Educational leadership
As de facto managers,
involves working with teachers
and other education
professionals on systemic plans
to improve educational
programming and outcomes.
From K-12 to higher education,
leaders in the industry include:
teachers, superintendents,
principals, administrators,
department chairs, provosts and
deans.
Educational Administration is
regarded as the process of
integrating the appropriate
human and material resources
that are made available and
made effective for achieving the
purposes of a programme of an
educational institution.
Management in all business
and organizational activities is
the act of getting people together
to accomplish desired goals and
objectives using available
resources efficiently and
effectively. Management
comprises planning, organizing,
staffing, leading or directing, and
controlling an organization (a
group of one or more people or
entities) or effort for the purpose
of accomplishing a goal.
Resourcing encompasses the
deployment and manipulation of
human resources, financial
resources, technological
resources, and natural
resources.
The term management implies
the process by which a
cooperative group directs action
towards common goals. But to a
modern industrialist,
management means “getting
things done through other
people”. To the economist,
management is just “one of the
factors of production”; to the
sociologist, management is “a
class or status system”.
However, in the modern
organized context, management
is viewed as a social process
which is designed to ensure the
cooperation, participation and
involvement in the effective
achievement of a given
objective.
Four Functions of
Management
The four functions of
management comprise of the
primary functions of managers,
which must be performed
efficiently for the success of an
organization. These functions
are common across all fields of
management, be it at a factory, a
super market, a restaurant or
even at home. For the smooth
functioning of any organization,
the functions are planning,
organizing, leading and
controlling. These functions are
referred to as the management
process.
Planning
Planning is the first and base
component of management. It
involves recognizing the
organization’s goals and
developing strategies to achieve
these goals. This is called
strategy planning. These
strategies may have to be
altered or completely changed
constantly based on the macro
and micro factors affecting an
organization. Thus planning is a
constant process. Even though
all planning involves the same
kind of thought process, different
types of plans are made for
different functions of an
organization. Examples of
planning are strategic planning,
marketing planning, business
planning, succession planning,
project planning, sales planning,
etc.
Leading
Even though many use the term
managing and leading
synonymously, nothing could be
farther from the truth. Simply
managing tasks means making
people do their jobs. But leading
means influencing and inspiring
people in such a way that they
feel motivated to do their jobs.
People find it easier to follow a
leader. Following the orders of a
manager is something that is
done as a part of one’s job, but
following a leader is something
that is done more willingly by
people. Thus, every manager
must aim at becoming a good
leader. A leader focuses on
interpersonal relations with each
employee and constantly
motivates them to perform
better. By creating a positive
working environment a leader
can effectively help improve the
employees’ job performance and
hence their morale.
Controlling
Controlling as the name
suggests means controlling the
various functions in the
organization to ensure they are
on track with the goals that were
set at the beginning of the
planning process. Controlling
also involves setting certain .
performance standards for the educational administrators must
employees and constantly perform the manager’s three
evaluating their job performance.
(3) basic roles:
Sometimes the strategies and
plans that were developed and Interpersonal: roles that involve
implemented may not work out coordination and interaction with
as initially planned due to certain employees.
external factors. Controlling and
evaluating helps a manager Informational: roles that involve
recognize these failures and handling, sharing, and
quickly implement corrective analyzing information.
measures to bring the task back
on track. Decisional: roles that require
decision-making.
These four functions of
management are very important management skills:
for an organization and if done Technical: used for specialized
well can be the reason behind knowledge required for work.
the success of the business.
Political: used to build a power
3 Meaning of Educational base and establish connections.
Administration
Conceptual: used to analyze
Educational Administration is a complex situations.
discipline within the study of
education that examines the Interpersonal: used to
administrative theory and communicate, motivate, mentor
practice of education in general and delegate.
and educational institutions and
Diagnostic: ability to visualise
educators in particular. The field
most appropriate response to a
ideally distinguishes itself from
situation.
administration and management
through its adherence to guiding
principles of educational
philosophy.
The concept of
educational administration may
not be totally different from what
we are familiar with in the
concept of administration.
Education at different levels has
its objectives, the most important
of the objectives that cut across
all the levels of education is
teaching and learning. It is the
function of the school to produce
educated and enlightened
human beings who would be
able to contribute positively to
the development of the society.
This formed the opinion of
Olaniyi (2000) who describes
school as a social institution
which does not exist in a
vacuum. He said further that a
school is a micro-community,
existing within a macro
community to mould the habits,
interest, attitudes and feelings of
children and transmit from one
generation to another. The
school also comprises certain
personnel i.e. teaching and non-
teaching staff as well as the
students. These human
resources in the school work
with some materials, such as
instructional materials,
equipment, and financial
resources in order to achieve the
objectives of the school.