Various sources are cited indicating that the actual role of educational administrators, especially school principals, is largely one of communicating with teachers, students, supervisors, parents, and others and monitoring, reviewing, and assessing what is occurring in the school work setting. Suggested as the cornerstones of effective school administration are moral imagination (the capacity to develop a compelling vision regarding what is possible and desirable to achieve in a given school situation) and interpersonal competence (the knowledge and skills needed to influence teachers and others in desired directions). Aspects of the relationship between certain features of the school work situation and the personal qualities of the administrator are examined. Formal and informal role socialization processes and outcomes and their relationship to preparing individuals to work effectively as school administrators, as well as implications of these ideas for the preparation of educational administrators and school principals, are briefly discussed. The paper concludes with a summary of the major ideas and a set of tentative propositions regarding the preparation of effective school principals. Appended are 87 references. (WTH)