This study deals with individual possibilities for competence development in knowledge-intensive firms, especially advertising and audit firms. The study has an individual perspective which means that the organization is analyzed as subjective perception of indivi­duals. In this approach I seek for differences between people (subjective interpretations), instead of similarities (intersubjective interpretations). Different subjective interpretations are important for the understanding of different possibilities and restrictions individual competen­ce development. Different individuals can, depending on different values about work and life in general, have different experieces of possibilities for competence development. The rese­arch problem deals with different relations between the individual and the organization from the individual perspective of personal competence development. The empirical study is in two parts; case studies at the individual level and a questionnaire to people in advertising firms and audit firms. From the theoretical perspective and the empirical studies, different types of relations between man and organisation have been developed; Respectful professional, respectless professional, respectful holistic, respectless holistic, sectorial professional and holistic professional. The implications of these relations are that certain individual values seems to fit these knowledge- intensive firms better than others. These individual values have been termed respectful, pro­fessional and holistic. Individuals with these values experience their possibilities of compe­tence development better than other individuals. Individuals with the values termed re­spectless and sectorial were less pleased with their companies and their possibilities of compe­tence development. The study also show that individual commitment to organisational values is important for the experienced possibilities for personal competence development. / digitalisering@umu