Benchmarking Culture and Its Impact on Operational Performance: A Field Study on Industrial Companies in Jordan

The current research paper was designed to explore the extent of benchmarking culture in industrial companies and its impact on operational performance. A total of 30 dimensions of benchmarking culture were figured out from the literature. Out of them 10 were regarded as common values among employees based on descriptive statistics. A sample consisted of 50 industrial companies was drawn randomly from Amman and Irbid. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from employees working at these companies. Of the 315 questionnaires distributed to employees, 227 were returned complete and valid. The results indicated that all dimensions of benchmarking culture (prior benchmarking experience behavior of internal analysis behavior of external analysis continuous improvement mentality share of internal opinions searching for internal best practices comparison with a market leader quality policy communication organizational learning team development) had significant and positive influences on operational performance of industrial companies in Jordan. Hence, it was concluded that benchmarking culture play an important role in performance improvement. Therefore, Jordanian organizations, particularly industrial companies, are called to consider benchmarking culture in their way to improve organizational performance.