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PROFIROIU Constantin Marius and SORRENTINO Daniela FAMP

BENCHMARKING IN ROMANIAN AND ITALIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: A TOOL FOR SCORING CCASP
OR LEARNING?

The literature underlying reasoning for investigating these variables relies in the hypothesis that the
benchmarking as a real evaluative managerial tool is more likely to be developed when internally and
voluntarily adopted, eventually in the absence of a sanctions-rewards system, even in its less formal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
version of information disclosure.

CONCLUSION

Seeking for improved efficiency and effectiveness, public entities all over the world have undergone
more or less extensive processes of reform in the last decades. The business world, traditionally

featured by those driving principles, has represented a main source for inspiration. Among the others,
the benchmarking is on the menu of renewals, as a managerial tool for performance improvements.

When translated from the private sector, unfortunately, it did not always led to the expected beneficial

changes, often turning to be used as a scoring tool, without any learning potential.

30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest sector. This can be even more achieved in a comparative perspective, thanks to which the institutional
It is probably time to make a step back and understand the features of benchmarking in the public

contexts provide causality with the conceiving and implementation of renewals.

To this aim, this paper wishes to compare the benchmarking approaches in Romanian and Italian LGs,
eventually detecting whether they are more prone to use it as a scoring or evaluative managerial tool.

The institutional context, as defined by countries’ administrative style, provides insights into the
contextual factors affecting organizational changes.

REFERENCES

Anessi Pessina, E., Caccia, L. (2000). Il disallineamento tra documenti contabili, struttura organizzativa
e sistemi di gestione negli Enti Locali.
Bowerman, M., Francis, G., Ball, A., Fry, J. (2002). ”The evolution of benchmarking in UK local
authorities”, Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9(5), pp. 429-449.
Cowper, J. A., Samuels M. (2005). Performance Benchmarking in the Public Sector: the UK experience.
OECD Paper.
Dunleavy, P., Hood, C. (1994). ”From old public administration to new public management”, Public
money & management, 14(3), pp. 9-16.
Goddard, M., Mannion, R. (2004). ”The role of horizontal and vertical approaches to performance
measurement and improvement in the UK public sector”, Public Performance & Management
Review, 28(1), pp. 75-95.

Hood, C. (1991). ”A public management for all seasons”, Public administration, 69(1), pp. 3-19.

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