Stewardship (Organizational Leadership) Research Papers (original) (raw)

Steward leadership is a form of leadership that focuses on others, the community, and society at large rather than the self, and this book creates a framework for stewardship and the requisite behavior to develop steward leaders at a younger age. Many senior leaders and executives across the globe appear to move into a stewardship mindset at a ripe age or when their careers have matured, whereas executives of around 30 years old, on average, are typically focused on self-interest. The book's extensive research and interviews provide the theoretical as well as consulting tools with which organizations can develop stewards, whether through training programs, mentoring programs, coaching initiatives, and personal development practices.

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- Leadership, Servant Leadership, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Common Good
- by Kai Peters
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- Sociology, Leadership, Servant Leadership, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership)
- by Genard Hajdini
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- Business, Christianity, Theology, Culture
- by John Korstad
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- Stewardship (Organizational Leadership)

The objective of this paper is to analyze and discuss the role of volunteers in decision-making within the for-profit and non-profit organizations. According to Lawrence and Weber (2011), volunteers are “people who assist others in the community through unpaid work.” Volunteers are, according to Ellis (2003), the organization’s unpaid human resources department, the organization’s spokespeople, the community outreach department, and the fundraising department, and they contribute their energy and skills to benefit the organization because they believe in the organization’s mission and vision. Ellis (2003) goes on to state that “Volunteer is a pay rate not a job title."

Gestion chrétienne de la vie dans sa plénitude La gestion chrétienne de la vie est un concept sur lequel beaucoup sont "d'accord", mais en le limitant presque exclusivement au domaine économique ou financier. En réalité, il s'agit plus de principes que d'actions spécifiques. La responsabilité qui est la nôtre, nous amène à gérer notre vie selon les principes qui en font une vie chrétienne, selon les fondements du royaume du Christ dont nous jouirons pleinement lors de la Parousie.

- by Pedro Torres
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- Religion, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Editorial

This book is a product of multiple authorship. In so being, it acknowledges the complexity that characterizes leadership in the new millennium. It is no longer sufficient to consider leadership as an individual pursuit. This notion... more

- by Kurt April and +1
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- Leadership, Complexity Theory, Dialogue, Authenticity

A number of writers propound stewardship as an alternative to traditional leadership (Spears, 1998; Macnamara, 2004; Block, 1993; Covey, 1989). They have all listed and expounded on the factors that distinguish stewardship from traditional modes of leadership and the factors that make stewardship a more acceptable, indeed more realistic, approach to leadership. The question, then, is why has stewardship not, to any extent, supplanted these traditional modes of leadership in practice? Block (1993: 10) highlights this concern when he states: “What is troubling about ideas like stewardship is that even though they are intuitively appealing, they seem far removed from the heart of the way we run our organizations.” This is an outright admission, from as authoritative a source as you can ever hope for, that stewardship has not begun to substitute for current leadership methods in practice. What are those factors that are inhibiting contemporary leaders from subjugating themselves to the dictates of the stewardship concept? In order to investigate reasons why stewardship is not as prevalent a concept as it should be with contemporary leaders, this research makes use of a Stewardship Framework first developed by April, Hendrikz and Peters (2010 forthcoming), which proposes nine dimensions around which stewardship revolves.

- by Kurt April
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- Leadership, Mentoring, Servant Leadership, Transformational Leadership

Leaders play an important role in clergy’s response to their call. Toxic leadership, also known as the dark side of leadership, negatively influences their decision to remain in full-time pastoral ministry. There is a shortage of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church and a distribution or displacement challenge facing the Protestant church. This shortage adversely affects the future of the church as clergy play an integral part in the preparation of congregants for their works of service (Eph 4:11–12). The purpose of this study was to discover what factors were
involved in clergy’s response to the call to full-time pastoral ministry. A practical theological grounded theory approach was used to discover the properties of the category ‘leadership’. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were coded using Glaser and Strauss’s grounded theory methodology. The category of ‘leadership’ includes properties such as favouritism, leaders abdicating responsibilities, leaders taking no action/being inactive, leaders ‘labeling’ subordinates, leaders’ ‘unethical’ behaviour, nepotism, poor conflict handling, poor handling of multi-racial issues, being placed on a pedestal, affirming subordinates and autocratic leadership style. Osmer’s descriptive-empirical task was used as a practical theological lens through which to view the category ‘leadership’. The results indicated three responses by clergy to the call to full-time pastoral ministry: not being called in the first place, a dual call (being bi-vocational or ‘seasonal’) and being called but leaving anyway because of, among other factors, toxic leadership. A steward leadership approach is recommended in response to the dark side of leadership (Article available at http://hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/4625).

