Benchmarking and Interorganizational Learning in Local Government

Scholars have questioned the value of benchmarking as a means of advancing public sector performance and innovation, pointing instead to evidence of isomorphism among benchmarking organizations. The authors of this article assert that different types of benchmarking should be distinguished from one another in such assessments and suggest that the verdict for best practice benchmarking will differ from that for the more common form of benchmarking in the public sector, comparisons of performance statistics. They note that the absence of a coherent theory of public sector benchmarking-one relating benchmarking to interorganizational learning-restricts hypothesis formulation and testing and, hence, our understanding of the efficacy of this management practice in its different forms. This article offers five propositions on benchmarking and interorganizational learning, drawn from research literature and the experience of a set of city governments engaged in a best practice benchmarking project, as a step toward developing a theory of public sector benchmarking.