Benchmarking Research Paper for Streamlining the Budgeting and

Benchmarking for Streamlining the Budgeting and Purchasing process of Public Safety Departments - Research Paper Example This aids public sector departments to challenge the way they do things and utilize their finite resources better, which may have significant impacts on public sector outcomes. The paper explores key institutional drivers that may contribute to enhancing public sector efficiency on aspects such as benchmarking (performance information) and its role in the budget process. Benchmarking Research Paper Introduction Benchmarking infers the process of gauging one’s business processes and performance metrics to other industry bests or best practices. The term refers to the incessant process for monitoring and learning from the work processes, products, or services of other organizations appreciated as representing the best practices, in the effort of process improvement. Benchmarking is a tool that aids to enhance the efficiency of business processes or to minimize the output costs. The benchmarking of processes, such as budgeting and purchasing, avails organizations with the necessa ry information regarding how competently the services are provided to the community. Benchmarking avails a prospect to discover the best practices for service delivery within the public sector departments (Zairi, 2001). ... This facilitates learning on how well the targets perform and the business processes that explain why the target firms are successful. Public administration literature prominently cites three general approaches to benchmarking applicable to the public sector. These approaches include process-improvement benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, and target benchmarking. Benchmarking avails a tool for public sector managers to cope with the changing needs of their constituents. Process improvement benchmarking (corporate-style benchmarking) equates to looking at industry best practices and replicating or adapting them to fit one’s own organization (Curristine, Lonti & Journard, 2007). Targeting infers the process of the setting of goals and objectives to be attained via strategic planning actions. In this form of benchmarking, the present conditions are analyzed and then compared to a certain target (vision) or condition in the future that is desired. The Benchmarking Process The be nchmarking process can be conceived as a four-phase process; plan, collect, analyze, and adapt. Benchmarking involves a number of activities, which include discovering the problem, establishing criteria for solutions, searching for promising practices, implementing promising practices and monitoring progress. Prior to engaging in benchmarking, it is crucial for managers to highlight the problem or activities that need to be benchmarked. The core activities identified may be essential to giving the organization a competitive edge (Stapenhurst, 2009). Establishing the criteria for solutions aid the organization to minimize omissions and errors and obtain a boost on its strategic goals, its primary business processes, and critical success

Revaluation of Yuan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Revaluation of Yuan - Essay Example Although this devaluation will help the exports of the foreign countries to grow, it will hurt the domestic growth perspectives of China, including preservation of domestic growth and stability, and also the stability of political power. Unlike other countries, the communist political party of the country has maintained an equal distribution of goods and services and income among the poorest section of the country, being consistent with the high rate of economic growth. The author has opined that a sudden devaluation of Yuan will hurt the employment structure of the formal as well as the informal sector of the country. This reduction in employment will occur through shifting of â€Å"low-wage manufacturing to countries such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka†. This will cause the domestic rate of growth of income to reduce and thus the level of domestic protests and the degree of political instability will be accelerated in the country. However, as the country is willing to maintain its 8% annual rate of economic growth, with low rates of annual inflation of about 3%, the national propaganda of the country’s communist party is to stick to its current exchange rate determination process. Hence, the foreign countries and business organizations are expecting a much appreciated value of Yuan in the future; however, the future expectations of the economic and trade related effects on the Chinese and the global economy are required to be evaluated before proceeding with the revaluation policy (Lamont). The writer has wrongly revealed the point of view of the communist government of the country regarding the decrease in the amount of employment in the formal sector of the country. The devaluation of the Chinese currency in terms of other currencies will reduce the level of employment in the formal sector of the country and will increase the level of unemployment in the country as large section of the country’s industrial sector is dependent upon the indigen ous technologies. If the country is made open with significant reduction in the value of the Yuan, then it is most likely that the business leaders of the global enterprises will start investing in the industrial sector of the country. This will induce significant level of foreign technologies across the country that will increase the level of unemployment consisting of those laborers who are unable to work with those foreign technologies. However, the notion that the devaluation will reduce the level of employment and will hurt the growth process of the country is not entirely true. This is due to the fact that currency devaluation will increase the level of country’s exports of different goods and services. This will also induce the indigenous products and services to reach the global market and thus the level of production of these goods and services will rise up. This will essentially increase the level of income in these indigenous industries and thus the level of invest ments in technological development will be raised. Hence, not only the future level of income will rise up, this will lead to greater level of development of various indigenous technologies (with the help of significant integration of indigenous technologies with global technologies). Hence, the level of future growth rate of income will also rise up in the country and this will be sustainable as well. Greater amounts of exports will also help the informal