The Organizational Well-Being Inventory for Schools

• In Event: Beyond Stress, Coping, and Resilience: Exploring Organizational Support for Teachers' Wellness Practice and Well-Being

Abstract

Identified in the early 1970s among health care workers, burnout refers to the slow onset of feelings of hopelessness and that one’s work has little positive impact (Leo et. al, 2021). While burnout reflects the toll of high workloads, compassion fatigue reflects the emotional and psychological toll of taking care of others (Russo et al., 2020). Burnout and compassion fatigue among educators is a serious and persistent challenge as schools and child serving programs struggle with the fallout from the significant pressures in the school systems over the past several years including widespread racial justice protests and the opioid and covid pandemics. Burnout and compassion fatigue contribute to higher teacher runover, increased absenteeism, and poorer student outcomes (e.g., Hascher & Waber, 2021). Supporting teacher well-being and creating healthy workspaces improves not only the teacher and employee experience but improves the educational environment for everyone.
Well-being supports often focus on actions the individual can take but supporting well-being at an organization level is critical for positive, sustained change. Organization well-being describes an organization’s ability to promote and maintain the physical, psychological, and social health for all employees (Torri & Toniolo, 2010). More than self-care, organization well-being takes into account the physical and emotional environment, school climate, day-to-day experiences, and alignment of preferences and values. Over time, leaders and administrators can adopt policies and procedures that fit the local context and create a sense of wellness, despite the exterior stress placed on the education system. One challenge of addressing organization well-being in the schools has been the lack of school-specific assessment and progress monitoring tools.
The Organizational Well-Being Inventory for Schools (OWBI-S) was developed as a continuous quality improvement (CQI) tool for organizations to assess their implementation of best practices in organizational strategies to promote employee well-being. Building on the organizational well-being literature, the OWBI-S is comprised of eight domains: Work Climate and Environment; Input, Flexibility and Autonomy; Professional Development and Recognition; Organizational and Supervisory Support; Self-Care; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access; Purpose and Meaningfulness; and Professional Quality of Life. Each domain is comprised of eight to ten items that are concrete and actionable practices which can incorporated into an improvement plan. The OWBI-S is available in an online platform and is freely accessible to schools, districts, and other education entities to assess and address the current of levels organizational well-being in one or all eight domains. As the OWBI-S was just released, this session will discuss the development and deployment of the OWBI-S including feedback from education entities that have used it. By improving the overall organizational well-being, schools and districts can combat burnout and compassion fatigue, ultimately improving student outcomes.

Author

• Kristin Scardamalia, University of Delaware