Introduction
It is important to note that leadership is a unique, complex, and intricate subject, which requires a comprehensive understanding of both conceptual as well as practical frameworks. The central quote for the given assessment is the following: “understanding leadership in early childhood has been plagued by its confusion with the concept of management” (Rodd, 2013, p. 19). The most common barrier and challenge in this regard is the act of confusion between management and leadership, which can have an impact even in early childhood. The key ideas and models will be centered around the vision and process, alignment and organization, and quality and position frameworks in the educational environment of early childhood.
Children need to be told and taught about how to become an effective leader, especially in the modern economic and social environment of diverse opinions and thoughts. Innovative and creative thinking is a cornerstone of today’s businesses, where human talent is no longer valued for its mechanical capabilities. Thus, every individual should be aware of leadership models and methods with a corresponding understanding of a distinctive aspect of management from leadership. The latter is about values, vision, and attracting others towards a leader to follow, whereas management is focused on intervening in the work processes of individuals by focusing on specific metrics, such as efficiency.
Leadership: Qualities and Dispositions
When it comes to eliminating confusion between leadership and management in early childhood, as stated in the quote, it is important to define each term first. It is stated that “leadership, he wrote, is the creation of positive, non-incremental change, including the creation of a vision to guide that change—a strategy” (Gavin, 2019, para. 4). Leaders empower people to join them in the new mission and vision regardless of obstacles. In other words, a massive coalition of momentum and energy alongside effort is created to ensure that the necessary change takes place and moves forwards on its path.
Therefore, leadership is highly multifaceted with five distinct dispositions, which include advocacy, conceptual, community, pedagogical, and administrative. In addition, there is a wide range of leadership models manifested in differential styles, such as transformational leadership and distributive leadership, where each one brings its specific strengths and opportunities (Rodd, 2013). In order to properly effectiveness of outcomes among early childhood or pedagogical leaders, the major qualities need to be pinpointed. Firstly, the core individual, as well as organizational objectives and goals, require a clear definition with its directions, procedural elements, resource needs, and responsibilities. Secondly, childhood leaders need to have a common agreement on individual expectations and standards. Thirdly, both support and feedback need to be provided in a constructive manner (Rodd, 2013). Lastly, the final outcomes need to be evaluated and monitored.
Management: Qualities and Dispositions
The quote revealed that leadership is often misunderstood due to the confusion among management. It is stated that the latter is “getting the confused, misguided, unmotivated, and misdirected to accomplish a common purpose on a regular, recurring basis” (Gavin, 2019, para. 6). Although both management and leadership deal with human behavior and motivation, management is more task-oriented and calculated with precise, incrementally accomplishable plans. In other words, management does not necessarily present or choose a particular vision or direction, but it is invaluable for ensuring the effective and efficient movement along the selected path towards both short-term and long-term goals.
The core foundational qualities of management involve transparency, delegation, worker development and growth, decision making, accountability, and communication. Thus, managerial efforts are based on dividing essential tasks among the competent professionals, which is why proper communication is critical (Rodd, 2013). Many decisions need to be made correctly, which mandates accountability among both decision-makers as well as professionals realizing the tasks. The most important management dispositions of management can be found in process, organization, and position itself (Gavin, 2019). A manager in early childhood focuses on processes rather than vision with an emphasis on organizational tasks instead of aligning people with the vision or vice versa.
Vision vs. Process: Issue, Theory, and Practice
One of the first and the most fundamental sources of confusion between leadership and management in early childhood educational settings is the lack of understanding of vision and process. It is critical to educate and teach children about the conceptual issues on differences between vision and process, where the former is an equivalent of setting the direction towards an image or idea, but the process is about more present, existing, and essential tasks. Therefore, the primary issue is the fact that early childhood education should illuminate the emphasis or accentuation of leadership on a vision and larger goal.
The theory of shared vision provides a comprehensive insight into how leadership can be distinguished from management through the given element. It is stated that “vision is a mental model of the leaders as they define it based on their choices and actions. Other terms such as goals, mission, values, philosophy, and strategy might have similar definitions to vision and are often used interchangeably” (Mohd Adnan & Valliappan, 2019, p. 1042). In other words, unlike management, leadership provides a cognitive perspective through positioning or anchoring a goal as a source of motivation. It is found that “there are four aspects that are focused on affecting vision, which are development, communication, articulation and implementation” (Mohd Adnan & Valliappan, 2019, p. 1043). Therefore, a leader must be able to determine a vision for oneself, a group, or an organization, which he or she needs to communicate clearly, articulate its details and nuances, and proceed with the integration of the vision into reality.
In practice, vision is presented as a comprehensive goal towards some form of betterment or improvement. In accordance with a shared-vision framework of the path-goal theory, “effective leaders engage to facilitate vision and goal achievement and maximize its value, to influence and improve the team members’ expectancies, satisfaction, and performance” (Mohd Adnan & Valliappan, 2019, p. 1050). Vision is usually described as a vague goal, which represents a state or condition in which an entity, such as an individual or organization, wants to be over the long term. The quote described management as a ‘plague’ in the realm of leadership because the former makes the latter rather confusing (Rodd, 2013). Therefore, pedagogical leadership should be taught in early childhood as a vision sharing and setting process, which requires precise and accurate communication and articulation. A leader should also be able to implement the vision into a real process, which is a managerial concept derived from the original strategic vision.
