To study the factors affecting working relationship of Owners’ Committee (OC) and Management Office (MO) in private residential housing

Abstract

It is not difficult to find out the conflicts between Owners’ Committee and Management Office at newspaper headline regarding estate management issues. Owners would like to voice out their concerns by different means even seeking the assistance from external party or expose the issue to media. But it is actually the last resort of the owners in seeking attention from external parties as they could not fight against the Management Office. The participation of Owners’ Committee and owners over estate management issue would cause conflict towards Management Office. If Management Office could resolve the concerns from owners, they will not seek for assistance from external parties. Through primary data research such as in-depth interview and questionnaires while secondary data research such as literature review, different factors like political factor, management factor, staff factor and communication factor have been identified in affecting the working relationship between Owners’ Committee and Management Office. The importance of communication factor could be concluded after the research and other factors may also affect the communication and so the factors are inter-related with each other. It was found that ‘trust’ between Owners’ Committee and Management Office is particular important and the lack of trust would actually further worsen the working relationship between them. As a result, recommendations are suggested in the end of the research in order to improve the working relationship between Owners’ Committee and Management Office. The involvement of government bodies would be a way to improve the working relationship and the implementation of licensing scheme is actually one of the ways to increase professionalism of Management Office which will further pave the way to build trust from owners towards Management Office.