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This thesis builds on the first configuration model developed and expanded in the IFS. The model considers the factors that impact on managers as they undertake performance management of their staff. This thesis transforms the original model through a second and into a third and final configuration. The questions that underpin this research are concerned with managers' experiences as they engage in managing performance and explore the triggers that enable managers to begin a process of, and sustain, managing underperformance within their team. The methodology and research approach adopted is that of social construction which allows managers' worlds to be co-constructed. In undertaking this study, researcher reflexivity was developed, by engaging with colleagues and other interested individuals. The research discourse was not a neutral process and emotioning in research was explicitly recognised. The research design and methods of data collection worked with senior managers across public and private sectors and also engaged with manager groups to provide situations where emerging constructions could be worked up. This continuing professional engagement gave a way of interacting with the emerging discourse to refine the constructions. The research findings identify the significance of contextual factors within any manager's world and the increasing importance of external conditions such as Best Value. The idea of potent and impotent organisations in sustaining a high performance culture is created and the characteristics of each identified. The concept of "other" emerged as managers described the individual who was underperforming and the level of fear and emotional impact on them as they engaged with the "other" in performance management. During the research managers described their feelings in different ways but there was a universal factor - managers do have feelings. Performance management is a Wicked Problem and the rhetoric belies the level of complexity that this research has identified namely - There is no definitive Problem, there is no definitive Solution. Finally the research recommends action for policy makers and managers in order to better develop the systems and processes needed to achieve super performance.

More boys than girls are consistently identified as having learning difficulties. This imbalance is longstanding but has only recently been problematised. The reasons for the imbalance are likely to be complex. This research investigated the possible existence of gender bias in the judgements and expectations of primary school teachers regarding girls and boys described as having learning difficulties. The research was undertaken in two phases. In the first a sample of primary teachers were asked to identify children in their classes whom they thought had learning difficulties; 15 girls and 49 boys were identified by 17 teachers; thus, confirming the gender imbalance. The teachers' views regarding these children’s difficulties were elicited by means of a questionnaire. In the second phase a different sample of teachers were asked their views regarding girls and boys with learning difficulties described in a series of five vignettes. The vignettes covered a range of learning difficulties. Each vignette was adjusted for pupil gender. The teachers' views about the children's difficulties were elicited by means of a questionnaire similar to that used in the first phase. Fifty-two teachers completed questionnaires, providing responses regarding 206 vignettes covering male and female versions of the five problem areas. Over the two phases it was evident that whilst there was a good deal of overlap between the teachers' views of girls and boys with learning difficulties, many areas of difference in perception of the problem and expectation were evident. The pattern of differential interpretation varied according to the nature of the learning difficulty. In addition it was evident that with regard to academic learning, the prognosis for the girls was seen to be less good than for the boys and that there was a higher level of expectation of behavioural difficulties for the boys. It can therefore be concluded that gender bias is evident in the judgements made about children's learning difficulties by at least some teachers.

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