Alignment vs. Organization: Issue, Theory, and Practice
The second issue of leadership being confused with management is the problem of alignment and organization. The former is based on innovation, development, and people, whereas the latter is focused on structure, systems, maintenance, and administration (Gavin, 2019). It is stated that “effective leadership in early childhood also is concerned with working towards creating a community of learners and providing quality services for children and families” (Rodd, 2013, p. 22). These efforts are realized through the inspiration of others with common values and ideas, provision of role models, influence, and supervision.
In education, the theoretical underpinnings of leadership mandate for it to be applied through supportive measures of promotion. These include empowerment, enablement, and enhancement, where the former refers to “where authority and obligation are shared and distributed by the leader” (Rodd, 2013, p. 24). In other words, empowerment ensures that sharing of the vision and common goals lead to an increase in accountability and responsibility within a group. Enhancement is critical in regards to improving exceptional performance and commitment to the mission (Rodd, 2013). Enablement is a process or attempts to remove the hindrances on the path toward the vision.
In practice, pedagogical leadership is different from management due to its accentuation on alignment, whereas management is concerned with organizing. Aligning people’s values and personal goals with a common vision lies at the core of a leader’s efforts. It is stated that leaders “are less focused on how to organize people to get work done and more on finding ways to align and influence them” (Gavin, 2019, para. 14). However, a manager seeks to organize processes and procedures to make them effective and efficient under the existing framework.
In addition, managers are made so through the job position, whereas leaders can come in different forms. For example, transformational leadership translates itself within an organization through individualized attention, intellectual stimulation, and charisma. A manager with traits of a transformational leader is characterized by high correlations with lower employee turnover rates, higher productivity, and higher employee satisfaction (Waniganayake et al., 2017). Despite the positive content of the above-mentioned tools of transformational leadership, it also has a weak link, and this is the timing. When planning to see the results of the subordinates’ efforts sooner than possible, a leader might clash with the opinion of his or her team. The latter sometimes grounds the leader’s ideas by applying planning skills and common sense.
Quality vs. Position: Issue, Theory, and Practice
The third issue of leadership and management confusion is the notion of quality over position, which is predominant in the former. A leader is not made so due to his or her position and role, such as the title of manager, but rather it is an individual quality. Since leadership is a person’s feature requiring shaping and molding, it is heavily impacted by emotional intelligence and skills related to influence (Gavin, 2019). Thus, leadership does not come with a title or position because it is a personal quality that needs attentive focus and development.
The theoretical framework of the qualitative nature of pedagogical leadership makes it highly unique from management. It is stated that “leadership is the result of action. If you act in a way that inspires, encourages, or engages others, you are a leader. It doesn’t matter your title or position” (Gavin, 2019, para. 18). In other words, a person can be given a managerial position, but he or she might still not become a leader due to the lack of quality to do so. However, a mere worker with no managerial responsibilities can become a source of outstanding leadership because he or she is able to provide vision, align others with it, and act in an inspiring and engaging way. Each leader must have a specific set of qualities, which might include self-confidence, resistance to stress, ingenuity, enterprise, responsibility, independence, perseverance, sociability, and self-discipline. These are necessary to have the ability to influence others.
In practice, children should be educated by pedagogical leaders by being exposed to both management and leadership in order to understand their inherent difference. It should be explained that a person can be both manager and leader, or be none of them, but the most outstanding managers are usually leaders as well (Waniganayake et al., 2017). Moreover, it should be noted that in management, the subordination of relations appears quite clearly and is enshrined in job descriptions. However, in leadership, subordination is less noticeable and not fixed in any way. Therefore, often leadership is able to move into leadership, and the leader becomes a leader. Thus, there is an undeniable difference between a manager and a leader. In groups of a high socio-psychological level of development, the functions of leader and leader are assigned to the same person. It is a great success if the officially appointed head of any link has leadership qualities and naturally becomes the leader of the team.
Conclusion
In conclusion, vision and process, alignment and organization, and quality and position frameworks in the educational environment of early childhood are the most effective ways to ensure that no confusion takes place between leadership and management. The quote rightfully points out that management-related concepts ‘plagued’ the notion of leadership, where early childhood education struggles to provide a clear distinction between the two. Firstly, leadership always brings some form of vision or general goal, whereas managers focus on the processes which are already established under the existing strategic framework. Secondly, leaders align their vision and mission by bringing people under the common or shared goals, but managers focus on organizing the tasks and priorities.
Thirdly, leadership is a personal quality that is developed and manifested through action, whereas management comes with a specific managerial position or title with a set of roles and responsibilities. Thus, every person should be knowledgeable of leadership models and methods with a respective understanding of the distinctive aspect of management from leadership. Management is focused on intervening in the work processes of individuals by focusing on specific metrics, such as efficiency, whereas a leader brings values, vision, alignment, and qualities. These differences must be incorporated into early childhood education through pedagogical leaders.
References
Gavin, M. (2019). Leadership vs. Management: What’s the difference?? Harvard Business School Online. Web.
Mohd Adnan, S. N. S., & Valliappan, R. (2019). Communicating shared vision & leadership styles towards enhancing performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 68(6), 1042-1056. Web.
Rodd, J. (2013). Leadership in early childhood: The pathway to professionalism (4th ed.). Routledge.
Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F., & Shephard, W. (2017). Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood education (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.