Profissionais mais competentes, politicas e práticas de gest？o mais avan？adas?

this paper presents the results of a research program conducted to investigate the extent to which demand for professionals with increasingly more sophisticated and wide-ranging competences has been followed by an evolution in the organizational policies and practices that sustain them. using as its theoretical framework the evaluation approach to organizational modernity and a review of anglo-american and french approaches to competences ,the study presents a comparative analysis of the findings of three empirical pieces of research. after the data had been treated with multivariate and descriptive statistics, evidence was found that the demand for competences has not been accompanied by the modernization of organizational policies and practices at the same pace, suggesting the need for organizational environments that adhere more to the new professional profiles required.