The Concept of Stewardship and Block’s Model
Discuss about the Block Model of Stewardship for Ecological Economics.
According to Block, (1993), the act of putting service before self is the basis of stewardship in any organization or firm. Stewardship is basically a concept that covers a lot of elements and parameters within its boundaries. All these elements encompass the principle of being accountable for one’s own deeds to a larger organization and placing the goals and objectives of that organization before personal goals. Stewardship in Block’s Model is dependent on empowerment of other employees. In other words, stewardship focuses on the steps taken to change the organizational structure and the way in which an organization functions. According to Block, (1993), stewardship is the act of giving the right to individuals at the bottom level of an organization to decide how that employee wants to serve a customer or a citizen or a community.
Service is the biggest component of any organization that focuses on the concept of stewardship. As a matter of fact, service is considered to be the language of stewardship (Madison et al., 2016). The model of Stewardship for Block was based on the following aspects:
- The most important concept is the balance of power, where in every one should have the right to decide for themselves and deciding for someone else only undermines them even if that decision is correct and viable
- The primary goal of any individual or team in any organization is to cater to the needs of organization and not individual goals or team goals as it portrays the self- centeredness associated with that individual or team
- Every person in the organization should also have the right to determine the culture that the organization will grow into and each person should contribute towards a culture of constant change
- Lastly, in any organization as all the employees and resources promote higher growth and cater to the organizational objectives, it is very important for them to be rewarded equally whenever the firm excels in its performance or sustains substantial growth
With an amalgamation of these key factors and stewardship values, ultimate service is provided not only to the clients but to the community as a whole (Van et al., 2012). However, in today’s generation this is not completely possible and the reality is way different from application of such values in any organization. In his book Block tells how governance using these principles can be applied in any organization. According to most theories of stewardship, the best quality of service and promotion of organizational change cannot be brought about through a structure of rigid and complex disciplinary policies and rules. It is brought about through some flexibility in operations and slowly over time by adapting to the ever changing situations of technology and management.
In today’s world leadership has taken up the position of stewardship and is leading organizations to earn more and not cater to the community as a whole (Schillemans, 2013). However, the values that leadership should primarily focus on are the facts that leadership should set an example for future generations while taking care of the subordinates. This is so because the behavior of the present generation depends upon how they are treated by the people of the previous generation (Garrod et al., 2012). Stewardship unlike leadership does not focus on trying gain control of the world around. Like every other managerial concept, the stewardship model also has certain advantages and disadvantages that affect not only the employees but also the organization and the community as a whole.
Working with World Health Organization, witnessing the application of stewardship has not only been easy but also inevitable. The entire working of the organization is based on the core values of Block’s Model which are modified and put into effect. Each and every worker associated with WHO, has equal rights to determine what is best for a given scenario or situation and act on the basis of the decisions made to impact the community as a whole and promote its betterment. It helps nations to manage resources in such a way that national leadership is promoted and policy goals are obtained in nations through implementation of better management systems. In fact, WHO helps in the establishment of policies that make health financers and health providers promote better health care through accountability of their own deeds.
There are several benefits accrued from the application of stewardship over leadership in WHO:
- It is increasingly setting an example in the field of service being related to leadership. In other words, it is focusing on providing world class service to the community and the society instead of working towards achieving goals related to monetary needs. For World Health Organization, working is more than money making. In fact, money making is only to serve the distressed and the unhealthy population of the world. This helps in building the clocks of success for WHO in the long run, as people will increasingly be aware of the capabilities of this organization and help it out as it runs for a social cause more than anything else.
- It is also acting towards promoting accountability in not only the health workers but also all the workers associated and especially the youth. This is helping the present generation to both learn and prioritize the needs of the community over everything else. In this context, the leaders in this organization are increasingly setting good examples. This promotes a very strong sense of intergenerational reciprocity and decisiveness.
