Concept · Governance & Ownership
Stewardship Theory
Origin: Donaldson & Davis
Biological Parallel
Worker ants in mature colonies exhibit perfect stewardship—they've lost the ability to reproduce but work tirelessly for colony success. The reason: they share more genes with sister workers (75%) than they would with their own offspring (50%), making colony success their genetic success. Stewardship theory assumes similar alignment in human organizations, though without kinship's automatic enforcement, it requires rare conditions: deeply shared values, long time horizons, and intrinsic motivation that transcends individual gain.