Public Organizational Stewardship: Conceptualization and Application

ABSTRACT Stewardship, serving the long-term collective interest over self-interests, is an important component of public employee behavior. However, the various definitions and inconsistent applications of stewardship in the public management knowledge base indicate that its conceptual boundaries remain unclear. In this article, we aim to establish a new concept of “public organizational stewardship (POS)” by synthesizing key characteristics of stewardship. POS is conceptualized as the willingness to prioritize the interests of the public organization over self-interests, demonstrating a long-term perspective driven by a sense of psychological ownership of the organization. We argue POS stands as a pivotal concept for public management research. It provides new insights into public organization performance and individuals’ pro-organizational behaviors, ethical and unethical conduct, voice behaviors, and counterproductive actions—areas where well-established concepts such as public service motivation and organizational citizenship behavior may fall short. We conclude by proposing a research roadmap to guide future studies.