The article deals with the implementation of a performance management development system in the public sector. The focus is on the Provincial Planning and Treasury Department in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. A number of organisations are continuously searching for methods that can be used to improve performance. One such method entails implementing a performance management programme. However, despite a growing body of research that supports the positive impact that effective performance management can have on an organisation's performance, evidence suggests that organisations in South Africa and elsewhere, are not implementing the practices that are recommended by the theory of best practice in human resource and performance management (Kock, Roodt & Veldsman, 2002:83). The institutionalisation of performance management in the South African Public Service after 1994, came as a result of the need to change the legacy of poor