Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector: Achieving Performance Breakthroughs in Federal, State, and Local Agencies (Jossey Bass Public Administration Series) - Hardcover

For leading companies in the private sector, benchmarking has become a major catalyst for change: a key tool for gathering information from competitors and process leaders, as well as from within. Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector is a unique practical guide that shows public officials and administrators at all levels of government how to identify best practices and implement them in their organizations.
The authors go beyond abstract concepts to bring benchmarking to life, with real case examples from federal, state, and local governments—from a county fire department to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. They show how benchmarking methods have been adapted to the unique needs of the public sector and describe the tangible benefits gained by public agencies that have applied these techniques. Offering detailed how-to advice along with checklists, flowcharts, sample forms, a resource directory, and other toolds to help managers take action quickly, the authors demonstrate:

• That benchmarking is and how it differs in the public sector
  
• Six criteria for selecting a program or process to be benchmarked
  
• Ways to generate support and ideas for a benchmarking project
  
• How to select and work with a benchmarking partner
  
• How to plan a strategy for using the project's findings
  
• And many more techniques for making benchmarking activities helpful

PATRICIA KEEHLEY has more than twenty years of public and private sector management experience that includes numerous benchmarking projects. She is the founder of the iKon Group, inc., a consulting firm specializing in providing performance improvement services to the public and nonprofit sectors. STEVEN MEDLIN is COO of the iKon Group. He has more than seventeen years of experience in the federal sector with the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, the U.S. General Accounting Office, and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. SUE MACBRIDE is a research associate with the iKon Group and has worked with such government and nonprofit groups as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Massachusetts Women's Caucus, and the Boston Water & Sewer Commission. LAURA LONGMIRE is director of benchmarking for KPMG Peat Marwick LLP.