Cultural assumptions are often inadvertently exported or imported when performance appraisal is introduced in organisations in developing countries. Performance appraisal has been developed in “individualist” societies, and the systems, when applied in non‐individualistic cultures, can cause unintended offence, or are incorrectly, and therefore uselessly, employed. Guidelines for the design of more culturally appropriate approaches are suggested.

The development of managers in 'Third World' or 'Less Developed Countries', whether through institutions or agents of Western countries, has tended to be conducted in a similar way to that of development in the host country. While practitioners demonstrate an awareness of culture as an issue, little, in effect, is done to modify methods. Culture is treated more as an obstacle to be overcome than an issue of importance to the future development of the organisations.