Subject:
Stewardship: The post-heroic theory of management.
Introduction:
The purpose of this research is to discuss and analyze Stewardship, one of the contemporary theories of leadership. Stewardship theory highlights an employee’s motivation to act in the best interest the organization (Davis, 1997). The case will discuss the definition of post-heroic theories of leadership. The research will also examine stewardship and why it is related to employee creativity. Lastly, the case will describe how models of stewardship have developed better organizational leadership standards and why they are considered to be effective.
Post Heroic Theories: Traditional management structures found within organizations are often labeled either “heroic” or “post-heroic”. The heroic leader model is derived from the traditional hierarchical, reporting, and control structures (Eicher, 1997). Post-Heroic leaders manage in a “role-set” format. Role-set is the name given to a group of individuals with whom a certain person might be responsible for interacting. This management structure is different due to the interaction with many principals of an organization, not simply direct reports. Post-Heroic theory is an influencing relationship consisting of very direct control (Eicher, 1997). This promotes the mind-set that effectiveness is derived from persuasion and communication, not simply authority (Eicher, 1997).
Stewardship:
Stewardship theory refers to when both employees and managers of an organization are not focused solely on personal goals. Rather, they act as “stewards” who have motives and goals that are in-line with the organizations success (Block, 1993). Stewardship is seen as an alternative to the traditional agency theory of leadership. Agency theory is based upon the idea of divergence of goals between the agent and the owner (Kuppelwieser, 2011). Stewardship