The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a non-government organization and the world’s largest developer of International Standards, published an official social responsibility draft document, “International Standard Draft /DSI 26000: Guidance on social responsibility” (2009). ISO 26000 states, “The essential characteristic of social responsibility is the willingness of an organization to incorporate social and environmental considerations in its decision-making and be accountable for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment” (p. 7). The purpose of this paper is to bring a discussion of ISO 26000 to educational leadership and policy discourse, as it has the potential to breathe a philosophy of mutual interdependence and universal value into the discipline, and the discussion may be the quintessential element necessary to transform educational leadership. Weaver–Hightower (2008) states, “policy is not simply creating a text or artifact but is rather a struggle among human beings for validation or funding of their own interests, meanings, and forms of knowledge” (p. 158). ISO 26000 has a history, and although a standard in text, it is more significantly a collective representation of thousands of participating voices asserting social responsibility policies; it encourages organizations to foster global interdependence and the values that support that interdependence and socio-political construction. Idealist ontology will be apparent in the paper as it is inherent in an analysis that uses critical theory. The history, construction and complexities of the ISO 26000 standard will be scrutinized using critical theory and aspects of poststructuralist policy analysis. Educational leaders and policymakers need to become informed about ISO 26000, so that they may recognize the power a standard has to mediate social responsibility, and how the institutionalization of social responsibility can transform and improve organizational governance in the process.