The New CEO
Canadian National Institute for the Blind
Every organization whether it involves services, goods or for this instance a charity needs to appoint a CEO that is qualified and has the credentials to run a company to its highest potential. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) hired John M. Rafferty, a sited individual although the company has a background of hiring non-sited individuals for the past 91 years. With this long period of time having only hired non-sited CEO’s to be the leader of the organization you can understand the complications that may come about from current employees and the community with this change. I do believe that hiring John was acceptable and that although it would likely be easier for CNIB to continue with the norm of hiring non-sited individuals, if John is the best possible candidate for the job then he should be hired.
With hiring John there are a few things that CNIB will need to do so that it does not upset those involved with the organization. Firstly CNIB needs to ensure that John is comfortable and has the general self-efficacy and belief that he can perform successfully handle any challenging situation that could come his way at CNIB.
CNIB also needs to be aware that when bringing John in as the new CEO, the current employees and the community involved in the organization are going to have a primacy effect on a new CEO. This primacy effect will happen when any new CEO enters a company whether he is sited or not. Therefore because people form impressions quickly and show a strong reliance on early cues, they need to know that the initial view from those involved in the company could not be favorable and overall detrimental to the company.
With the initial perception given after appointing John as CEO, it is understandable why the initial some may have the feeling that CNIB is “turning its back” on those it was set up to serve. Although CNIB cannot get around the primacy effect they should insure that employees and the community learns more about John and has John connect with everyone involved. Although John vision is fine he has glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration prevalent on both sides of his family. People need to understand his connection to the company and allow John to portray to everyone involved his passion and support for CNIB and those who are directly effect with vision problems.
Inclusively with this large change CNIB needs to ensure that they show perceived organizational support (POS) to there employees so that they have the belief that there organization values their contribution and cares about them. Having a work force that feel undervalued or a community that feels betrayed can clearly be detrimental to a company. This is why it is essential for John as the new CEO to gain the Trust of the community and his fellow employees by showing his commitment and reasoning for joining CNIB. By doing this he can hopefully insure the workers and community does not lose their faith in the company and that they will be accepting of John. With this CNIB can hope to encompass and further the organizational support theory for those who have strong perceptions of organizational support feel an obligation to care about the organization’s welfare and to help the organization achieve its objectives
Overall although there is a few things as stated above that CNIB will need to do to ensure trust and help change certain peoples initial perception of John, I do not believe that it was not wrong for CNIB to hire John as the CEO of the organization.
