Using Benchmarking for Enhancing Management of Public Services. Comparative Case Studies – UK, Sweden and Romania

Benchmarking is a managerial tool aimed at increasing internal and external organizational performance, initially used in the private sector and imported by the public sector in the mid 90s. Although the debate about the challenges and shortcuts of using benchmarking for assessing public agencies performance is still open and vivid in the academic community, the present paper argues for the undoubted net benefits of applying such a tool in the public services sector (with a particular emphasis on public utilities) in terms of stimulating an increased performance, accountability and transparency of local public authorities benchmarked for their performances in service delivery. The comparative analysis between the benchmarking models: the UK top - down approach, the Swedish voluntary benchmarking and the Romanian incomplete benchmarking started as an independent, external monitoring exercise - provides the grounds for a better understanding of the rationale and evolution of benchmarking processes when applied to various segments of the public sector. The lessons learned, common traits and well as differences between the three case studies are illustrative both for the usefulness of the managerial tool, but also for the challenging dynamics that benchmarking processes imply in particular administrative, social, economical and cultural contexts.