Critique of Peter Block's Stewardship Model in Organizational Setting

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Peter Block's stewardship model, drawn from his book "Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest." It presents stewardship as a means to cultivate skills and responsibilities among individuals, emphasizing long-term service and decentralized power. The paper contrasts stewardship with a patriarchal, control-oriented approach. It argues that self-interest is best channeled through service to others, and that selfish attitudes are detrimental to organizational success. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is used as a case study to illustrate the benefits and challenges of implementing a stewardship policy, highlighting its potential to protect stakeholder interests and promote long-term thinking, while also acknowledging the risk of overspending and the need for careful financial resource management. The essay concludes that stewardship, when properly implemented, can foster a more responsible and community-focused organizational culture.

Essay
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Introduction
The stewardship is a concept which expresses the essential strategies and resource management.
The stewardship could be implemented to the environment, nature, finance, property,
knowledge, and religion. The stewardship is made of the works of stewards in houses or
any firms. The duties of the stewardship are generally extended to the service and
management of the homes or in the organizations. The financial stewardship has the
tendency to work in the domestic and service needs of customers on banks, trains, planes
or in a hotel. The essay will select and evaluate either the stewardship models of Kent
Wilson or Peter Block. It will also explain the advantages and disadvantages of the
selected stewardship model in the chosen organizational setting.
Main Context
Critical Elements of the Block’s Stewardship Model
The stewardship is a group of principles and concepts which have the possibility to make drastic
changes in the management of the organizations. It is concerned with the creation of
different methods of management which builds a steady sense of ownership and duty,
related to the consequences at every organizational level (Block, 1993). It emphasizes
more on the client's partnership and forming self-dependence for those who are touched
by the organization. The solution to every financial issue is not only the decrease in price
or better investment, but it is also about concentrating on the relationships, privileges, and
participation. These are the components which provide the required services. This will
bring the organizations closer to their staffs and markets. The concept of stewardship is to
build a relationship sustainably with the people in the society which will provide the
answer to issues of the economies (Lipsky et al., 2016). The need for improvement is
known to all, but the way of achieving it is not known to any person. Most of the theories
regarding the changes are based on the leadership. The leadership is the source to fit the
firms in the market and also fit the people in the firms. The failure of the firm also leads
to the want of leader in the firm. This general belief is mostly a spiritual belief in the
leaders which slows down the process of improvement. The stewardship proposes an
approach to improve the leadership.
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The stewardship starts with the willingness to be responsible to the team, a business and society.
The stewardship originates from a group of beliefs regarding the development of the
firms which confirm their choice of service in their interest. Whenever service is selected
over self-interest, they are willing to carry on their responsibility instead of selecting to
manage the world around them. Trustworthiness is needed for this responsibility
(Andersson et al., 2014). It is forced by the stewardship to motivate the individuals to
utilize good parenting as a primary system of management while taking responsibility for
the services. It is a known fact that good parents are also good at work. The other option
is the partnership, which is in a learning procedure. Parenting and patriarchy are so
deeply embedded in the memory of the people, and that is posing difficulties in the
adoption of partnership. Apart from partnership, excellent service is needed to behave in
their way. The individuals could not be servants of an organization and make an
expectation that somebody else will take care of them. Most of the management systems
of the companies are by sovereignty and colonialism. These might be the strong words,
but they have a proper meaning. Many companies are controlled by steadiness, control,
and domination.
The organizations have to select between patriarchy and partnership. The patriarchy is the
concept which presents the belief that those who are at the peak of the company are only
responsible for the company’s success and the welfare of the employees. The patriarchy
is often measured by utilizing the parenting concepts for the methods adopted by the
employers to control the staffs of the companies. If the employers want to make
meaningful and financially strong workplaces in the market, they have to implement the
concept of patriarchy for the management procedures within the companies. The purpose
of balancing power between the individuals and those peoples around them is conveyed
by the partnership. But the value of maintenance and stability, control, and expectations
as the basis of management poses questions on the concept of partnership. The concept of
partnership has emerged from the option to put management close to the workplace and
not withheld it as the rights of the middle and upper classes (Withers et al., 2015). It also
comes by improving the consistency in managing as well as supporting the local units
while planning the strategies according to the local circumstances. Ultimately, the
demand for predictability has severely affected the organizations of the world.
