The terms administration, leadership, and management are often used interchangeably. These terms carry distinct meanings, but we frequently hear them lumped together to the extent that we think of administrators, managers, and leaders as all playing similar roles. We may therefore mistakenly exclude those who are not administrators or managers from the category ‘leader’.
This is not a useful conception of leadership, the general topic of this course. So let us deconstruct some of our own perceptions about administration, leadership, and management in this first course discussion. What essential differences exist between administration, leadership, and management?
