Towards a Changing Role of Governance for a Sustainable World

Abstract

It is widely recognised that recent societal changes are notably disruptive. Living in a physically limited world forces
us to consider environmental, climate, and sustainability concerns as we prepare for uncertain futures. Given current shifts
in demographics, politics, and technology, along with the increasing focus on truth and misinformation, we face an urgent
need to motivate individuals to contribute to a society where future generations can flourish. In our article, we explore the
lighthouse metaphor, highlighting the concepts of value (the lighthouse) and motivation (the ship and the crew) within a
constantly changing environment (the sea). Achieving excellence in this setting requires management and leadership to
develop strategies for influencing governance. This is grounded in scientific research examining the three main forms of
governance: control, cooperation, and autonomy. Focusing on environmental, climate, and sustainability issues, we observe
a movement where, on one hand, rising demands are being placed on individuals (the Me) and organisations (the We) to
help create a more sustainable world (the All), as outlined in the Me-We-All approach for circular resilience. Conversely,
considering modern technological advances where technology is replacing tasks traditionally performed by people, we need
to craft a new vision that enables employees to enter a flow state aligned with their skills and the challenges they face,
thereby contributing to a more valuable future. To implement this principle, we advocate introducing an alternative vision
of management and leadership. The article shows that adopting the concept of stewardship can help achieve this goal, which
we differentiate from management and leadership as follows: Management focuses primarily on addressing current
challenges with conventional methods, where the focus is on rationality. Leadership focuses on developing new strategies
to address existing challenges, demanding creativity. Stewardship cares about the needs of ‘Me-We-All’ and develops skills
to prepare for unexpected challenges, requiring resilience. The article aims to inspire discussion. We do not focus solely on
scientific proof but seek to initiate a debate on the balance we must achieve among the management and leadership issues
in contemporary society.