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Traditionally, in the Netherlands, the procurement procedure for infrastructure does not start until the public decision-making procedure is fully completed. In the new procurement strategy, early contractor involvement is applied by carrying out the procurement procedure and the public planning procedure simultaneously. This article explores the first experiences and lessons learned with early contractor involvement in four Dutch infrastructure projects. It can be concluded that the new strategy adds value in terms of time gains, improved project control and more innovative solutions. However, to optimize early contractor involvement, the differences between the competitive procurement procedures and the open, cooperative public planning procedures need to be bridged.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion on how to increase lower educated workers' participation in training programs inside and outside the workplace through stimulating intentions with respect to training.

This article is based on data from the Study on Life Long Learning and Employment by TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), a three‐wave longitudinal study among lower educated workers in three different companies in The Netherlands. Data from the baseline questionnaire on 213 workers who are not currently participating in training activities are used along with a multiple regression model to test whether subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, attitude/expected value, management support, coworker support, career orientation, job insecurity and prior participation in informal learning correlate with lower educated workers' intentions with respect to training.

This study shows that when stimulating lower educated workers' intentions with respect to training, one should focus on their attitude towards training participation, their subjective norms on training participation and their perceived behavioral control over participating in training. These aspects can be influenced through management support, coworker support and promoting career orientation. These factors contribute to the personal factors and thus, although indirectly, stimulate intentions with respect to training.

This article is the first to present clear ideas on ways to stimulate lower educated workers' intentions to participate in workplace learning activities and to develop interventions to strengthen their current and future labor market position. It also shows that in stimulating lower educated workers' intentions with respect to training the focus should be on individual, as well as organizational, or group factors.

This paper analyses whether low‐skilled workers' training participation and task flexibility contribute to their firm‐internal and firm‐external mobility, and find that both training participation and task flexibility contribute only to firm‐internal employability. However, the workers' participation in training plays a much more explicit role in their firm‐internal career than their task flexibility does, as the former appears to be an important means to increase their opportunities in the firm‐internal labour market. Neither the low‐skilled workers' participation in training nor their task flexibility contributes to their external employability. Task‐flexible, low‐skilled workers are less likely to expect to be externally employable than non‐task flexible workers are. The focus of the low‐skilled workers on their firm‐internal employability can be explained by the fact that such workers usually have more opportunities to improve their position in the firm‐internal labour market than in the external labour market.

This special issue of the International Journal of Manpower aims to make a contribution to broadening our limited understanding of the role and impact of employer‐provided training for low‐skilled service sector workers. It brings together seven of the papers that were presented at the international conference “Adapting Education and Training for the Enhancement of Low‐Skilled Jobs” held at Helsinki in May 2002. The papers are situated at the crossroads where three different strands of research and policymaking meet: the training of the low skilled, the system of vocational training and the role of training for the service sector. The contributions cover an interesting variety of European countries: Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Spain and the UK, with diverging levels of low‐skilled (un)employment, vocational training and service‐sector employment.

In this study the Core4 model is proposed as a new model of leader behaviour.

Two independent samples were used to test the construct validity of this model in comparison to a seven-factor transformational/transactional leadership model. Next, convergent and discriminant validity of the Core4 model were examined. The Core4 Leadership Questionnaire was also tested for multigroup invariance. Predictive validity of the Core4 model was compared to that of a transformational/transactional model.

Results showed that the Core4 model better fitted the data than the transformational/transactional model. A seven-factor transformational/transactional model could not be established. The findings supported convergent and discriminant validity. The Core4 Leadership Questionnaire was not completely invariant across manufacturing and service organisations, but seems appropriate for application in different environments. The Core4 model was more strongly related to the criterion variables than a four-factor transformational/transactional leadership model.

This research shows that the Core4 model offers a valid alternative for the transformational/transactional model of leader behaviour.

Based on the theory of planned behaviour and social learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of training participation and learning experience on the beliefs of low-educated employees about their self-efficacy for learning.

Low-educated workers of three different organizations (n=359) filled out a questionnaire at three different points in time, with a half-yearly interval. Regression analyses were used to establish the effects of training participation and learning experience on learning self-efficacy.

Training participation alone did not affect low-educated workers’ learning self-efficacy, but a positive learning experience did contribute to workers’ post-training learning self-efficacy. These results support the relevance of positive learning experiences.