The issues of generosity, funding, raising funds and managing funds in God’s mission are investigated. First of all, we conduct a literature survey of the themes of poverty, wealth, generosity, giving and stewardship. This provides theological and missiological perspectives that contribute to the development of the themes. Secondly, outcomes from a case study of five missiological consultations, facilitated by the Wycliffe Global Alliance on the topic of funding God’s mission, resulted in information that contributed to the topic. The common experiences that emerged from the consultations provided the foundation for the Wycliffe Global Alliance’s Principles for
Funding. These principles defined the groundwork for generosity such that the funding of God’s mission becomes a reality of the global church. Finally, the Principles for
Funding are compared with the Lausanne Standards, observations from the World Council of Churches’ Together Towards Life and material from the Edinburgh 2010
Conference.
Keywords: Principles for funding, generosity, poverty, wealth, sustainability, missiological reflection, donors, global church,

- by Cristian Gonzales and +1
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- Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Jesus Christ, Lordship, Mayordomo

The purpose of this paper is to (1) explore the different facets of the theoretical concept of stewardship by giving a carefully selected overview of the relevant research field and also contrast that theory with the more prominent agency theory, (2) examine how the stewardship theory can be applied to family businesses in particular, and (3) utilize the different aspects for a real-life case. We then examine how the company in question can improve its performance or how other firms may take example of its good practice, relating any recommendations back to the rationales of stewardship.

- by Joel Iparraguirre and +1
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- New Testament, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Historical Jesus, Jesus Christ

Reflexión sobre la influencia de nuestras palabras.

Kicking off the Spring 2015 season of ecclesio.com, three essays on the function and power of relationships and community within the Body of Christ

“Liderazgo es el proceso de inducir a la acción voluntaria a otros en la persecución de una meta común”

In the last ten years, the fire management community has made significant advances in firefighter safety and leadership development. Yet, there is no discernible downward trend in entrapment fatalities. While the complexity of the job and exposure of an increasing number of firefighters to increasingly severe situations has surely increased over that time frame, the best we can say is that the trend is not increasing. This paper explores the question, how can we make significant advances toward reducing the likelihood of future firefighter fatalities? Signal detection theory provides a mechanism to facilitate sensemaking, learning and the exploration of deeper causal models. Signal detection theory can help focus attention on detecting weak signals (and so provide a means for high reliability organizing) and learning from errors (and so provide a means for organizational learning). To make progress toward organizing for high reliability and learning, leadership is required. Some of the vast literature on leadership development is summarized. A critical facet of leadership is creating an environment "where the truth is heard and brutal facts confronted." Signal detection can also be deployed to help create such an environment. The paper concludes with some suggestions for possible next steps.

- by Jim Saveland
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- Leadership, Integral Theory, Sensemaking (Organizational Behavior), Wildland Fire

We aim to provide a theoretical framework for enhancing the Catholic Church's culture of transparency. We therefore define concepts of culture and transparency, stressing some of the institutional consequences due to their interaction. Finally, we apply these principles to the ecclesial institution's fields that are attractive for the public square: the administration of temporal goods, the use of information and the dispensation of sacraments and religious teachings. Defining culture as the setting up of behavioral standards, we realize that the ones regarding transparency have been constantly raised in the last years by society, while the Church has remained stable in its long-term organizational principles. Applying a culture of transparency for the Church would therefore require to understand the dynamic of cultural change within the Church that is essentially united to the preservation of its own spiritual purposes. Also builds within itself a culture that sustains a culture of accountability. Ecclesial institutions as any institution, builds and sustains trust through its diligent and consistent refusal to abuse the power given. The ecclesiastical institution would change its standards of transparency when it is needed to keep up with its original mission not when it is just an exigency of its cultural environment.

- by Cristian Mendoza and +1
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- Management, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Transparency, Church and State

Unlike agency theory, stewardship theory (ST) claims that directors (agents) are trustworthy, loyal employees and good stewards of the resources entrusted to them (Donaldson, 1990). They are also aligned automatically (on appointment) with the aims of their employers (principals) for fear of jeopardising their reputations. ST is grounded in McGregor’s Theory Y and various organisational, leadership, psychology and sociology theories. Directors are motivated by a need to gain intrinsic satisfaction through achievement, self-actualisation and a chance to grow. They are successfully performing inherently challenging tasks to exercise responsibility and authority.

