World Vision Australia (wva)

Established in 1966, World Vision Australia (WVA) is one of the non-government development organisations (NGDOs) in Australia and part of World Vision International, applying Christian values to promote 'human transformation'.

WVA grew steadily over the decades, and now, it is the largest Australian NGDO with an income of $50,203 in 1966, increasing to $89 million out of total $285 million in 1994 and even $98 million in 2001. It has 340 paid employees, more than 5000 active volunteers and many thousands of child sponsors and donors.

Being a NGDO, WVA involves in long-term development project, such as irrigation, farming and community education, provides resources and emergency relief to Australia and the developing countries, as well as advocates on the environmental human rights issues, such as paedophilia, land mines and child prostitution.

During the past 5 to 10 years, WVA realized that it has been subjected to some pressures for it to change in order to update itself to the current market and for its future existence. The forces include the lack of evidence to prove that the living standard has been improved, increased competition over aid funding, diminishing domestic donations, increasing requirement of accountability from government and public, increasing requirement of professionalism and the need to maintain multiple emphasis on different issues.

Because of the pressures, WVA has once started a 'Future Search' programme for its future development, focusing on middle management and staff. However, the senior management soon considered the programme as out of control and resumed a directive style leadership.

During this time, the CEO was replaced externally by a new one. However, the new one was not a transformational leader, as he was not really visible to the staff. Measures are needed to bring the staff and the CEO closer and establish his leadership when implementing the change.