Chapter 9: Ethical Responsibility for Educational Organizations

This chapter explores the ethical responsibility of educational institutions to create conditions that support well-being in the workplace. Research suggests that a focus on adult well-being will increase student outcomes and have significant impacts on employee productivity, attendance, and other factors that affect the financial bottom line. More educational institutions are introducing or increasing their focus on employee well-being. However, the traditional practice of promoting and supporting the individual to take care of themselves is not sufficient to fulfill this ethical responsibility and can, in fact, be unintentionally doing more harm than good. With reference to recent literature in educational leadership, organizational studies and sociology, this chapter discusses some of the drawbacks and dangers of existing well-being programs that focus only on the individual. In this chapter, we argue that the individual taking care of themselves is an important component that impacts well-being but as a social species we exist in relationship and community. It is the interplay of these three factors that impacts well-being of both the individual and the organization. To make self-care promotion strategies the only factor in wellness strategies ignores systemic inequities and risks making health into a character issue. An ethical responsibility of care exists in the relationship and the collective. Educational institutions need to be places of caring and have a responsibility to create conditions of care in their structures, practices, and policies. This chapter recommends a model of joint responsibility that focuses on all three components of well-being; the individual, relationships with others, and the processes and practices of the systems we work within.