The performance of the public sector is based not just on formal governance formations but also on the way in which governance conditions influence the manner in which managers behave, act as leaders, and decisions are made within organizations. Governance weaknesses in developing countries tend to act as limits to managerial discretion, affecting the way public managers manage, distribute resources as well as pursue performance goals. Although there have been far-reaching governance reform efforts, few studies have investigated these dynamics on a managerial approach in Bangladesh. The given study takes the form of a qualitative multiple-case study to identify the influence of the governance conditions on managerial behavior in the context of Bangladesh on the setting of the public institutions. Based on semi-structured interviews with public managers in each of the ministries, regulatory agencies and local government agencies, along with document analysis, the study uses reflexive thematic analysis to determine the predominant trends in managerial reactions to governance constraints. The results indicate that politicization, lax accountability mechanisms, rigidity in the bureaucracy, and limitation of capacity, and informal governance practices systematically reform managerial behaviour. Those situations contaminate risk-averse, compliance-based management, undermine strategic leadership, suppress performance-based management, and narrow innovation and value creation to the populace. Most managers do not serve as organizational leaders but instead as deciphers who go through the political pressure and procedural restrictions. The research also makes a contribution to the body of micro level, situation-specific evidence on the transformation of the governance conditions into managerial practices in a developing-country setting. It concludes that reforms in governance, to increase managerial autonomy, accountability, discretion and capacity, are necessary to address long term sustainable improvements in public sector performance through the ability of managers to be effective leaders, and creators of public value.