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Introduction
This paper is a case study using the device of the cognitive script to reveal how experienced managers, in a large financial services organisation, dealt with the challenge of poor performance. The overall performance and competitive standing of many organisations is determined by the performance of their staff. It follows that underperforming employees can have a major impact, especially in service organisations where they deal directly with customers. Two of the themes that run through this literature are the reluctance of front-line managers to deal with poor performers ([13] Hutchinson and Purcell, 2003, p. 29) and their lack of consistency when they do ([5] Cunningham, 2001; [2] Axelrod et al. , 2002; [6] den Hartog et al. , 2004). The need for consistency is paramount and this is reflected in the continuing efforts by companies to ensure this through the use of multiple assessors including self-assessment and "upward" appraisals by subordinates ([14] Latham et al. , 2005). This study assesses the consistency in this process by studying experienced front-line managers who had all worked for many years at the same level in the same organisation, which had a formal performance management process. The expectation framing our study is that this group of managers should evince a consistent approach to this aspect of their work largely as a consequence of their experience with the company. On the other hand, our approach should allow us to explore the sources of any inconsistency among this selected group of managers. The main finding is that, while about one-third of the managers appeared to describe a common script for managing poor performers (cf. [9] Gioia et al. , 1989), the majority did not. We found some managers who were not able to describe any consistent approach to managing poor performance. Other managers were able to describe various parts of the process but with varying amount of detail. Within this group, those with the most experience were indeed the most likely to be consistent in dealing with poor performers, suggesting the ongoing role of experiential learning ([3] Brewster and Larsen, 1992). The findings point to the need for organisations to review how poor performers are being managed and make this part of their management development programme, to ensure...