Standards for comparison
•Absolute standards – which give the best performance that can ever be achieved.
•Target performance – which is a more realistic target that is agreed by managers, who want to set tough, but attainable, goals.
•Historical standards – which look at performance that was actually achieved in the past.
•Competitors’ standards – which looks at the performance actually being achieved by competitors. This is the lowest level of performance that an organisation must achieve to remain competitive.