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The Belgian federal administration has been undergoing a major reform programme since 1999, known as the Copernicus reform. In 2000 a survey was launched by the Minister of Civil Service and Modernisation of the Public Services to assess and measure civil servants’ attitudes towards the reform and to stuimulate employee commitment. This article analyses the survey responses using the participation model of de Leede and Looise. Concludes that the amount of influence civil servants exerted through their participation and involvement in the survey appears to be small. Furthermore, there are criticisms levelled at the ways that the results of the survey have been used.

The majority of studies on supply chain management (SCM) emphasize the importance of cooperative relationships for improving the integration of business processes into a supply chain. It seems accepted that SCM will be a source of competitive advantage if, and only if, firms that participate in it formalize a strategic partnership between each other beforehand. This article questions whether this really is the case, given that the corporate cultures currently in place are largely founded on a tradition of adversarial relationships, the creation of large groups and the development of vertical concentrations. SCM could, in contrast, in such a case be the catalyst for powerful future strategic partnerships that could gently break arm’s‐length competition.