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This chapter explores perspectives on the role of leaders in higher education to promote wellbeing that strengthens capabilities and capacities and provides means for sustainable achievement and flourishing. The author discusses perspectives on health and wellness and approaches to wellbeing, flourishing, and thriving to find and create work–life balance and addresses training and development to enhance knowledge on the importance of wellbeing. The chapter is based on a qualitative interview study on practices of wellbeing, flourishing, and thriving in educational organizations with a purposive sample of six higher education leaders in the USA, Canada, and Jamaica. The findings revealed that promoting wellbeing in higher education demands qualities promoted by leaders such as capability, capacity, and sustainability for success. The chapter concludes with a theoretical framework on educational leaders’ wellbeing, flourishing, and sustainability that can create opportunities for leaders’ to understand health and wellness in their institutions effectively.

This chapter explores the implications of acknowledging one's own excessive entitlement and living contradictions in contributing to Living-Educational-Theory Research. The analysis emphasises the importance of accepting one's educational responsibility for one's own continuing professional development in inquiries of the kind that address this query: ‘How do I improve my professional educational practices in education with values of human flourishing?’ This responsibility includes making public evidence and values-based explanations of educational influences in learning, in contributing to the global knowledge base of education.

The notion of excessive teacher entitlement was coined by Ratnam to characterise the putative deficit view of teachers that is projected onto them. Craig (2013) developed Schwab's concept, the teachers' ‘best-loved self’, to embrace teachers' input in promoting the learning and well-being of all in the institutions they serve (Ratnam & Craig, 2021). My experiences of being a living contradiction are grounded in a tension between my best-loved self and my experience of excessive entitlements. Living educational theories research in which individual practitioner-researchers generate their validated, evidence- and values-based explanations of educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations that influence their practice with values of human flourishing, have helped me leverage the potential for growth afforded by this tension. The perspective draws insights from the disciplines of education including Habermas's Critical Theory. It also includes insights from other methodologies such as autoethnography, action research, phenomenology, self-study and narrative inquiry.

Research shows that most faculty do not receive training before being promoted into administrative and leadership roles. This lack of training and awareness of what their new role entails can lead to feelings of anxiety and reduced confidence, which can also negatively affect their wellbeing. The chapter details findings from a case study in one Canadian university setting regarding the factors and practices that contribute to success and flourishing of academic leaders in the higher education (HE) contexts. Data analysis demonstrated that having positive perceptions of the academic leadership role and experiencing mentorship and positive role modeling were crucial factors to the effectiveness of leadership development and a sense of academic leaders’ flourishing in their work. Upon describing the pertinent literature on academic leadership development, the authors detail the case study methodology, discuss the findings, and offer implications for further research.

The primary purpose of the study is to explore the evolving landscape of the contemporary workplace, specifically focusing on the role of high-performance work system (HPWS) and its positive relationship with job performance.

The study is based on an extensive literature review method. The research adopts a positive psychological approach to unravel the underlying mechanism by which HPWS influences job performance. The study employs an integrative framework that is firmly rooted in the conservation of resources theory, broaden-and-build theory, and social exchange theory.

The findings of the study reveal that HPWS functions as a resource acquisition platform, fostering employees' psychological capital (PsyCap). This, in turn, leads to a state of complete well-being (FAW) characterized by positive emotions and optimal functioning. Importantly, this state of well-being broadens personal resources, ultimately sustaining high job performance.

The study highlights the significance of aligning HPWS practices with PsyCap and positive work experiences such as flourishing. Understanding the optimized job performance that results from a positive work environment and the cultivation of PsyCap can guide organizations in enhancing their human resource strategies.

The study adds value by providing a positive psychological mechanism connecting HPWS and Job performance. So far none of the studies have explored a positive psychological mechanism connecting these variables.

This study aims to unravel the black-box mechanism between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and the multifaceted well-being construct, flourishing-at-work (FAW). Moreover, this paper aims to bring in a positive psychological mechanism that can reduce the potential negative impact of HPWS on FAW.

A synthesis analysis of existing literature was carried out to formulate managerial and practical propositions.

Drawing upon the theoretical foundations of social exchange theory, conservation of resource theory, signalling theory and resource-based view (RBV), this study proposes a conceptual framework that connects HPWS, psychological capital (PsyCap), employee work passion (EWP), organisational trust (OT) and flourishing-at-work (FAW) with the possible moderating effect of OT in the relationship between HPWS and PsyCap.

Although the proposed conceptual framework is not empirically validated, the study provides several significant practical implications in terms of the integrated framework consisting of HPWS, PsyCap, OT, EWP and FAW.

This study represents a pioneering contribution by proposing an indirect relationship between HPWS and FAW. Moreover, none of the studies so far have unleashed the black-box mechanism between HPWS and FAW. The study provides a set of propositions that explain the relationships between the study variables, which enrich the understanding of strategic human resource management practices and their potential effects on employee well-being.