The first appointment of many principals in Australia is to a small school where much of their time will be spent teaching a class. In very small schools this will be their own class, or the whole school, and in slightly larger schools they will provide time release to their very small and often part-time teaching staff. While this is going on they are expected to manage the school, dealing with tasks both mundane and profound. They will be in charge of events that occur publicly and privately. And they will maintain professional and sometimes more personal relationships with school stakeholders who may, or may not, be supportive. This book suggests a model of engagement for the new school leader which takes them from followership to stewardship and then on to school administration. The author is the principal of a very small school in regional Victoria, Australia. He has been at his school for more than 12 years.

- by Peter Farrell
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- Education, Educational Leadership, Influence, Educational Administration

Does family membership differentiate family and nonfamily top management team (TMT) members’ ownershipbased
motivations to pursue corporate entrepreneurship? We adopt the concept of psychological ownership to
answer this question. Based on a sample of 192 TMT members from 90 Korean companies, this study found that
family and nonfamily TMT members do not differ in the levels of psychological ownership of the organization or
that of the job, nor do the two groups differ in the emphasis they place on corporate entrepreneurship. Family
involvement and nepotism mitigate this relationship, but only for nonfamily TMT members. These results help
reconcile discrepant findings for family versus nonfamily TMT members’ agency and stewardship behaviors.

In C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress (1933), he portrays a number of religious teachers or stewards, who advocate a variety of paths to the Landlord (God). This article examines the cases made by the diverse stewards in this allegory... more

- by Robert C Stroud
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- Religion, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), C.S. Lewis, Clergy

Countryside Stewardship (CS) has been England’s principal
Agri-environment scheme providing financial incentives for
farmers and land managers to look after the environment by
undertaking a range of management options such as creating,
restoring and improving habitats, reducing water pollution and
keeping the character of the countryside. Aside from the benefits
for biodiversity and ecosystem services many of the available
management options under CS offer opportunities for mitigating
the effects of climate change either by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions or by increasing carbon sequestration. However, it can be
a challenge to quantify the benefits (and burdens in some instances)
due to the breadth of the scheme itself and the complexity of the
factors involved such as the physical, chemical and biological
processes, and spatial and temporal variability due to geographical
and climatic factors. An assessment of the benefits and burdens
of the 2005-2014 schemes’ climate change mitigation effects has
been undertaken previously [1-4]. However, in 2015 as part of
the Rural Development Programmed for England the Countryside
Stewardship scheme was revised to introduce new options and
modify the management of some of the existing options.

Odjel za ekonomiju i poslovnu ekonomiju Sveuilišta u Dubrovniku izdava je sveuilišnog udžbenika s naslovom Izvori konkurentske prednosti u XXI. stoljeu, Dubrovnik, 2013., autorice Ivone Vrdoljak Raguž, Lare Jelenc i Najle Po-drug. Opseg ovog sveuilišnog udžbenika je 317 stranica, format B-5, tvrdi uvez, ISBN 978-953-7153-26-7. Fokus ove knjige je stavljen na prouavanje razliitih as-pekata konkurentskih prednosti. Autorice ove knjige prouavaju sadržaje menad-žmenta i strateškog menadžmenta posljednje desetljee predavajui u Dubrovniku, Rijeci i Zagrebu. Knjiga obrauje razne izvore konkurentskih prednosti prvenstveno fokusi-rajui se na važnost oblikovanja strategije, razumijevanja potrebe za primjenom principa strateškog promišljanja i uloge vodstva, poticanje procesa kontinuiranog unapreenja temeljenog na znanju, povjerenju, uslužnom menadžmentu i korpora-tivnom graanstvu. Predloženi izvori konkurentske prednosti odgovornost su svih razina menadžmenta, s posebnim naglaskom na najviše poslovodstvo koje mora poticati, razvijati i upravljati konkurentskim prednostima. Ova knjiga potvruje stav da konkurentska prednost nije statika veliina, ve da treba kontinuirano tragati za novim izvorima unapreenja poslovanja, treba kombinirati elemente tra-dicije i suvremenosti kako bi se razvio potencijal za rast i razvoj poduzea.

- by Valentina Ivančić
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- Leadership, Learning and Teaching, Change Leadership, Strategic Management

This paper seeks to offer a perspective from two practitioners on how the potential for retirement fund collaboration to improve long-term market returns could be realised. After looking at the Universal Owner hypothesis and long-term market returns, and their relevance to pension funds, the paper looks at collaboration to date, and the problems of collective action in general. After outlining several current collaborative opportunities, the ways in which they address the problems of collective action are outlined. The paper ends with a call to action to the leaders of the world’s largest pension funds.

