Leadership and Management in the Definitions of School Heads

In the literature on the subject there occur two approaches to describing mutual relationships between leadership and management. One of them perceives these phenomena as incompatible and evaluated as either positive or negative. Nowadays there is a general agreement that leadership and management are processes which cannot be separated from one another. It is emphasized that at the level of practical applications, it is impossible to separate the functions of leadership and the functions of management. From this perspective, the following questions are worth considering: in what manner do men of practice - head teachers define the notions of leadership and management within the context of their professional duties and what similarities and differences do they notice between these two notions? In order to answer these questions, we have analysed qualitative data collected during interviews with 171 head teachers of Polish schools. The results indicate that the respondents define management consistently based on the classical approach to the management functions. The definitions of leadership are more varied in their content, with a common core comprising a leader’s vision and determination to realize such a vision.