
• Control Mechanisms should be in place to ensure that staff are sufficiently
trained to carry out their tasks.
Process
• There need to be accepted office procedures for all forms of administrative
activity undertaken by staff, including forms of correspondence.
Checking
• It is seldom acceptable for any work to be carried out be non-qualified
personnel without checking by an architect.
Review
• Staff brought onto a project “late in the day” need to be given time to check
though the file and past documentation to ensure that nothing is missed.

RECORDING PROCEDURES
• Every architect’s office should operate systems that allow the efficient
recording of all activities of staff members. These will ensure that:
•Disbursements and expenditures can be logged against jobs
•Drawing issues are recorded, covering the date and revision of the drawing
and the designation of the recipient.
•Signed copies of important correspondence are kept on file.
•Site or client visits are recorded.
•Time charges can be allocated.
• All staff members should also keep a day book recording every activity they
undertake. This not only helps in accurate preparation of time sheets, but
helps as a paper trail to track down the cause when things go wrong.

PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
• Architectural staff must maintain minimum standards of administrative

competency throughout a project in undertaking the duties of a Contract
Administrator, or as a pre-contract design architect.
•All meetings, phone calls and any relevant information must be effectively
recorded under a system where retrieval is straightforward.
•The client’s file must be maintained in good order.
•Client instructions should be acknowledged by letter, fax or email.
•The processes within the Architect’s Job Book should be followed to

ensure that no required procedure is missed out.
•Beware of corner-cutting in administrative procedures just to save time or

money. Projects must be adequately resourced.
• Mistakes and omissions are often caused by an otherwise competent

professional being overworked or being given unrealistic deadlines.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
• A Quality Assurance system is a codification of good administrative

practice that allows a paper trail to be kept of all relevant processes
undertaken by the architectural office.
• Some offices operate the ISO 9001 QA system, which requires regular
external audit and accreditation of processes undertaken.
• Some others operate their own in-house systems, designed to suit their
own processes, but based upon the ISO 9001 model.
• Some larger clients will only work with other businesses (including
architects) who are ISO 9001 compliant.
• The benefits of a good QA system is that targets are set and met,
processes are checked, verified and reviewed and ultimately the service
provided by the organisation is of an “Assured Quality”

QUALITY ASSURANCE
• A good Quality Assurance system run by an architectural practice would,

for example, at least cover the following areas:
•Preparation of a plan of all activities required for the completion of an

undertaking.
•Confirmation of fee agreements and modifications to fee agreements.
•Confirmation of client brief and instructions.
•Checking and cross referencing of decisions and issued product.
•Signing off of each Plan of Work stage and recording of the authority to
proceed to the next.
•Review of project performance for future service improvement.

Continuing Professional Development
It is necessary for you to comply with the institutional codes of conduct to undertake
CPD and maintain a record of it on an annual basis. This is mandatory but is not
fully monitored. However, it may be if there is a problem in the practice and lack of
CPD may be regarded as misconduct if the practice is found to be at fault. To
undertake CPD one must:
Continually assess practice knowledge.

Develop knowledge and skills.
•Read journals and newspapers.
Read information from professional bodies.
•Take training courses and run in-house courses.
•Monitor development progress.

OFFICE PROCEDURES AND STAFF
In Summation
• An architectural practice is involved in a series of management processes,

both for the benefit of the practice itself and for its clients.
• Good management entails motivation, control & effective use of resources.
For an architectural practice, its most important resource is its staff.
• As an architect you manage your own workload and may be responsible for
the management or review of the activities of other organisations.
• You must also remember the communication imperatives within the
practice itself, for seeking authority and for cross-checking.
• Planning of activities in advance and programming, use of advance diary
entries and other “aides memoire” are important administrative tools.
• Remember, while you can, that every day from now on, your ability to
remember things reduces. STRESS makes this worse.

OFFICE PROCEDURES AND STAFF
SO
• Record everything - develop your own personal QA routine.
• Organise yourself and those in your charge.
• Work neatly and hit deadlines.
• Refuse to be overworked.
• Share and discuss problems.
• Use the knowledge of senior staff and more experienced personnel and
record their advice.
• If you think you are overstretched and undervalued to the extent that you
are actively unhappy, advise your employer. If it is not addressed -
LEAVE THE PRACTICE, BEFORE YOU GET INTO TROUBLE

CONCLUSION
• Any questions ?
•
Gordon Gibb
Director of Professional Studies
The Mackintosh School of Architecture
177 Renfrew Street
Glasgow
G3 6RQ
tel: 0141-353 4662
fax: 0141-353 4703
ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT TO PROFESSIONAL STUDIES:

Lorraine Garner
tel: 0141 353 4656
email: l.garner@gsa.ac.uk

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UPDATE COURSE 2011

Management & Professional Office Procedures

The Mackintosh School

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 1

It is necessary for an architect to be competent and have the ability to conduct

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 2

The emerging Part 3 criteria state in respect of professionalism that demonstration of an

 Professional ethics

 Professional regulation, conduct and discipline

 Institutional membership, benefits, obligations and codes

 Attributes of integrity, impartiality, reliability and courtesy

 Time management, recording, planning and review to assure competence

 Effective communication, presentation, confirmation and recording

 Ability to negotiate effectively and adapt to changing circumstances

 Autonomous working and taking responsibility within a practice context

 Continuing professional development

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 4

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 5

Management is the social process of planning, coordination, control and

Management is the art of getting things done through people.

To manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate,

Management is responsible for the creation of conditions to bring about the

The key variables that a manager has to grapple with

•Work and structures

•Systems and Procedures

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 6

The goals of the organisation

The pragmatic approach for Individuals is to consider that all

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 7

It is essential in an Architectural Practice to engage in management

• Financial failure due to inefficiency.

•Financial failure due to cashflow / profitability / poor marketing

•Administrative failure through inadequate recording or under-resourcing

•Marketing failure due to poor product development

Professional Office Procedures

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 9

INTRODUCTION TO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Cost of Staffing

The Cost of Supervision

Fixed and Variable Costs

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 10

MANAGING OTHER PEOPLE

• The unimportance of the message

• Use the right medium

• Record what was agreed

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 11

MANAGING OTHER PEOPLE

• Separate the person from the problem

• Focus on Interests not Positions

• Concentrate on the Win-win

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 12

• An employer should not endanger and employee or ask him/her to do

• For an architectural practice, there may be further obligations in relation to

• The employer should give the employee a contract of employment which

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 13

• After six months more rights are accrued by the employee.

• An employee cannot be made redundant – their post is made redundant.

Grievances and disciplinary matters

Climbing the tree

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 17

Dunstrathtosh Short Course 2011 18

•Signed copies of important correspondence are kept on file.

•Site or client visits are recorded.