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Among scholars and practitioners, there is a growing recognition of the important role of employers in the success of active labour market policies in Europe. However, there is a lack of systematic evidence about why and how employers engage in active labour market policies. In this article, the preferences and behaviour of employers towards active labour market policies are untangled. A typology of four types of employers is constructed for analytical and empirical analysis. By distinguishing positive and negative preferences from participation and non-participation, four types of employers are identified: the committed employer, the dismissive employer, the sceptical employer and the passive employer. The utility of the typology is tested with survey data on employer engagement in Danish ALMPs. The findings indicate that only a minority of Danish employers can be classified as 'committed employers', and the majority are either 'dismissive' or 'passive' employers. In the final section, this finding and the usefulness of the typology for analytical and empirical research is discussed.

In order to make informed and legitimate decisions in labour market policies, European and national policy makers need better knowledge of what type of interventions works for whom. The European Commission and many Member States have high hopes that 'experimental evaluation' techniques (such as randomised controlled experiments, systematic meta-analysis and econometric outcome evaluations) will deliver solid and clear evidence to inform the development of more rational decision-making processes. This article reviews the evaluation literature on Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP) and examines what works for whom, under what circumstances. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the current drive towards 'experimental evaluation' and proposes an integrated framework for ALMP evaluation that combines 'experimental evaluation' with 'programme theory evaluations' and quantitative with qualitative data collection.

In spite of – or maybe precisely because of – its inherent vagueness, ambiguity and multidimensionality, CSR has increasingly come into vogue with the EU institutions, national governments and numerous European companies. This article identifies four types of CSR approaches: (1) CSR between business and society (e.g. the US approach); (2) CSR in business (e.g. HRM within firms); (3) CSR between business and government (e.g. the European Commission's approach) and (4) CSR between employment policy and business (e.g. the Danish approach). Denmark, which provides the case study of the article, typifies an approach to CSR in which the government and social partners have played an active role in promoting CSR and where initiatives have focused narrowly on employers' responsibilities for the recruitment, training, development and dismissal of labour. The Danish case thus allows for a discussion of the role of public authorities and social partners in CSR, a discussion often neglected in mainstream CSR literature. The main question addressed in the article is how links can be created between policy instruments and business interests in order to reduce workplace exclusion and promote the labour market integration of the unemployed and inactive. We propose a framework that transcends the dichotomy between voluntarism and coercion that characterises much of the CSR discussion by suggesting different, but complementary, roles of public authorities and social partners in CSR.

Vi mangler gode analysetilgange til at undersøge hvorfor og hvordan komplekse indsatser virker. Traditionelle "systematiske reviews" som anvendes på sundhedsområdet er gode til at undersøge hvorvidt, men ikke hvorfor og hvordan indsatser virker. På de komplekse velfærds- og socialområder er der ikke bare brug for viden om hvorvidt indsatser virker, men også hvorfor og under hvilke omstændigheder virkningerne indtræffer. Den "realistiske syntese" har potentiale til at udgøre et brugbart supplement.
Der eksisterer imidlertid ikke en klar fremgangsmåde til at gennemføre realistiske synteser. Tilgangen kan derfor være udfordrende og tidskrævende for evaluator, ligesom dens resultater kan være ugennemsigtig for læseren og i værste fald en delvis eller misvisende repræsentation af den eksisterende viden på området.
I denne artikel reflekterer vi over de metodiske udfordringer i realistisk syntese og diskuterer potentielle løsninger herpå. Vi diskuterer fremgangsmåder til udvikling af foreløbige programteorier, dataindsamling, kodning og syntese. I den forbindelse opstiller vi en genbeskrivende analysestrategi, der kan guide evaluator og sikre gennemsigtighed i analyse- og syntesefasen.

This article focuses on the contracting-out of Public Employments Services. Quasi-markets promise to deliver more efficient, effective and de-bureaucratised employment services. By comparing experiences from Holland, Australia and Denmark we investigate whether quasi-markets deliver on promises. Quasi-market models have difficulties in living up to the preconditions for a well-functioning market and political expectations. Efficiency gains and cost-savings are still largely unknown. Instead it is clear that quasi-markets create a new type of employment policy, and new conditions for governing the labour market and employment policy. Clouded in the 'technical' language of improved efficiency and effectiveness, such changes are often neglected and depoliticised.

A central assumption in social policy research and practice is that a strong working alliance between caseworkers and clients produces the best outcomes. There is, however, limited empirical evidence to support this assumption. This is especially the case within Active Labour Market Policies, where existing research focuses on programme effects rather than relationship effects.In this article, we examine whether strong working alliances produce higher employment and education outcomes for disadvantaged jobseekers. The case is a Danish municipality that invested in reducing the caseloads of caseworkers working with disadvantaged social assistance recipients. The data combine survey data on social assistance recipients with outcome data from national administrative registers. Based on linear regressions, the analysis indicates that strong working alliances are positively related to subsequent employment and education outcomes. We discuss the implications, limitations and generalisability of this finding and the conditions for providing stronger working alliances in employment services.