Response to Monica Grace’s Learning Assignment 4

In  her blog post, Monica Grace discusses the balance of management and leadership. She raises some discussion around whether these two roles should be separated between two different people. Grace asks “In your context, do you think there should be a distinctive management role and leadership role, for two seperate people or do you think that it should be combined into one role, for one person?”  This is a great question and one which I have frequently considered as the leader of a small organization.

My natural inclination is to trend toward elements of leadership rather than management. In the years when my organization was small and I was responsible for both, I would have prefered that there had been someone in place to take on many of the management elements of my position. Over time I have come to appreciate the management responsibilities that I have.  Having an involved knowledge of the day to day workings of my school has helped me to understand how it functions, what the needs of the community are and where the heaviest burdens are on our resources (time and money).  As the organization has grown and doubled in size, there are others who oversee more and more of the management tasks I was once responsible for.  In time, I can see that my role may be largely or even entirely a leadership position.  When that time comes, I know that I will be better prepared to be successful because I have developed a functional knowledge of the day to day and would then be able to anticipate how management needs would change as our vision continues to  grow and unfold.

To conclude, I think that organizational size has a lot to do with how management and leadership is divided. I have learned that in my context, to be an effective leader, a comprehensive understanding of organizational management is important.