Beyond data benchmarking: the challenge of managing a benchmarking network in the UK public leisure sector

The UK public leisure and recreation sector has been inhibited from inter-organizational collaboration due to the competitive pressures created by the policy of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). However, due to a change in policy direction, collaboration is now promoted as a positive behaviour for service quality and added value. In local authority leisure services provision, benchmarking is now encouraged as part of the new Best Value Regime (BVR). This paper discusses the challenge involved in ensuring the benchmarking relationship or ʼnetwork’ moves beyond data benchmarking to engage in the more productive ‘process’ benchmarking activities. The management of this transition is discussed via a case study of a benchmarking group of nine Scottish local authority leisure service providers formed as a consequence of the BVR. A comparison of the experiences of the group with the wider research on the management of benchmarking suggests that to move beyond data benchmarking requires both an inclusionary approach to benchmarking at the intra-organizational level, and reciprocity in managing the administrative burden of the process of benchmarking at the inter-organizational level.