The purpose of this publication is fourfold. It aims to:
1. Respond to the pressures for improvement in the delivery of public services
2. Design a performance management appraisal system suitable for particular countries, states, organizations, employers and employees
3. Demonstrate how to measure performance, using case studies from Barbados, Samoa and Tonga
4. Determine how the performance appraisal system can be institutionalized in the entire administrative system.

The overall approach is to conduct a needs assessment in the ministries, then to design an appropriate appraisal instrument, train its users and, finally, install the system so that it becomes part and parcel of the public service machinery. The emphasis on developing techniques of designing the performance appraisal instrument itself.