Benchmarking concepts in the UK and Germany : A shared understanding among key players?

This paper analyses what is understood by the “key players” involved in the promotion of benchmarking, within a comparative context looking at Germany and the UK. A content analysis of the key components of benchmarking in the leading texts is undertaken which is then used to examine the position and role of employer organizations, professional consultancies, trade unions and government bodies in the dissemination and implementation of benchmarking at the company level. The paper concludes with a critique of benchmarking. It is argued that the different contexts in which the key players are embedded define their ability to voice scepticism about the conventional presentation of benchmarking as a benign and objective technique.