Stewardship
Encyclopedia
Stewardship is an ethic that embodies responsible planning and management of resources. The concept of stewardship has been applied in diverse realms, including with respect to environment, economics, health, property, information, and religion, and is linked to the concept of sustainability
. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given to household servants to bring food and drinks to a castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something belonging to someone else. To be a steward, and or act in steward to something, is known as stewardship
, through conservation
and sustainable
practices. Aldo Leopold
(1887–1948) championed a land ethic
"dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it". According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency
, environmental stewardship is the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment. The Fisheries and Oceans Canada 'Stewardship in Action' Program emphasizes cooperative planning and management of environmental
resources with organizations, communities, and others to engage actively in the prevention of loss of habitat and facilitate its recovery in the interest of long-term sustainability.
for "mixed fiscal stewardship," having managed short-term crises with a deft hand, but falling short some on long-term problems. David M. Walker
, President of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, has been a frequent commentator on the need for fiscal stewardship at the federal level, to avoid mortgaging the future of the country and of successive generations.
. A data steward
is responsible as the source of data
and metadata
, including content, quality, and compliance with standards, whereas a data custodian
is responsible for data management, including transport, storage, security, and access.
) refers to the responsibility to properly develop, utilize and safeguard GEOINT, including its people, its property and its financial assets to maximize the effectiveness for GEOINT offices (or cells) and decision makers (or commanders) (see Geospatial Information Officer
). GEOINT Stewardship was defined in a "Developing Geospatial Intelligence Stewardship for Multinational Operations" thesis at the US Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth.
In 2000, the Director-General, World Health Organization, highlighted health stewardship as a new concept noting that the function involves "setting and enforcing the rules of the game and providing strategic direction for all the different actors involved." The concept was developed and defined as "the careful and responsible management of the well-being of the population, the very essence of good government... This does not, of course, mean that the government needs to fund and provide all health interventions. It needs, however, to set the direction for both public and private sectors and ensure that the health system contributes to the socially desired intrinsic goals... Within government, Ministries of Health must take on a large part of the stewardship of health systems and should direct/coordinate intersectoral action for health."
In 2001, the WHO noted the difficulty in preserving the idea of stewardship when translating the term into other languages. Participants referred to it metaphorically as combining three elements ("the GLUE that holds the health system together; the OIL that keeps it running smoothly; and the ENERGY that gives it ethical direction and momentum"). They generated a list of possible stewardship tasks that fitted within the three-part classification that WHR 2000 set out:
In November 2001, the WHO further developed health stewardship which identified a number of essential ingredients or "core domains" that appear to constitute good stewardship. Domains are conceived as relatively well defined, distinct areas of responsibility that collectively constitute effective stewardship. The six domains or sub-functions that constitute effective health system stewardship, i.e., that lead to better outcomes to achieve the goals of health systems are referred to as:
WHO Report, WHR2000
WHO Stewardship
, employee development, and performance improvement
.
In a development sense, stewardship also refers to thanking and recognizing donors. This includes organizing thank you phone calls, recognition events, and conveying the impact that the donor's gift has had.
is also a major part of teaching in Christianity
and Islam
. For example, Green Christianity emphasizes stewardship as a Bible-based environmental outlook. Financial stewardship is based on the belief that God is the true and ultimate owner of each person's possessions, and that one is accountable to God for the acceptable care and use of those possessions. Stewardship can also refer to Jesus Christ's accountability to God the Father for the Christians that have been entrusted to Him or how to use your resources for God.
The concept of stewardship evolves in the course of consultations and analysis. Emphasis on the work being proposed is mainly aimed at improving understanding of the different components of stewardship, so that action can be taken by its various mission partners. Qualitative as well as quantitative approaches are likely to be needed. On the question about the use of surveys to measure stewardship, common issues are:
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given to household servants to bring food and drinks to a castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something belonging to someone else. To be a steward, and or act in steward to something, is known as stewardship
Environmental stewardship
Environmental stewardship refers to responsible use and protection of the natural environmentNatural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
, through conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
and sustainable
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
practices. Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
(1887–1948) championed a land ethic
Land ethic
A Land Ethic is a philosophy that guides your actions when you utilize or make changes to the land. This specific term was first coined by Aldo Leopold in his book A Sand County Almanac . Within this work, he wrote that there is a need for a "new ethic", an "ethic dealing with man's relation to...
"dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it". According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
, environmental stewardship is the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment. The Fisheries and Oceans Canada 'Stewardship in Action' Program emphasizes cooperative planning and management of environmental
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
resources with organizations, communities, and others to engage actively in the prevention of loss of habitat and facilitate its recovery in the interest of long-term sustainability.
Fiscal stewardship
Fiscal stewardship refers to the practice of assuring that current spending programs and tax policies are affordable and sustainable over time. For instance, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been criticized by The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
for "mixed fiscal stewardship," having managed short-term crises with a deft hand, but falling short some on long-term problems. David M. Walker
David M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)
David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...
, President of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, has been a frequent commentator on the need for fiscal stewardship at the federal level, to avoid mortgaging the future of the country and of successive generations.
Data Stewardship
The concept of stewardship has been variously applied in information managementInformation management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
. A data steward
Data steward
In metadata, a data steward is a person that is responsible for maintaining a data element in a metadata registry. A data steward may share some responsibilities with a data custodian....
is responsible as the source of data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
and metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
, including content, quality, and compliance with standards, whereas a data custodian
Data custodian
In Data Governance groups, responsibilities for data management are increasingly divided between the business process owners and information technology departments. Two functional titles commonly used for these roles are Data Steward and Data Custodian....
is responsible for data management, including transport, storage, security, and access.