In this introduction chapter, the authors first offer a brief overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the notion of wellbeing and flourishing from the positive organizational scholarship literature. The authors, then, provide an overview of the chapters in this handbook, guiding the readers through key aspects that each chapter contributes to the handbook’s collective perspective of efforts, initiatives, and programs that promote wellbeing in the higher education settings.

Mental health is not simply the absence of psychological problems any more than physical health is the absence of disease. This chapter explores various aspects of optimal mental health and wellbeing among college students. It examines the question of what is required for college students to both feel their best and function at or near their highest levels. It also discusses the characteristics of peak mental health, including its transient nature. Predictive factors such as exercise, diet, sleep and social connection will be explored. Regarding the features of optimal wellbeing, the following variables are described: integrity, values, mindfulness, self-compassion, flow and resilience. These variables are considered in an integrated fashion as components, as well as byproducts, of wellness. Hettler’s multidimensional model of wellness is presented at the outset of the chapter, followed by Keyes’ theory of flourishing.

Competitive examinations, especially in a country like India, are important in deciding careers and access to prestigious institutions. Each year thousands of youth appear for different national and state level examinations, the competition for which becomes progressively tougher. Hence, it is important to study the mental health of youth appearing for competitive examinations. Nagaland, with an unemployment rate of 19.3%, is among the states with the highest unemployment rate in India. Therefore, this paper aims to study Naga youth with special focus on three aspects, namely, the status of mental health, to examine locus of control and to examine the correlation between mental health and locus of control.

The study was conducted in Kohima town and Dimapur town respectively with a sample comprising of 196 youth. The participants were in the age range of 15–35 years. The tools used included the Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale, Mental Health Continuum (Short-form) and a demographic questionnaire.

A considerable proportion of the participants (36%) were found in flourishing category whereas majority of the participants were either moderately healthy (46%) or languishing (17%). Age and employment status were found to have a significant relationship with mental health whereas gender was found to have a significant relationship with locus of control. Pearson chi-square showed a significant association between mental health and locus of control.

The present study used the mental health continuum model and locus of control to give a comprehensive view of mental health and the perceived control among Naga youth appearing competitive examinations.

The purpose of this article is to meet Professor Paul T.P. Wong, PhD, CPscyh, who is based at the Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Wong represents an interesting case of how a racial/cultural minority could achieve success in a hostile environment consisting of the systemic biases of injustice, discrimination and marginalization. His life also epitomizes how one can experience the paradoxical truth of healing and flourishing in an upside-down world through the positive suffering mindset (PSM).

This case study is presented in two sections: a positive autoethnography written by Wong, followed by his answers to ten questions. The core methodology of positive autoethnography allows people to understand how Wong’s life experience of being a war baby in China, a constant outsider and a lone voice in Western culture, has shaped a very different vision of meaning, positive mental health and global flourishing.

Wong reveals how to live a life of meaning and happiness for all the suffering people in a difficult world. He has researched the positive psychology of suffering for 60 years, from effective coping with stress and searching for meaning to successful aging and positive death. According to Wong’s suffering hypothesis and the emerging paradigm of existential positive psychology (Wong, 2021), cultivating a PSM is essential for healing and flourishing in all seasons of life.

An expanding literature has been developed to illustrate why the missing link in well-being research is how to transcend and transform suffering into triumph. Wong reveals how this emerging area of research is still not fully embraced by mainstream psychology dominated by the individualistic Euro-American culture, and thus why, in an adversarial milieu, existential positive psychology is limited by its inability to attract more researchers to test out Wong’s suffering hypothesis.

The wisdom and helpful tools presented here may enable people to achieve mature happiness and existential well-being even when they have a very painful past, a very difficult present and a bleak future.

This autoethnographic case study offers new grounds for hope for all those who are injured by life, marginalized by systemic biases or tormented by chronic illnesses and disorders. It also provides a road map for a better world with more decent human beings who dare to stand up for justice, integrity and compassion.

Meaning as reflected in suffering is according to Wong the most powerful force to bring out either the worst or the best in people. The new science of suffering shows us how the authors can achieve positive transformation through cultivating a PSM, no matter how harsh one’s fate may be.

This paper investigates the meaning of spirituality and empowerment from the perspective of women of color (WOC) in Fortune 500 companies how it impacts their leadership.

Detailed data were collected through in depth semi-structured interviews documenting their experience as lived in the context of their daily work environments. Twelve WOC in leadership positions were interviewed, and transcripts analyzed using thematic analysis. Their narratives provide insight into the experiences of discrimination and bias and the stress and disenfranchisement that result from these experiences.

Analysis shows that for these women, spirituality was more than a philosophical orientation but comprised a core facet of their identity, empowering them to cope with adversity and uplift others through a leadership style defined by compassion, trust, strong interpersonal relationships and purpose.

Implications for creating more compassionate and inclusive environments that draw on principles of empowerment and spiritual leadership are provided.

This study contributes uniquely to the literature by exploring the perspectives of understudied women leaders who identify as African American, South-Asian and Latina on spirituality and empowerment and their impact on their leadership.