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The organizations have another and final option of selecting between the service and self-
interest, although both are equally attractive. The self-interest has fire and intensity in it
which seems to have a significant effect on the organizations. Most organizations do not
doubt the skills of the leaders, but they could not trust their leaders. They doubt whether
the leaders are providing service to their organizations or to themselves (Messier et al.,
2015). The present generation is born in the era of anxiety and grown up in the era of
self-interest. The commitment and the reason behind the self-interest is the solution to
self-interest. Commitment, creativity, sacrifice, risk and adventure are the deeper
meaning of service. The organizations not only make commitments to the products or
services but also to culture, value, environment and efforts to build a society. This means
that the self-interest is replaced by a good option. The selection of service and society by
the organization is the only practical solution to the selfishness.
Benefits and Challenges of Stewardship Model in an Organization
Benefits
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the top bank in Australia and follows the stewardship
policy dedicated to the financial services to contribute to society. The financial services
consist of retail banking, premium banking, and management of funds, insurance,
business banking, investment and products and services of share brokers. The
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the most famous bank in the financial service sector.
It has a steady domestic presence beside the large customer base than any other banks of
Australia. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has the most extensive distribution
system of financial services in the nation with several access points (Madison, Holt,
Kellermanns & Ranft, 2016). The mission Commonwealth Bank of Australia is to excel in
the field of financial services for the interest of the peoples, organizations, and societies.
A good stewardship policy protects the interest of the stakeholder with full visibility and
responsibility. They take actions to provide protection to the future of the Commonwealth
Bank of Australia by creating and supporting the prudence and care and take a step to
create and maintain the trustworthiness of the customers. A leader in stewardship applies
useful techniques and implements a calculated approach towards risk. A good steward
can successfully combine the short-term strategy with the long-term thinking, the
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foresight to carefully apply the resource management of Commonwealth Bank of
Australia and the passion for implementing better plans and principles in the bank for the
future. They have the knowledge that their role in Commonwealth Bank of Australia is
based on trustworthiness and their ability to fulfill the responsibilities of the leadership.
They are dedicated to the values of the bank on which their trustworthiness is based.
The great stewards of Commonwealth Bank of Australia always try to improve themselves and
the banks to mutually apply the best values of the bank and work together for the better
of the society. They provide excellent leadership to the teams, groups and the employees
of Commonwealth Bank of Australia to bring changes that will be an advantage to the
whole world as well as motivates others. The great stewards have a strong moral and
driving force and are dedicated towards their responsibilities and decisions for the bank.
Challenges
Although there are few disadvantages of stewardship policy in Commonwealth Bank of
Australia, the first and foremost problem that the bank has to face is that the stewardship
policy does not always prioritize the budget of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(Shu & Peck, 2018). As a result, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has to spend
money without any savings for future programs.
As the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a financial institute, they need to manage the
financial resources wisely and carefully. For this, they have to rely on the stewards, and
as a result, the financial resources are draining without any planning (Foolad et al. 2018).
This will have a significant effect on their causes and personal circumstances of their
need.
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Conclusion
The paper had analyzed the stewardship model of Peter Block from his book “Stewardship:
Choosing Service over Self-Interest. He had presented stewardship as an option to
identify the skills and duties for the thoughts and activities of the individuals. He had
stewardship in two parts, one is to act in long run service, and another is to perform in
little power service. He believed that patriarchy is in contrast to short-term and control
attitude He had presented stewardship as a service approach in the organization. He had
suggested that self-interest is only about serving others. The self-interest approach would
not be successful in any organization for their selfish or self-centered attitudes. The
Commonwealth Bank of Australia had been considered as an organizational setting.
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