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Governance of digital-focused projects in central government has lacked detailed definition, resulting in misunderstanding, inconsistency and a perception of inflexibility by project professionals. Consequently, governance was deemed restrictive and inflexible, which impacted progress in the delivery of digital solutions. This research aimed to investigate the principles, practices and perceptions of governance in central government by conducting a comparative analysis across different project delivery approaches, viz. Waterfall, Agile and Hybrid. A mixed-methods research design critically examined central government project professionals' experiences of governance across the three delivery approaches: a quantitative survey established the perception of governance and identified themes to inform case studies across different central government departments; semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals in various project roles; and, an analytical review of secondary data, supplied by central government project experts, supported triangulation of the findings. The study confirmed the requirement for all central government projects, regardless of delivery approach, to have a governance framework encompassing the accountabilities, responsibilities, procedures, controls and escalation routes within hierarchical structures. Delegated authority was allocated within tolerances that allowed projects to make decisions more quickly, but particularly benefitted Agile and Hybrid approaches to maintain delivery momentum. Flexibility was encouraged, but an absence of central guidance on its application led to inconsistency in governance practices. Stakeholder involvement in decision-making was crucial, but the absence of formal governance training meant some did not fully comprehend the importance of their role. This empirical research and comparative analysis have contributed the following knowledge: identified new underlying project governance principles and practices for central government; added to the ascertained lack of literature on the governance required to support a Hybrid project delivery approach; and identified an opportunity for future research on the principles underpinning the classification, management, and tracking of business and financial benefits for Agile and Hybrid project delivery approaches.

Although decision-making is an intrinsic part of professional practice there is very little research conducted into how midwifery students in the United Kingdom develop the skill. The principles of ethnography were used to explore how decision-making was learnt amongst direct entry student midwives during training .and after qualification. The overall aims of the research were to explore the factors which influenced decision-making and to . identify the factors that assisted or interfered with learning to make decisions. The 49 participants were a combination of students, midwives who had been qualified for less than a year and midwifery mentors. The data collection methods consisted of: three focus groups conducted with student midwives, 15 observations of practice (combination of student mentor pairs and midwives within the first year of practice), 27 individual interviews (combination of students, midwives within the first year of practice and mentors). Data analysis followed the principles of coding data, category, theme and metatheme formation described by Garner (1991) and Ely et al (1997). The classification of the nature of professional knowledge and typology of non-formal learning created by Eraut (2000) was used to identify where explicit and implicit learning occurred in relation to decision-making. Very little knowledge related to decision-making was gained from formal teaching sessions in the classroom. The personal knowledge or 'know-how' surrounding decision-making was. acquired by the student working alongside the inentor in practice. Consequently learning occurred through the participation in shared practices and was influenced by the quality of social relations and interactions in clinical practice (Wenger 1998). A number of features emerged from the study which appeared to be common amongst students and newly qualified midwives in relation to the way decision-making was learnt. These features include: making an assessment seeing the outcome of care, predicting and anticipating events, pattern recognition, self and group reflection and the use of heuristics. Other factors which helped or hindered decision-making were evident such as: the qualities of the mentor, the quality of mentoring, confidence and emotion management, getting to know the woman and contextual and environmental influences. Vignettes were created to represent composites of the findings; these were presented to study participants in a focus group as a means to achieve respondent validation. This study has led to some insights into the factors that influence and mould decision-making, the findings can be applied to the education of students and newly qualified midwives.

This thesis describes the study of asymmetric heterogeneous catalysis with the objective of developing new chiral solid surfaces which can be used to establish a more general framework for the generation of chiral centres on heterogeneous catalyst surfaces. To this end the adsorption of a family of binaphthalene derivatives, namely R- and S-2,2'-dihydroxybinaphthalene, (+/-)-dimethoxybinaphthalene and R- and S-2,2'-diaminobinapthalene, have been studied as potential chiral modifiers. The results show that the amount of modifier adsorbed is dependent on the initial concentration of the modifier in the modifying solution and the time of modification. Both the dihydroxybinaphthalene and diaminobinaphthalene modifiers are strongly adsorbed on to Ni/silica, Pd/silica and Pd/carbon catalysts. The extent of adsorption is different for the different modifiers and varies between the metals. The dimethoxybinaphthalene modifier was only adsorbed by the Pd/carbon catalyst. In separate experiments, using the support materials themselves, evidence has been obtained for the direct adsorption of the modifiers on to the carbon, but not on to the silica. From studies of the effects of washing, following the modification, it is apparent that a small proportion of the modifier that is adsorbed on the metal and most of the modifier which is adsorbed on the support is only weakly adsorbed. These results are interpreted as a strong dissociative adsorption via the O-H or the N-H groups on to the metal surfaces resulting in the binaphthyl modifiers being orientated on the surface in a 'near vertical' mode, with the naphthalene ring units directed up and away from the surface. It is proposed that adsorption on the carbon support is through a weak interaction between the naphthyl rings of the modifier and the support surface to orientate the binaphthyl molecule in a 'horizontal' mode. All the catalysts modified with R- and S-forms of the dihydroxy and diaminobinaphthyls have been screened for enantioselectivity in the hydrogenation of methyl tiglate, tiglic acid and 3-coumaranone at atmospheric pressure and temperatures in the range 0-25°C. The palladium catalysts are active for the reduction o f methyl - tiglate, however, no enantiomeric excesses have been attained, although appreciable isomerisation of the methyl tiglate to methyl angelate was observed. Tiglic acid and 3-coumaranone have been hydrogenated enantioselectivity over the R- and S-2,2'-diaminobinaphthyl modified palladium catalysts, with the two modifiers clearly directing the reaction in opposite directions. Enantiomeric excesses up to 13% and 19% were obtained for the respective substrates. Moderate enantioselectivity (7%) was also achieved for the hydrogenation of tiglic acid with the diaminobinaphthyl modified nickel/silica catalyst. Chiral direction is imparted to these reactions only when the diaminobinaphthyl modifier is present. A mechanism is proposed in which the prochiral reactant is adsorbed at the modified surface by forming a surface complex with the diaminobinaphthalene modifier involving two recognition sites, namely a n-n stacking interaction and hydrogen bonding. The 7t-system of the substrate is aligned over one naphthalene ring to allow a n-n stacking interaction to occur, binding the reactant to the modifier. In addition, with the prochiral substrate in the correct orientation, an additional -N--H--O-hydrogen bonding interaction can be established between the substituent of the modifier and the C-0 of the substrate to further stabilise the reactant. The steric influence only establishes the specific orientation of the co-adsorbed species. Subsequent hydrogenation is then controlled by orbital symmetry limitations which will only allow a czs-addition of the hydrogen to the open face of the unsaturated bond which results in the observed enantiodifferentiation.