Notions on Knowledge from Networks: Benchmarking in Public Sector

Today many organizations have come to value knowledge as a production factor. Thus, there is a constant need for getting the information in and sorted. The knowledge is based on the own operation and the knowledge from external sources. Organizations are no islands but rather a part of their ecosystem. This means they need data and information from within but also from outside. One way to acquire this is benchmarking, done in networks, national and international. Organizations are advised to have a process for systematic acquiring, analysing, and disseminating data and information from various sources to gain understanding about their environment. This is needed to support decision-making to achieve organization’s objectives. However, as environments and technologies evolve in a rapid pace, newer ways emerge and not all of these are possible to be tried out. Benchmarking is a way to gather experiences from various directions so that the own decision-making is able to make informed decisions. Benchmarking should be embedded in business processes, so that the full effects thereof may benefit the operation. The paper is based on two studies investigating development schemes in a city operation where benchmarking is a part of the development tools. This paper brings up notions of the city’s way of approaching the organizational development and especially benchmarking, but there are still questions to be answered. Literature on different approaches and findings of these studies are to be combined to form a vision to better match with reality. Various issues like users’ active involvement, and further analysis are needed to fully grasp the big picture. Practitioners can use the approach to assess their current state of activities or planning the organization of benchmarking program.