Evaluating Block's Model of Stewardship in Modern Organizations Today

This essay delves into Peter Block's Model of Stewardship, emphasizing service over self-interest and accountability within organizations. It highlights the importance of empowering employees, fostering a culture of change, and balancing power dynamics. The essay examines the application of Block's model within the World Health Organization (WHO), showcasing its benefits such as promoting service-oriented leadership, accountability, and collaborative decision-making. However, it also addresses limitations, including potential stakeholder mistrust due to flexible rules and the challenges of incorporating inexperienced opinions in critical decisions. The essay concludes that while stewardship offers significant advantages for long-term organizational success, its implementation requires careful consideration of potential adverse outcomes and proper contextual application. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students seeking to deepen their understanding of organizational behavior and leadership theories.

Running head: BLOCK’S MODEL OF STEWARDSHIP
Block’s Model of Stewardship
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BLOCK’S MODEL OF STEWARDSHIP
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

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 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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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