Rebuilding Trust in a Canadian Institution: The Canadian Blood Services Story

Can an organization that has been through a major scandal ever recover public trust? In an era of intensified public scrutiny, this question is critical for Canadian private and public sector organizations. Rebuilding Trust in a Canadian Institution: The Canadian Blood Services Story examines how the collapse of confidence in the blood system was handled after responsibility was transferred from the Canadian Red Cross to Canadian Blood Services (CBS) in 1998, in the wake of Canada’s tainted blood scandal.

While CBS was created as a new, independent non-profit agency, it retained much of the legacy, the infrastructure and many of the staff who were key to the Canadian Red Cross blood operations. However, by improving the organization’s capacity and engaging key stakeholders in its decision-making process, the executive team that took over the management of CBS—working with governments, regulators and other concerned stakeholders—was able to make significant, demonstrable gains in building public trust.