Getting to the Facts
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Getting to the Facts company benchînarking: issues in data collection and consistencj
Andrew Robson and David Yarrow Suice 1990 we liare been members of a team which about 750 organ is at/on) covenn' 1)011/
el/al) led
prohibitive, in terms ö! ((/st and time fin' the support agencies and the participants.
11(1.5
the
inaaiifaclunnç and )ers ice )ectorsf/im/ Von/i Last England lo henc/unaik lI/coercIve) at'alnSl fi 0/1(1 (lass standards. This pro/ecl iijrevented co-Opeistioli between academic insliiution,s (111(1 bus/lie/s suppoli agencies from 1/ic rc1on. Jis conlesi was as part 0/ (1 broader. pub/icii' fùnded reis)riai development projecl mba/i aimed lo enhance 1/ic cf/ecl meneo f the external support offered lo I/ic niojion corporate population. Iron participating oigan isations, an assessment wa rande regarding hot/i
Conversely, a more titile and c )st elective approach
could involve a postal surve
in which the main
operational issues could be covered within a shorter,
stipulated time in which the onus would be on the participating organisations to provide value judgements on the issues under consideration. Clearly, this approach would have been considerably cheaper, with an extensive target audience both in number and geographic dispersion. However, such postal surveys are not without their
their practices and peiformances .iseini-îandom
approach wm taken to identifring a rcpn.rntatne sample o oiganisalons.
proI)lems: is not our nlention in writing I/as paper to present the results of the two henchimarking surveyi but lo consider
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Rates of response can be ver peor. Ambiguous questions can he left unanswered or
various aspects u/the (Jueslionnaire design and the process of' data collection paying particular attention to 1/ic issue of data consisienc) between participating oiganisations.
yield incorrect responses.
The issue of response can be a constraint with regard to the type of questions used. Qjiality assurance foi' ensuring data consistency
-ooüoo-
between respondents is inevitably less rigorous than the intensive visits.
Issues in data collection and response rates
These two approaches may be regarded as two extremes. For the purposes of the regional study, a 'middle course' was sought, balancing the competing demands of mass )articij ition and data reliability.
Given that the benchmarking project was launched
with a prmcipal aim of profiling the corporate population of the region against accepted \Vorld Class standards, it was vital that the data collected
Benchmarking methodologies
was plentiful, representative and accurate.
To ensure data accuracy and consistency, it would
A
have been desirable for a limited number of
methodologies were considered by the research team, and one in particular was considered to be a useful starting point. This was called PROBE
specialised individuals to make intensive visits to the
participating organisations and provide 'hands-on'
support in the measurement and analysis of the
number
of
Diagnos
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