Managerial activities among top and middle managers: Self versus other perceptions

In this era of rapid changes both within and outside business organizations, the search is on for effective managers to deal with uncertainty, unusual events, and growing diversity in people, products, structures, and processes. The question remains as to what exactly effective managerial behavior is and how it is related to both personal and organizational success. Prior research has shown that discrepancies between self-reported managerial behavior and perceptions of other people in the work situation are related to effectiveness; comparisons of self-other reports of ineffective managers show more discrepancies. A study is presented in which an organization was seeking answers to miscommunication and prejudice between managers of different hierarchical levels and was looking for some answers. Results show that they do differ in some self-reported activities. Both groups of managers seem to underestimate each other and/or overestimate themselves for some activities and more time on unimportant activities than they themselves did. The results suggest that some form of action needs to be taken to reduce this self-other mismatch.