This dissertation examines how perceptions of competence affect the care of older persons, and the values ​​and vocational conceptions of care work and care recipients that are tied to the perceptions of what skills that are needed and why. Competence is defined by three parts with relevance for the content of care work: what knowledge the care workers should have, what tasks they should perform and how they should respond to care recipients. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how the care managers' and care workers' perceptions of competence form the direction of the care work and how that direction relates to the care recipients’ perceptions of and expectations on the care work.   The care work is characterised by what is analysed as an activation of the recipients - that the recipients themselves should perform as much of the care work as possible. The activation aims at managing the decay of the aging body and is motivated by a vocational conception of the care recipients as different from others, with designations as grateful and passive. This conception is analysed as generation character based on an idea among the care managers and care workers that the society in which the recipients grew up gave them certain cognitive prerequisites that have to be managed in the practical care work.   The care recipients in the study have opposing conceptions and perceptions of care work compared with the care managers and care workers. The recipients’ central objective with the care work is to prevent what has been interpreted as the disrepair of the home. The care recipients’ position in the organisation raises the problem of loyalty towards the care workers and in some sense the care managers. Their loyalty reduces their ability to complain and to influence their situation to the better.   Keywords: care of older persons, care needs, care work, care relationship, care receivers, care workers, care managers, competence, technologies, activation, generation character