International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 11, No. 8; 2016 ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 86 The Qualities of a Good Manager … What Does It Mean? Lessons Learned from the Undergraduate Business Students’ Perception in Kingdom of Morocco Younes Kohail 1 , Youssef Saida 2 , Jaoud Obad 3 & Aziz Soulhi 4 1 Laboratory of Strategic Intelligence (LIS), FSJES Mohammedia, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco 2 Research laboratory in management science (LRSG), Doctoral studies center, Hassan I University, Settat, Kingdom of Morocco 3 Research Laboratory on Entrepreneurship and Management Environment for SMEs (LAREM), FSJES Mohammedia, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco 4 Superior National School of Mines (MINES-RABAT), Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco Correspondence: Aziz Soulhi, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Rabat, Av. Hadj Ahmed Cherkaoui–B.P.: 753-Agdal - Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco. E-mail: soulhi@enim.ac.ma Received: March 22, 2016 Accepted: May 23, 2016 Online Published: July 18, 2016 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v11n8p86 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n8p86 Abstract Qualities required to provide managers of what make them effective in their actions and behavior within the organizational structure generate, perpetually, the interest of researchers and professionals. Notwithstanding the prevailing conceptions, with reference to the subject of our research, make no consensus between the different stakeholders involved, among others, the college business students. This article is seeking clarification of the business students’ perception about the qualities required to be a good manager. Methodologically, our research was based on a quantitative questionnaire distributed to 500 college business students in Kingdom of Morocco to highlight their appreciation of the qualities needed to be a good manager. Factor analysis was used to analyze the data. Categorization, in the light of the business students’ perception, was made to aggregate, in blocks, the qualities required to be acknowledged as a good manager. As results, five factors underlying the business students’ perception were found. However these factors, when confronted to the literature, explicit certain divergences that could be explained by the students cognitive process problems. Keywords: manager qualities, good manager, business students’ perception, cognitive process, factor analysis 1. Introduction The cognitive process and interpretation of organizational and managerial reality is complex and differs from one stakeholder to another. During their academic studies (economics faculties, business schools and institutes, professional training centers, etc.), business students develop specific skills to achieve their possible integration in the company later. Subsequently, they forge a vision and have conceptions concerning certain aspects of the company management (Cole & Smith, 1996; Bodkin & Stevenson, 2007; Bageac, Furrer, & Reynaud, 2011), among others, the qualities required to be a good manager. This vision developed by business students is explained by the fact that they are trained to become future managers in different types of organizations (government, enterprises, etc.) or at least they could make part of managers’ teams. In this context, the qualities for a good manager are different and based on the personal and professional skills (King, Fowler, & Zeithaml, 2001; Gentry & Sparks 2012; Brill, Bishop, & Walker, 2006) that a manager needs to act properly in the various complex and uncertain situations in a turbulent environment. The theoretical lack, recorded with reference to the business students’ perception in terms of the qualities required to be a good manager, legitimates and encourages research in this direction. Indeed, this research clarifies some gray areas regarding aspects (nature, trend and factors behind this perception) to be taken into account in any attempts to conceptualize the perception of this category of stakeholders (business students) on the topic of a specific managerial and organizational phenomenon (qualities of a good manager). In other words,