ABSTRACT
This chapter discovers the history of benchmarking before turning to the current state of public sector theory and practice. The process of benchmarking has its roots in the quality control practices of the industrial revolution. The scientific management model proposed by Frederick W. Taylor had a significant impact on the design of the manufacturing process, which, in turn, led to the creation of separate quality control department to inspect goods. The prominence of benchmarking for improving effectiveness and efficiency in public sector service delivery has generated a variety of academic discussions on the subject. The decision-making process relating to city services was not data driven and Sachse had not made an effort to acquire benchmarking data on best practices for individual services to make comparisons on the quality or cost of their own level of service delivery.
