Peer Review

Ethical Stewardship: Implications for Leadership and Trust

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 10, 2021 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This paper introduces the concept of ethical stewardship and its practical applications for leaders. Leaders rise to the level of ethical stewards when they work to contribute to the welfare of all stakeholders in pursuing long-term wealth optimization.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Journal-Article

Recommended Uses:

This can be used in class for discussion or as part of a lecture, for homework, for individuals or teams.

Technical Requirements:

Firefox ver 85.0.1, Google Chrome version 88.0.4234.150

Adobe reader ver 21.001.20135

Microsoft 365 ver 16.0.13530.20440

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The reader should gain an understanding of the concept of 'ethical stewardship'
The reader will understand the role of leaders as 'ethical stewards'.
Reader will understand the changes necessary to make this happen in organizations so we can avoid future debacles such as Enron and WorldCom. Stakeholder theory and agency theory, as examples are, not adequate to do so.
Stewardship theory is provided as the necessary component to bridge the gaps left by agency theories and stakeholder theory to provide more a values and moral-based approach to organizational ethics.

Target Student Population:

This is recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level students in management.
This can also be used in a professional context such as training
Also, professional development, including certificate programs in business ethics, leadership.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Prior study of business concepts helpful (ethics, leadership, trust)

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The paper integrates the concept of ethical stewardship in terms of values, goals, and moral responsibility to optimize performance and accountability for the organization.
Stewardship theory, agency theory, and stakeholder theory are discussed with significant leadership implications.
Leadership behaviors are discussed in terms of instrumentality or outcome-focused and normative or value-based leadership.
This is a high-quality (scholarly) item that includes appropriate support.
Treatment of the topic is thorough.
Useful connections are made between theory and practice.

Concerns:

There are no concerns about the article, however, this is from 2008 which may suggest that more current research is available.
Faculty may need to update supporting material

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This paper emphasizes the opinion that viewing employees simply as a cost center fails to optimize their potential and as a source of competitive advantage.
The need to align human resource practices to create a competitive advantage is noted.
The article also notes the need to win back employee trust and commitment, as this has been widely acknowledged in organizations.
Item can be used in a variety of ways including homework or as the basis for classroom discussion.
The item promotes conceptual understanding and enhanced student learning.
The resource could be easily integrated into an existing course assignment or other materials.

Concerns:

Because it is an academic article, learning objectives are not necessarily provided although the reader could conclude that there is a focus on business leaders and corporate directors to regain credibility and public confidence through the exercise of ethical stewardship.
Prerequisite knowledge is not specified, but this is normal for an academic article. Because this requires prerequisite knowledge to understand the basics about ethics and organizations, readers may need to be familiar with some of the terms and the concepts before they can understand the article.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

It is very straightforward, and a summary at the end provides a description of ethical stewardship as well as the importance of expectancy theory, and the attributes of leaders who follow principles of ethical stewardship.
Core beliefs as well as the six beliefs model are important in assessing ethical duties, values. and realities.
This article can provide students with a basic understanding of how morals and accountability must be part of ethics in any organization so ‘disasters’ such as Enron and WorldCom are not repeated.
As long as business leaders continue to view governance through agency theory and stakeholder theory in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, problems will continue to exist.
Item is easy to access.

Concerns:

Because it is an academic article, it may not be engaging to enhance the interest of undergraduate students.
Discussions about how to apply this information might be beneficial in an interactive class discussion and as part of a lecture.

Other Issues and Comments:: From one Author: It was of particular interest to me because I recently wrote a paper that connected ethics, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholders regarding what we teach business students. There were several holes we found - people need to update and upgrade what they teach.
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