**Prof. dr. A.J. Steijn (1959) is professor of public administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam.** He holds the chair on human resource management in the public sector.  He studied sociology at Erasmus University where he has got his degree with honors (1984). He obtained his Ph.D. in 1992 also from the Erasmus University (with honors). His research interests go in particular into theory and research about work motivation (public service motivation in particular), the relation between organizational change in the public sector on the one hand and job satisfaction and commitment on the other hand, and the relation between hrm and job performance. Although he uses normally a quantitative research design, he is fully aware of the importance to accompany this by qualitative methods.