Stewardship
This text discusses several key aspects involved in replacing leadership with stewardship within an organization. Stewardship implies that individuals in the institution are given power along with a promise from them to promote the institution in a positive manner. Several key components of this change are listed throughout the chapters in the text such as choosing partnership over patriarchy, choosing adventure over safety, and choosing service over self-interest.
The text also defines the stewardship contract indicating that stewardship is a way to use power to serve through the practice of partnership and empowerment. Additionally, compensation and performance evaluation are discussed as a means of facilitating this process. Finally, the author sites a need to overturn what he calls the class system which promotes practices that inhibit partnership and promotes patriarchy.
It is also explored that, as individuals within organizations, employees' initial instinctive response to resistance and transition is to argue with what is being undertaken. Several classifications of individuals oppose transition. They are cynics, victims, and bystanders and they facilitate an inhibition to change.
Finally, Peter Block explores the question of how a leader would implement a practice of stewardship rather than patriarchy within an institution. The answer to this question appears to be very elusive in the minds of practitioners as well as those who study leadership. However, according to this text, the answer to how it is done is yes. In other words we know what needs to be done and we should pursue this by simply taking a step in the right direction and attempting to initiate the transition.
An extensive section of notes on this text can be accessed by clicking on the "Coursework" button and selecting the appropriate course - Doctoral Seminar: Educational Leadership Practices I. There you will find a detailed account of the brief description above.