Page 7 - Proceeding 2015

PROFIROIU Constantin Marius and SORRENTINO Daniela FAMP

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

1. INTRODUCTION

The implementation of NPM-like reforms during the last decades has led public sectors all over the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
world to import the business philosophy in terms of values, concepts and techniques (Hood, 1991).
Faced by financial constraints and fiscal stress, the main objective to which those changes pointed to
has been the quest for improved levels of efficiency in managing public entities and resources. Such

waves of renewal have had an overwhelming impact in the public sectors, thus involving every aspect of
its sphere, from the accounting systems to the organizational structures. As a matter of fact, changes in

each dimension reinforced each other, being parts of a wider design of reformation, whose combination
has been seen as indispensable for the beneficial change to occur (Anessi Pessina and Caccia, 2000).

Slimmer and more decentralized structures aimed at making local public managers more autonomous

and responsible for their results. In the light of the increased management responsibilities, fascinated
and pressed from the business models, local public administrations (LPAs) imported managerial models
30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest In such a context, the benchmarking has been proposed among the kinds of performance measurement
and tools typically proper of the private sector.

tools, these latter argued to be able to offer “solutions” to the public expenditure concern, to improve
services delivered to citizens-users, to measure public organizations on the basis of an input–output

(outcome) model (Johnsen, 2005).

The adoption of NPM-like measures- such as the benchmarking translation in the public sector has
inspired a profusion of comparative studies (Lüder, 1994; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004), which evidenced

peculiar contingency elements to make the difference in shaping the paths and paces of reforms in
different countries.

However, there is still few research papers in the literature regarding to the benchmarking

implementation in the public sector to the local level.

The purpose of this study is the one to investigate the benchmarking approaches in Romanian and
Italian local governments, in order to assess the influence of country-specific institutions in conceiving
and shaping a certain kind of benchmarking system. To this aim, we wish to highlight connections

between the institutional characteristics of the involved countries and their approaches to the
benchmarking as a management tool in local governments. In particular, the comparative effort between

these two countries, traditionally belonging to two different administrative styles, may provide the basis

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