- WHO is also increasingly helping young individuals and all employees who work at the base level or are associated in any minute way to take their decisions and implying their opinions on the taking of any major steps (Hernandez, 2012). Organizational culture in the framework of working of WHO is also changing and incorporating the latest methods of technology as well as managing structure. Thos sense of responsibility instilled in everyone gives them worth for their own values and makes them more serious and committed to the work they do. This in turn gives stakeholders and sponsors a trust and belief about both the quality of work as well as the returns.
- Application of Block’s model of stewardship has been very important when the concept of unity is introduced (Gnan, Hinna & Scarozza, 2013).. WHO as is known works for the betterment of healthcare opportunities and services to almost all countries of the world. This practically cannot be achieved without cooperation of all the workers and the collaboration of ideas of all the employees. In this context again, the goals of the organization and the benefits provided to the community and society as a whole matter and not the individual goals of the workers (Bernstein, Ambrosio and Slatten, 2015).
Just like any other organization, the World Health Organization also faces certain challenges and shortcomings in the context of application of Block’s Model of Stewardship in their organization structure and management systems of working. There are majorly two very important limitations that are faced by this organization:
- Firstly, the application of such a liberal system that applies stewardship and replaces most principles of leadership sometimes sends wrong signal to both the stakeholders and sponsors. This is in relation to the fact that with increasing levels of service and quality being maintained by the organization, the expectations of the community as a whole increases and the services are increasingly expected to be of the best quality with a consequent increase in the types and specialization of services involved. However, at the same time when due to the flexibility of rules or because of some other governing reason the assured quality drops or there is a lack of service in any of the fields, a scenario of mistrust and doubt rises for all the stakeholders
- Also, the right of every individual to decide and form an opinion about any changes that take place or about any scenario which is ongoing at a particular time, falls incorrect and leads to a lot of anomalies. Often it has been observed that inexperienced youth or people at the base level working towards their own small goals are not able to decide at the long term or community level and even if they do, those decisions are generally wrong and affect the well being of the organization as a whole and the quality of its services.
- Lastly, the concept of catering to the goals of the organization first and then the team that the individual is associated with causes a lot of vagueness in the structure and setting of priorities and in an attempt to the adhere to the long run goals, neither the goals of the team are met sufficiently nor is the objective of the firm catered to.
Thus to conclude it can be asserted that the application of the core values of stewardship in any modern day organization is both needed and also susceptible to a lot of adverse outcomes if not applied in the proper course of situations and scenarios. However, it generally more benefits than challenges and helps the firm to survive in the long run unlike most firms who focus more on money making rather than providing services to the society.
References:
Bernstein, R., Ambrosio, F. and Slatten, L.A., 2015. The Challenges of Foundation Stewardship: When a Philanthropic Gift Becomes a Burden.
Block, P. (1993). Stewardship: Choosing service over self-interest. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Garrod, G., Ruto, E., Willis, K., & Powe, N. (2012). Heterogeneity of preferences for the benefits of Environmental Stewardship: A latent-class approach. Ecological Economics, 76, 104-111. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.02.011
Gnan, L., Hinna, A., & Scarozza, D. (2013). Leading organisational changes in public sector building blocks in understanding boards behaviour. In Conceptualizing and Researching Governance in Public and Non-Profit Organizations (pp. 57-89). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Hernandez, M. (2012). Toward an understanding of the psychology of stewardship. Academy of Management Review, 37(2), 172-193. Doi: https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/amr.2010.0363
Madison, K., Holt, D. T., Kellermanns, F. W., & Ranft, A. L. (2016). Viewing family firm behavior and governance through the lens of agency and stewardship theories. Family Business Review, 29(1), 65-93. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486515594292
Schillemans, T. (2013). Moving beyond the clash of interests: On stewardship theory and the relationships between central government departments and public agencies. Public Management Review, 15(4), 541-562. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2012.691008
Van Puyvelde, S., Caers, R., Du Bois, C., & Jegers, M. (2012). The governance of nonprofit organizations: Integrating agency theory with stakeholder and stewardship theories. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 41(3), 431-451. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764011409757
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