Assessment of Benchmarking as a Strategic Planning Method as Implemented by Palestinian Universities in Adopting Their Master Programs رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

Benchmarking has proved to be an effective strategy in performance enhancement of organizations of various kinds and sizes, and this is why it is counted as a strategic planning option. However, benchmarking as a strategic planning option has not received the attention it deserves from Arabian business and non-business organizations, and the research institutions as well. We believe that some organizations employ, to some extent, benchmarking in planning and implementing their programs and processes, but the fundamental questions in that regard are; what is the percentage of those organizations that take benchmarking as a strategic planning option, and do these organizations that managed to employ it utilized the standard procedure that guarantees high success rates for these operations and processes. To answer these questions, this study was conducted on Palestinian universities, as the research population, and to examine how they did employ benchmarking in adopting, planning and implementing their master programs. More specifically, the study addressed the extent of implementing benchmarking in planning and adopting master programs by Palestinian universities. It also explored the opportunities for performance improvement as presented by benchmarking as a strategic planning option. As well as exploring the obstacles of implementing benchmarking effectively in the Palestinian universities in West Bank. In an attempt to achieve the objectives of the research, a sample included nine universities were selected. Fifty questionnaires were correctly filled and validated. The data collected out of these questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS. VII The analysis results revealed that universities do implement benchmarking phases; (planning, analysis, integration, action, and maturity) , to a high degree of professionalism. The analysis, also revealed that the major obstacles for benchmarking adaptor implement are the lack of cooperation of top management, and concerned staff members, in addition to the incurred cost of the whole process. One major contribution of this study, which distinguishes this study is the success in building a regression model for the overall process effectiveness (of the master programs) as a function of the success in implementing the standard benchmarking plan. In addition to the existence of strategic plans by the university and master program, a number of students enrolled annually ,and benchmarking obstacles. The tested model was found significant and reliable with an “R-square” value of 47.8%. Recommendations including the need to employ benchmarking to ensure that universities compete properly with other universities and achieve continuous competitive improvement