TY - JOUR AB - Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in new bottles. Academics seem to be more sceptical about its novelty than practitioners. This article attempts to combine theory and practice. Some theoretical aspects of competency management are explored and definitions, reasons for implementation, novelty and implications for the HRM function are discussed. The theory is then confronted with two cases of competency management in the public sector. The first deals with the appraisal system in the Flemish administration and the second with the HR‐policy towards public managers in the Dutch civil service. The research material for the case studies was collected during a research project on international perspectives for HRM in the Flemish government. VL - 13 IS - 4 SN - 0951-3558 DO - 10.1108/09513550010350355 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550010350355 AU - Hondeghem Annie AU - Vandermeulen Filip PY - 2000 Y1 - 2000/01/01 TI - Competency management in the Flemish and Dutch civil service T2 - International Journal of Public Sector Management PB - MCB UP Ltd SP - 342 EP - 353 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -