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A competency-based approach is one of the important tools of human resource management aimed at achieving strategic organisational goals and a competitive advantage. The article focuses on application of the competency-based approach in organisation in the Czech Republic. The fi rst part of the article concentrates on the theoretical background. The second part evaluates the results of the quantitative survey. The aim of the article is to evaluate the competency-based approach in organisations in the Czech Republic and also to identify areas and activities in which the competency- based approach is applied and test dependencies between selected qualitative characteristics that relate to the issues examined. The results of the survey show that if organisations employ the competency-based approach (35.8%), they do not use individual activities within their frame on an equal basis. This is also valid for individual categories of employees (organisations concentrate in particular on managers and specialists). The results further con fi rm that the application of the competency-based approach in organisations in the Czech Republic depends on the fact whether an organisation is part of a larger group of organisations (p-value = 0.003, Phi coef fi cient = 0.238); personnel management arrangements in an organisation (the existence of a personnel department (p-value = 0.001, Phi coef fi cient = 0.316), processed personnel strategy (p-value = 0.006, Phi coef fi cient = 0.310), work position analysis execution (p-value = 0.000, Phi coef fi cient = 0.444), the position of the person responsible for human resource management in top management (p-value = 0.036, Phi coef fi cient = 0.201)) and the application of knowledge management (p-value = 0.015, Phi coef fi cient = 0.278). According to the strength of the relationship between the variables, the most important group of factors is that relating to personnel management organisation. No dependency on the size of organisations and sector in which organisations operate has been proven.

The paper concentrates on the characteristics of the competitive environment in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa and a constituent part of the outcome of a specific research project at the Faculty of Economics at the Technical University in Liberec. It can be assumed that a company that wants to succeed on the market must use its competitive advantage and develop its competitiveness. This is based on the ability to respond quickly and correctly to the requirements of customers and competing companies. Competitiveness means a company generating competitive advantages faster than its competitors. The authors look at the question of which competitive advantages exist among the companies in ERN, what is important to companies and what relationship there is between competitive advantages and the competitive strategies used. The introduction to the paper presents methodological approaches to the topics of competitive strategies and the competitive environment from the perspective of experts on the matter. The main aim of the paper is to identify and characterise the competitive environment of companies in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa based on an evaluation of data from primary questioning. The authors of the paper deal with the issue of the main competitive strategies that companies now use and in what lies their competitive advantage. Results and discussion are found in an evaluation of primary research undertaken among 170 companies in the Czech part of Euroregion Nisa. A detailed investigation confirmed that competitive advantage and competitive strategies need to be understood as multi-dimensional and multi-factored. There are several “key” types of competitive advantage, their number and order of importance depending on many circumstances; for example a company's sphere of activity, the area of business activity, the size of the company, the requirements of owners and customers, the priorities of management and so on. Each industry uses its own competitive advantage differently and the decisive factor is succeeding with customers. It can be contended that successful companies need to produce differentiated products at low cost and need to be flexible.