Leadership and management mean different things to different people - Essay Example

Another alternative meaning of leadership entails organizing a collection of people, so as to accomplish common goals. K-12 school leadership involves enlisting and directing the talents and efforts of education stakeholders like administrators, parents, pupils and teachers, towards realizing common education goals. Several universities globally offer graduate programs in education leadership. Leadership studies in various organizations have generated theories from traits intelligence, situational interaction, charisma, behavior, charisma, power and function (Carter, 2013).

There are several leadership theories which are applied in the education sector. The early western history illustrates the traits or characteristics necessary for leaders. The theory illustrates that leadership was based on characteristics possessed by individuals. The leadership determined by the attributes or characteristics is referred to as trait theory of leadership. Alternative leadership theories developed during the 1950s. The theories illustrate the driving factors for leadership. The individuals also illustrate that individuals who are leaders in a given context or situation, may not be effective leaders in different situations.

This led to shift in attention from traits responsible for leadership, to effective behaviors for leadership. The trait theory thereafter reemerged, due to new researches and measurement of leadership. Statistical advances in the 1980s used meta-analyses to quantitatively analyze leadership concepts. The researchers illustrated that individuals become leaders due to various tasks and situations. In the k-12 school contexts, leaders are developed when teachers are promoted to the administrator position.

There is direct relationship between leadership development and associated traits such as; intelligence, extraversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness. K-12