Purpose Competence management should no longer be considered as disconnected activities with few relationships with the organizational goals. It is the viewpoint that competence management as a whole consists of different mechanisms and strategies that involve many functions in the organization and link strategy, product/service development, and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a public knowledge-intensive, project-intensive organization manages competence in relation to its organizational goals and to identify which mechanisms are involved in this process as well as the underlying factors of those mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted following a single case study approach using several sources of evidence in a public organization responsible for public transport in the south of Sweden. Findings A theoretical framework called the competence loop is used as a platform. The results expand the framework by identifying underlying factors constituting the mechanisms and categorizing those factors in organizational and social dimensions. Another contribution is the competence concept including the factors that generate new competence. Furthermore, the study highlights that organizational culture has an impact on efficient competence management. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted in a public organization; similar studies should be conducted in other kinds of knowledge-intensive, project-intensive organizations. Originality/value The results provide support to practitioners when trying to understand how competence evolves, how to facilitate learning in organizations that are reliant on human resources, how to manage competence to achieve organizational success, and show the role of the project as a competence arena.

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Purpose – Knowledge-intensive organizations tend to be project intensive having many projects of different size and importance. In this context, competence evolves through projects. The purpose of this paper is to identify the mechanisms that steers competence management in these kinds of organizations and also the factors that are involved in the human capital contribution to competitive advantage in relation to the interaction between parent organizations and projects. Design/methodology/approach – This study has a contingency theory perspective and consists of a literature search in the following domains: project-intensive organizations, knowledge-intensive organizations, competence management, human resource management and dynamic capabilities and learning. Findings – The main contribution of this study is the theoretical framework derived from different domains. The framework is called the competence loop and explains how projects generate competence that the parent organization can either exploit in further activities or use for strategy adjustment. It also explains how an organization can use learning strategies to support competence exploration/exploitation. Another contribution is the description of the relationship between dynamic capabilities and organizational learning in project-intensive organizations. Research limitations/implications – This paper is a conceptual paper intended to create a base for further empirical studies. Originality/value – The paper combines different domains to define a framework that is a new approach to competence management in a project-parent organizational context. The framework includes learning and competence management characteristics and has both theoretical and practical value.

■ In this study we investigate what software development project team members consider to be a good project manager. Previous research has been carried out using project manager self-assessments, other project stakeholder views, or recruiters' views. This qualitative study used the repertory grid technique to identify the characteristics that project team members associate with a good project manager. This technique has been adopted because of its strength in eliciting personal constructs. Among the 18 characteristics identified, the seven most relevant were classified and compared with previous findings, which reveals differences between the team members' and project managers' and other stakeholders' perceptions. Those findings complement the existing skill set and could be considered when recruiting and training project managers and staffing projects.

The aim of this article is to introduce an ethical perspective of managerial behaviours to the study of vertical workplace bullying. A framework called the line of impunity was chosen that describes the missuses of power by certain ranks in organizations. Previous research on bullying addresses several perspectives such as the consequences of the bullying situation for the organization, the target and bystanders, the leadership style of the bully, the perceived structural support, and the manifestations of the abusive behaviours. However, to date, the ethical aspects have been poorly outlined. Applying the line of impunity brings light to several aspects of workplace bullying that are connected to an unethical use of power. This study is unusual because it is a phenomenological research based on two case studies that present the field experiences of two of the authors while working in different organizations, one in Sweden and the other in USA, during an extended period of time. The two main contributions of the study are the new concepts power methods and reinforcing, which highlight the connection between abusive behaviour and the ethical aspects that are present in downwards vertical workplace bullying situations.