Texto comentado del primer capítulo de "Consejos sobre mayordomía cristiana" de Ellen G. White

Land-use change threatens biodiversity and ecosystem function worldwide. These changes have impacts on weather patterns, carbon storage, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services from regional to local scales. Only 8 percent of tropical forests are formally recognized as conservation areas, however globally, there is a network of sites that are protected because they are sacred and as a result act as 'shadow' conservation for biodiversity. Unlike other types of protected sites (e.g., national parks), these sites are seats of religious ritual that anchor a community's cultural identity, while also conserving biological diversity and other ecosystem services. We studied the extent and status of sacred forests in northern Ethiopia, which are threatened because of their small size (~5 ha) and isolation, increasing their exposure to edge effects and human pressures. Using historical and modern imagery, we found that over the last 50 yr, sacred forests have increased in area, but decreased in crown closure. We also found that forest ecological status, via ground-level investigation, had high mean human disturbance (e.g., trails, plantations, exotic planting; 37%); and that forests close to markets (e.g., cities) increased in area due to planting of Eucalyptus (exotic), indicating a potential threat to their persistence and value as shelters of the church.

A new theory of organizational change and success has recently been proposed, organizational portfolio theory (Donaldson, 1999). One purpose of this theory is to provide a fresh perspective on the determinants and consequences of board composition. After outlining organizational portfolio theory, this paper suggests some implications of the new theory for understanding the dynamic relationship between board composition and firm performance.

This article introduces customer stewardship control to the marketing field. This concept represents a frontline employee’s felt ownership of and moral responsibility for customers’ overall welfare. In two studies, the authors show that customer stewardship control is a more encompassing construct than customer orientation, which reflects an individual’s focus on meeting customers’ needs. They provide evidence that the former is more potent in shaping in- and extra-role employee behaviors. Moreover, they highlight how customer stewardship control operates in conjunction with an organization’s agency control system; stewardship’s positive influence on in- and extra-role behavior is weaker in the presence of high agency control. Actionable advice is offered about how to solve the resulting managerial control dilemma. Finally, the authors show that customer stewardship control depends on drivers that reside at the individual level (employee relatedness), the team level (team competence), or both levels of aggregation (employee and team autonomy). These findings show how to effectively design a frontline employee’s work environment to ensure optimal frontline performance.

This paper introduces the idea of a non-kinship-based Universal-family firm, an organizational form we developed based on interpreting historical writings in their socio-economic context. We analyzed Luke’s gospel with an eye toward drawing implications for the stewardship-agency debate in the contemporary family business literature. Our paper makes contributions at two important levels. In addition to introducing and developing theory about the Universal-family firms, we also contribute to the methodological toolkit of family business scholars by providing a template for using historical documents to challenge, enhance and develop theory.

- by Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd and +1
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- Entrepreneurship, New Testament, Family Business, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership)

This article will highlight aspects of the key elements that will benefit
junior PETE faculty members who are seeking to advance their
careers. This article will highlight tips for junior faculty members for
succeeding at: building relationships across campus, creating
a mentor and mentee relationship, progressing towards tenure and
promotion, and attaining work-life balance. Finally, the article will
reflect on the promotion and tenure process and discuss how to help
junior faculty members succeed.

- by Brian Culp
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- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Social Networks, Higher Education, Leadership

Los esquemas de pago basados únicamente en compensaciones (EPBC) pueden inducir a las personas a actuar con base en sus intereses personales, creando una situación de competencia de lealtades entre el empleado, el cliente, y la organización. En este estudio se explora a la ma-yordomía como un modelo para superar este dilema ético, por el medio de la cual se pueden promover los comportamientos éticos de los agentes de seguros, una actividad que se paga por medio de un EPBC. Los aspectos del modelo de mayordomía (Hernandez, 2012) que deben en-fatizarse son: (a) la promoción de la responsabilidad colectiva de los empleados; (b) la facilita-ción de la experiencia de recompensas intrínsecas por parte de los agentes; y (c) el desarrollo de mecanismos cognitivo y afectivo que promueven la apropiación psicológica de la organización por el empleado. Así mismo, se propone que el uso de herramientas de reflexión auto-crítica puede ayudar a promover comportamientos de mayordomía, con base a los hallazgos de un es-tudio cualitativo en el que se entrevistó a cinco agentes de ventas y dos dueños de una agencia promotora. En el futuro, se debe de investigar empíricamente si las herramientas de reflexión autocrítica pueden promover el desarrollo de comportamientos de mayordomía en actividades EPBC.

