Performance Measurement.

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"Performance-Comparison Projects in Local Government: Participants' Perspectives"

Ammons, David N.; Coe, Charles; and Lombardo, Michael

Public Administration Review, January/February 2001, pp. 100-110

As in the private sector, external comparisons of performance measures, also known as benchmarking, are becoming more prevalent in public organizations. This article assessed three public-sector benchmarking projects from the perspectives of the participants. Two of these projects were national in scope--one was sponsored by the Innovations Group and the other by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)--while the third focused exclusively on local governments in North Carolina. These three projects varied significantly in terms of the extensiveness of data cleaning efforts and the number of services benchmarked. In late 1998 and early 1999, the authors surveyed local government project participants about their experiences with the various benchmarking projects. The survey results revealed a number of benefits as well as some gaps between high expectations and actual results. Among the benefits were improved communication with colleagues in other jurisdictions, the identification of alterna tive approaches to service delivery, and knowledge of common problems among jurisdictions. Statistically...