Follow-up studies could focus on the effects of learning self-efficacy for subsequent learning activities, establish which aspects of training contribute to a positive learning experience, and include contextual characteristics that may predict learning self-efficacy.

To stimulate learning among lower educated workers, it is necessary that they have confidence in their ability to successfully complete their training. Trainers and training developers working for this specific target group of lower educated workers should aim to provide training that is a positive experience, besides being a learning exercise.

The study is the first to analyse the longitudinal effects of training participation and learning experience on post-training learning self-efficacy among low-educated workers.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications in the Journal of Public Procurement (JoPP) from 2001 to 2021. The study provides insights into trends in publications, prominent publication themes, influential authors, institutions and countries that have prominently been associated with the journal’s journey.

The study used a bibliometric and content analysis approach using the VOSviewer software to develop insights into the trends, structures and patterns in publications in the journal. Data for the study was extracted from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases.

The study established that there has been consistent growth in the number of papers published by the journal within the last two decades. Yearly average publication by the journal stood at 14 papers between 2002 and 2009, with the annual average rising to approximately 18 papers between 2010 and 2021. The trend in publication has been established and identified the influential citations and contributors to the journal. The study has also clustered out the thematic structures in journal’s publications. The prominent and emerging research issues in the public procurement environment needing immediate research attention have been highlighted.

The study is a one-journal bibliometric analysis and subsequently ignores publications on public procurement from other journals.

The findings of this study highlight to the research community the contributions of JoPP to the public procurement discourse and present important avenues for future research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first bibliometric study for the JoPP, providing detailed bibliometric indexes of the 21-year period of the journal’s publications. The study comprehensively analyses the contributions in the JoPP to assess the trend and scope in publications in the field of public procurement and draws attention to emerging concerns and critical issues of neglect requiring research attention in the journal.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the financial well-being of often-neglected group in the society. The authors examined the role of risk management and social capital in the financial well-being of the retirees in Nigeria.

A quantitative method of research is used with a six-point Likert scale questionnaire. A survey was conducted to 376 retirees from public organizations to determine the perception of their financial well-being in post-retirement era. The sample population is selected using the simple random sampling technique. An exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to analyze the data.

The results indicate that both risk management and social capital are significant predictors of retirees’ financial well-being in the Nigeria context. All respondents have a good education background.

This study focused on retirees who have worked in public organizations in Nigeria. Thus, it is likely that the results may not be generalized to other settings. The results show that to promote financial well-being among retirees, the focus should be put mainly on individual risk management and maintaining good social capital.

The present study is first of its kind that focuses on contributory role of risk management and social capital in influencing the financial well-being of retirees in Nigeria. Findings make a novel contribution to retirees’ financial well-being literature by clarifying the significant role played by risk management and social capital in promoting the financial well-being of retirees in a developing country, specifically in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the generally positive impact of transformational leadership on organizational commitment in large organizations can be extended to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the manufacturing and service industry. The authors investigate the possible moderator effects of a participative and directive leadership style.

The collected data from 588 employees who rated 93 supervisors within 35 Dutch SMEs in both manufacturing and service industry. The authors analyse the nested data by means of multilevel modelling.

Transformational leadership, defined as visionary leadership and development stimulation, was positively related to organizational commitment for service SMEs, but not for manufacturing SMEs. While a participative leadership style did not moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in either industry, a directive leadership style strengthened the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in manufacturing SMEs.

Leaders in the service industry SMEs should engage in transformational leadership, whereas leaders in manufacturing industry SMEs should engage in other types of leadership. Future research should examine effective leadership in manufacturing.

As the results of this study suggest, a distinction should be made between manufacturing and service industry. The advice therefore needs to be twofold. Supervisors in manufacturing SMEs can best improve employees’ organizational commitment by intensifying transformational leader behaviour combined with a directive decision style. Supervisors in service SMEs do not have to combine transformational leader behaviour with a particular leader decision style, if they wish to be more effective.

Demonstrating transformational leader behaviour can be successful in both manufacturing and service SMEs. However, in manufacturing companies this will only be effective when combined with a directive leader decision style.

Although SMEs most of the time are considered as one similar group in comparison to large organizations, the authors follow Hughes and Wood (1999; see also Stonehouse and Pemberton, 2002) who argue that because of their different products, customers, and labour it is important to disaggregate research on SMEs and differentiate between manufacturing and service SMEs.