The venerable but amorphous concept of stewardship has lately gained prominence in discussions of public policy and management and is sometimes offered as a “strategy” with a distinctive potential to mobilize effective public leadership in the service of broad social missions. In this article we explore how stewardship may be useful to the theory and practice of mental health policy, and, reciprocally, how examples from mental health policy may elucidate the dynamics of stewardship. After examining its key political ingredients — authority, advocacy, and analysis — we discuss the practical challenges in moving stewardship from moral inspiration to institutional reality.

Christian stewardship in its fullness Christian stewardship is a concept that many people "agree" on, but which we circumscribe almost exclusively to economic or financial matters. Actually, it deals more with principles than with specific actions. We are responsible for managing (being stewards of) our life according to the principles that make it Christian, according to the foundations of Christ's kingdom, which we will fully enjoy at the Parousia.

- by Pedro Torres
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- Religion, Stewardship (Organizational Leadership), Editorial

In spite of the highly concentrated ownership of listed companies, Italy is one of the countries in which institutional investors are on the rise and are playing an increasingly active role in the governance of their investee companies. Against this background, the goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of institutional investors’ stewardship in Italy, by illustrating some distinctive features, which make the Italian regulatory system unique in promoting active institutional ownership. In particular, a distinctive characteristic of the Italian corporate governance system is the so-called slate (or list) voting system, which enables minority shareholders to appoint at least one board member. Moreover, this favorable regulatory context is coupled with the particularly effective role played by the Investment Management Association representing most Italian and foreign asset managers operating in Italy (Assogestioni) that publishes the Italian Stewardship Principles and promotes collective engagement initiatives aimed at facilitating the appointment of members of the management and the statutory auditors’ boards through the slate voting system.

The current value system of our mainly Anglo-Saxon civilisation is destroying the fabric of global stability, and condemning hundreds of millions of people to poverty. We are seeing the fruition of Charles Taylor’s three forms of unease: individualism, supremacy of instrumental reason and a new form of soft despotism. We are living in a world in which the environment is seen as an economic resource to be plundered, a world in which species are becoming rapidly extinct, in which the gulf between rich and poor continues to grow, and in which the basis of every negotiation is: “What’s in it for me?” Despite this, the revolution in values that has begun to occur, in community-focus as opposed to only character-building virtues, as well as technology’s increasing role in shaping a world inclusive of all, gives us hope.

- by Kurt April
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- Technology, Human Values, Values, Inclusion

Reflexión sobre el empleo de nuestro tiempo

Reflexión sobre los regalos de Dios.

The biocultural ethic affirms the vital value of the links that have coevolved between specific life habits, habitats, and communities of co-in-habitants (“3Hs”). The conservation of habitats and access to them by communities of co-inhabitants is the condition of possibility for the continuity of their life; it becomes an ethical imperative that should be incorporated into development policies as a matter of ecosocial justice. The conceptual framework of the biocultural ethic recognizes that there are numerous communities (inhabiting cities, rural, or remote areas) with cultural traditions that have ethical values centered in life, sustainable practices, and low environmental impact. It also recognizes agents that have values centered on short term profit, non-sustainable practices, and disproportionately high environmental impact. Therefore, it would be technically and ethically right to define and enforce differential responsibilities among social groups, corporations, and nations that are contributing to the negative socio-environmental impacts that we face today. We have now reached a state of “plutonomy” that is dividing the world into two blocs: the wealthy 1 % of the world’s population that owns 50 % of the world’s wealth, and “the rest.” To achieve Earth stewardship, this trend needs to be overcome by (i) changing the current regime of plutocracy towards one of more participatory democracy that ceases to be indifferent to the well-being of the majority of human and other-than-human living beings, (ii) reorienting the current habits of plutonomy, and its associated consumerism and land-grabbing practices, towards habits of stewardship, and (iii) broadening the prevailing perspective of ecosystem services toward an ethical concept of sustainable co-inhabitation. By more precisely identifying the diversity of Earth stewards, their languages, values, cultures, and practices in heterogeneous habitats of the planet, as well as the specific agents that are mostly responsible for current socio-environmental problems, the biocultural ethic can significantly contribute to orient clearer collaborative and supportive ways for a responsible and intercultural Earth stewardship.

- by Ricardo Rozzi
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- Latin American Studies, Economics, Philosophy, Ethics

Innovation is no longer a buzz word: it is in the priority list for startups to large sized corporations. However, despite the efforts many organizations fail to innovate. Studies show success rate for innovation is only 1% to 7% in many industries. The central issue is the lack of understanding about innovation and how to manage it.
This article provides a practical guide to foster and effectively manage innovation improving success rate to outsmart competition.