The Anointed Steward: A Critical Review of Western Christian and Secular Steward Leadership Literature

Abstract

This paper critically examines the literature associated with steward leadership from the Western Christian and secular perspectives. The motivation is to offer a better understanding for individuals endeavoring to apply the emerging steward leadership paradigm to organizations. The critical review process was determined as the best method to cultivate direct and indirect literature across multiple diverse domains. Over 1000 sources were examined, resulting in over 400 coded themes creating the foundation of the critical review. During the critical coding appraisal of the literature, four concentrated themes were identified: “steward” and “servant” as leadership modalities, and “mission” and “stakeholder” from a stewardship governance perspective. The identified themes led to the natural creation of a conceptual filter tool, allowing the literature to be more easily identified and sorted based on organizational utility. The literature’s narrative reflection and the normative filtering of the themes identified two key summary details. The first detail was the notion of steward and servant leadership being inescapably connected and inseparable. The second detail was that stewardship governance is a plausible remedy for agency, but agency controls are still needed based on contingency.