ABSTRACT
Heads on management courses often carry out some sort of 'diary exercise' in which they keep a close record of how they spend their own time in school and then analyse the results in terms of the number, duration and purpose of their activities. Many studies have been carried out on how managers in commerce and industry use their time. The substantive content of their managerial roles differs greatly but the characteristic features of how the job is done are strikingly similar. Rosemary Stewart studied 160 British senior and middle managers for a period of four weeks using a self-report diary method. Mintzberg saw managerial work as comprising three areas and ten associated roles. Many other studies of managers in commercial and public service organisations have reached similar conclusions about what it is that managers do at work, and the similarities with the work of the headteacher are striking.
