Perceptions inform the way people behave and how they see their environment, thus the perceptions are the realities of the perceiver. Managers themselves are appointed based on the perceptions of the selection and recruiting team, either through an interview or simply through long association in an organisation. But, every human being moves around with their own baggage emanating from childhood, cultural background, religion, interaction with other people, the level of education and what was taught them, and of cause from peers and role models. The manager, like any being is a mixed bag of all sorts of information, ideas, values, beliefs and traits all culminating into the perception the manager will have about what constitutes good management. This empirical research sought to understand how the average Cape Town manager perceives managerial behaviours are considered to be ideal to enable the subordinates to be productive. Primarily to establish their perceptions about what constitutes good management behaviour. This research seeks to evaluate good management in the eyes of the manager – more like self-evaluation by evaluating the other manager. It should be pointed out that South Africa just recently emerged from apartheid and not much has changed within the organisational and racial structures in relation to “who the managers are.” The work environment is very diverse with whites (dominating) and coloureds (as second class citizens) with blacks at the tail end. To add to this, there has been an influx of foreigners as economic refuges whose perceptions about work and the environment are radically different. The research finds that many managers use the X theory though there are elements of the Y theory displayed. The Cape Town manager does not show much interest in the welfare of the subordinates and has no interest in getting closer to these subordinates.
Keywords: Good Management, Institutions, Manager’s Perception, Productivity
