Competence development as a key organisational strategy ‐ experiences of European companies

Competence development is seen as one of the critical strategic factors ensuring companies’ competitiveness. This has given rise to much discussion on how to create organisational and learning environments, such as learning organisations, which foster employees’ skills and sense of initiative and responsibility. This paper examines the experiences of a number of European manufacturing and process companies, which on the surface appear to have similar innovative competence development strategies. However, when analysed more closely, it emerges that these firms have different perspectives on the position competence development holds in the hierarchy of company values and strategies. The kinds of competencies developed in these companies and the learning approaches used are also discussed.