hours for her safe return. The other executives in the organization call a meeting to develop a plan on how best to resolve the situation for both the CEO and the organization.

Vignette 3: Veronica, the distribution management supervisor for the food bank, just called in sick after years without an absence. She handles all the distribution and scheduling of delivery, as well as overseeing volunteers for distribution. The manager of the department does not know how all the distribution systems function, absent this individual. In part, this is because Veronica is the only one who knows how all of the pieces fit together in terms of operations. The manager is sure that distributions will not go well because Veronica has no trained backup.

Vignette 4: Bill Well is preparing to retire as the Executive Director (ED) of Clean Water for Everyone. For years, Bill has been working with Yen Chen to take over as the next ED. Yen has held the post of executive vice president and chief operating officer, and his performance has been exemplary in those positions. Bill is convinced Yen will make an excellent ED. Not everyone is as convinced, which begins to make Bill nervous as he nears his retirement date. Several other executives and the board of directors have asked him privately if Yen is really able to take on this role, since he is rumored to have possible issues in his personal life and his relationship with some of the women in the nonprofit is problematic. They do not think he can overcome his personal issues to become an effective leader. Bill feels he owes the job to Yen and hates to involve himself in the personal lives of his employees.

But he has started considering whether to initiate an executive search for a ED candidate from outside of the organization.