Aanbesteden en kwaliteit van werk in Nederland

In labour-intensive sectors, public procurement’s focus on price competition and efficiency jeopardises job quality. This study shows procurement’s negative impacts in all job quality dimensions in four sectors in the Netherlands. Employing an actor-institutionalist lens, the research investigates these problems by analysing several actor positions, interactions, and orientations. The findings show a ‘wicked problem’ in which the stakeholders in procurement do not share the same problem definition and experience a limited and unclear scope of actions. However, the article shows that actors have opportunities to enhance job quality in the context of procurement at the national, sectoral and local levels.