Geospatial Intelligence Stewardship
Geospatial-Intelligence Stewardship (GEOINTGEOINT
Geospatial intelligence, GEOINT , GeoIntel , or GSI has no universally accepted definition and it has been said that if you "ask 10 people to define 'geospatial intelligence,' and you are likely to get 10 different answers."-Official definition:The...
) refers to the responsibility to properly develop, utilize and safeguard GEOINT, including its people, its property and its financial assets to maximize the effectiveness for GEOINT offices (or cells) and decision makers (or commanders) (see Geospatial Information Officer
Geospatial Information Officer
Geospatial information officer is the head of geospatial information technology within a civilian, business, government and/or military organizations....
). GEOINT Stewardship was defined in a "Developing Geospatial Intelligence Stewardship for Multinational Operations" thesis at the US Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth.
Health Stewardship
World Health OrganizationIn 2000, the Director-General, World Health Organization, highlighted health stewardship as a new concept noting that the function involves "setting and enforcing the rules of the game and providing strategic direction for all the different actors involved." The concept was developed and defined as "the careful and responsible management of the well-being of the population, the very essence of good government... This does not, of course, mean that the government needs to fund and provide all health interventions. It needs, however, to set the direction for both public and private sectors and ensure that the health system contributes to the socially desired intrinsic goals... Within government, Ministries of Health must take on a large part of the stewardship of health systems and should direct/coordinate intersectoral action for health."
In 2001, the WHO noted the difficulty in preserving the idea of stewardship when translating the term into other languages. Participants referred to it metaphorically as combining three elements ("the GLUE that holds the health system together; the OIL that keeps it running smoothly; and the ENERGY that gives it ethical direction and momentum"). They generated a list of possible stewardship tasks that fitted within the three-part classification that WHR 2000 set out:
- Formulating health policy
- Exerting influence
- Collecting and using intelligence
In November 2001, the WHO further developed health stewardship which identified a number of essential ingredients or "core domains" that appear to constitute good stewardship. Domains are conceived as relatively well defined, distinct areas of responsibility that collectively constitute effective stewardship. The six domains or sub-functions that constitute effective health system stewardship, i.e., that lead to better outcomes to achieve the goals of health systems are referred to as:
- Generation of intelligence
- Formulating strategic policy direction
- Ensuring tools for implementation: powers, incentives and sanctions
- Coalition building / building partnerships
- Ensuring a fit between policy objectives and organizational structure and culture
- Ensuring accountability
WHO Report, WHR2000
WHO Stewardship
Organizations
In an organizational context, stewardship refers to management's responsibility to properly utilize and develop its resources, including its people, its property and its financial assets. For more in depth detail, see, in Organizational development, the pages on succession planningSuccession planning
Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become...
, employee development, and performance improvement
Performance improvement
Performance improvement is the concept of measuring the output of a particular process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure...
.
In a development sense, stewardship also refers to thanking and recognizing donors. This includes organizing thank you phone calls, recognition events, and conveying the impact that the donor's gift has had.
Land claims
Stewardship in a land claims context is when a monarch or other noble may appoint a steward to oversee parts of his blubbyReligion
StewardshipStewardship (theology)
Stewardship is a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take care of it. It can have political implications, such as in Christian Democracy.-Implications:...
is also a major part of teaching in Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. For example, Green Christianity emphasizes stewardship as a Bible-based environmental outlook. Financial stewardship is based on the belief that God is the true and ultimate owner of each person's possessions, and that one is accountable to God for the acceptable care and use of those possessions. Stewardship can also refer to Jesus Christ's accountability to God the Father for the Christians that have been entrusted to Him or how to use your resources for God.
Donor Relations and Stewardship
Donor relations and stewardship professionals support the development profession by recognizing and thanking donors in a fashion that will cultivate future giving to nonprofit organizations. The Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) is the first community of stewardship and donor relations professionals in the United States and Canada.Measuring Stewardship
It is desirable to increase capacity within an organizational system with regards to each of the systems tasks/domains. The assumption is that, collectively, the better the sub-functions are carried out, the more effective a system's stewardship will be and the higher attainment of intrinsic goals. These domains, attributes and relationships are based on prevailing notions of effective stewardship, and emphasizes that all should be considered "testable hypotheses".The concept of stewardship evolves in the course of consultations and analysis. Emphasis on the work being proposed is mainly aimed at improving understanding of the different components of stewardship, so that action can be taken by its various mission partners. Qualitative as well as quantitative approaches are likely to be needed. On the question about the use of surveys to measure stewardship, common issues are:
- Who should be surveyed: key participants, informants, mission partners, or a mix?
- Who should carry out such surveys?
- Would assessment from local surveys be useful to governments who may have to make unpopular decisions?
See also
- Agency (law)Agency (law)The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual, or non-contractual set of relationships when a person, called the agent, is authorized to act on behalf of another to create a legal relationship with a third party...
- Association of Donor Relations Professionals
- Conservation biologyConservation biologyConservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...
- Forest farmingForest farmingForest farming is an agroforestry practice characterized by the four "I's"- Intentional, Integrated, Intensive and Interactive management of an existing forested ecosystem wherein forest health is of paramount concern. It is neither forestry nor farming in the traditional sense.Forest farming, or...
- Hima (environmental protection)
- Natural resource managementNatural resource managementNatural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations ....
- Religion and ecologyReligion and ecologyReligion and environmentalism is an emerging subfield in the academic discipline of religious studies.-Crisis of values:This subfield is founded on the understanding that, in the words of Iranian-American philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "the environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of...
- Stewardship (theology)Stewardship (theology)Stewardship is a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take care of it. It can have political implications, such as in Christian Democracy.-Implications:...
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...