Chapter 2 Assignment

Principal Roles and Responsibilities

Knowledge-Based Question # 2

How would you respond to those who believe that principals should be leaders, not managers?

A school principal needs to understand and distinguish three core conceptualized roles integral to his
position and significantly impact his behavior; leadership, management and administration. The
concept of leadership is generally associated with a visionary principal who aspires for organizational
improvement and staff development through inspiring and motivating staff and stakeholders.
Management, on the other hand, is associated with the daily routine functions which get the job
done through organizing, supervising and controlling school's resources and staff (Hanson,1996).
Administration, however, is a broader term enfolding both leadership and management roles. A
successful principal needs to be an administrator in the broader meaning of the term and skillfully
switches between leadership and management behaviors, commonly known as 'changing hats'.
Although the functions of leadership and management may seem similar or even overlapping at
times, these two concepts are distinct and require different skills and behaviors.

A school principal, as a leader, is responsible for forging a clear and optimistic vision to influence and
inspire his staff. He looks at the big picture of where he wants to take the school. He anticipates the
future and unveils the potential opportunities and challenges, and draws a roadmap to match the
future. A school principal, as a leader, may rely on his intuition or his expertise when forging his
ambitious vision. While doing so, a competent principal must give a flexible space for the
unpredictable and diverse factors affecting the educational process. Then he needs to influence his
subordinates to live up to a productive and supportive organizational culture and values of how his
school should operate Schein, 1985). He also needs to effectively communicate the school's culture
and values to his staff, and at the same time guides and supports staff and employees to assimilate
the school's distinguishing ideology, since his primary concern is staff development. To do so, his
vision must be optimistic yet realistic and connected to reality, fanciful yet achievable, imaginative
yet feasible and measurable with a careful balance between the public common values and
behaviors on one hand, and the desire to modify or change them gradually on the other. Therefore,
it’s vital that his vision be motivating, well-articulated, communicated, and shared by everybody
(Kotter, 1990). He needs to establish and maintain trust and initialize a positive school climate where
staff and students feel welcome, connected, and encouraged to achieving and engaging. When the
school’s staff understand and share the principal's vision, they are likely to be proactive, more
engaged and more dynamic.

As a manager, by comparison, a successful school principal must have the technical skills and
expertise in order to follow through the vision, and align the staff effort with the school values. He
needs to get down to a grass-rooted level to relate to his staff and communicate his ideas. He needs
to orchestrate efforts and focus on the tasks, details and data, and to empower and direct his staff
towards a positive, productive and effective work place in order to keep the school functioning
properly. He also needs to work on achieving the present goals of the organization, supervise the
workflow within the organizational structures and follow the standard operating procedures of his
school. A school without a rigorous policy and discipline commitment is a chaotic work place where
no one can achieve, nor can it survive as a socio-educational entity.

In addition to taking decisions at the higher levels which affects the overall performance of his
school, school principal must also follow through at the lower department levels. When it comes to
spending, he should also be concerned with efficiency. Also, at times of crisis such as corona
pandemic, a school principal must operate at both higher level for the overall crisis plans, and also at
the lower level of remotely connecting with his staff and executing the emergency plan. Now, can a
successful principal do without the managerial role? Based on my personal experience the answer is
no. Though easier said than done, the researcher believes that principals can only be successful
when they fulfill both roles effectively and efficiently since both leaders' and managers' roles are
essential and complementary for running an effective school. It's a real challenge, however, for a
school principal to adequately assume both roles. If a leader has a bird's eye-view, and a manager
has a worm's eye-view, a competent school principal must be an administrator having both.

References

Hanson, E. M. (1996). Educational administration and organizational behavior. Allyn & Bacon, A
Simon & Schuster Company, 160 Gould Street, Needham Heights, MA 02194-2310

Kotter, J. P. (1990). A force for change: How leadership differs from management (pp. xi, 180).

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.