A critical examination of the concept of 'best practice'

In contemporary business many words have entered the lexicon of everyday use. The expression 'world class' is used to describe those organizations that are believed to be exemplars of how to achieve superior levels of customer service. As those who advocate becoming world class organizations suggest, the challenge for those who wish to improve their ability to provide customer service is to learn what such organizations do in order to achieve this status, and, therefore, to consider how they may implement 'best practice'. A recommended method of learning best practice, we are informed, is to use a management technique called benchmarking. This paper considers what this technique involves, and, more particularly, what is meant by 'best practice'. By drawing upon data elicited during a research project carried out in partnership with, amongst others, West Midlands Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Birmingham TEC we explore how a number of surveying practices in the West Midlands have attempted to implement benchmarking in order to achieve best practice. As we, like the surveying firms, have discovered, 'best practice' is an extremely vague and nebulous concept. Thus, we contend, if organizations in the construction industry are to engage in the sort of long-term improvement suggested in the Egan Report, there is an urgent need to appreciate these difficulties. As we conclude, we in academia must be prepared to assist practitioners by facilitating understanding of what benchmarking to achieve best practice really involves.