AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN SUCCESSION PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT (SP&M)

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Rothwell (2010) suggests an alternative approach in SP&M which is organizational redesign, process redesign, outsourcing, trading personnel temporarily, talent pools, acceleration pool, two-in-the-box arrangements, and skill inventories of high-39 potential workers outside the organization to replace and supplement traditional approaches which are moving people into an organization, moving people out of an organization, moving people up in an organization, moving people down in an organization, moving people across an organization, and progress in place. Alternative approaches to organizational redesign and process redesign require the top leadership and management who use transformational leadership to implement the SP&M effectively. Kagai (2015) proposes “Transformational leadership aims at inspiring and motivating followers to align their goals and beliefs to those of the organization and perform more than what is expected from their contracts thus creating a sense of viable succession planning.” (p. 20). The transformational leader who has an inspiring vision to set up a statement mission, and strategic goals to reach the vision and mission; create beliefs, core values, corporate culture, and critical success factors (CSFs)/key results areas (KRAs); and plan a corporate strategy to inspire, motivate, lead, and transform the organization to reach the vision. Based on the mission and strategic goals the leader establishes CSFs which are the essential areas of activity. This requires the leader who implements the transformation through organizational redesign/business re-engineering and process redesign/business process re-engineering, this inquiries leaders, managers, and professionals who must possess new competencies and qualities to meet the transformation requirements. Therefore, the SP&M forecasts and anticipates possible necessary competencies and qualities for successors based on established KRAs.

Mathew and Gupta (2015) quote “The four characteristics of TL as identified by previous researchers (Bass, 1985,1990; Bennis and Nanus, 1985; Bass and Avolio, 1989; Podsakoff et al., 1996) are as follows: a. Idealized influence where the leader is seen as a role model, b. Inspiration motivation where the leader inspires motivation and team spirit, c. Intellectual stimulation where the leader stimulates creativity and innovation, and d. Individualized consideration where the leader mentors and supports each follower.”. (p. 76). The component of idealized influence instructs successors to be role models of the position that successors will take charge of in the future, current leaders instruct successors to do that. The component of inspiration motivation is that the leader inspires motivation and team spirit in successors so that they will get the motive to take charge of their duties in the future and practice teamwork in KRAs. The component of intellectual stimulation is that the leader stimulates creativity and innovation in successors who will study leadership and management, suggest leadership and management solutions, and recommend opportunities for improvement to do their role model. The component of individualized consideration is that the leader mentors and supports each successor to get appropriate experience and acquire new competencies and qualities in their recommended KRAs and SP&M process. The component of inspiration motivation is the direction and motive to successors, the idealized influence defines and implements the future role for successors, the component of individualized consideration mentors successors to take charge of their future role, and the component of intellectual stimulation occurs after the component of individualized consideration. Therefore, the component of SP&M is affected and centered on components of transformational leadership. The SP&M is one of the HRD processes and transformational leadership is also one of the leadership processes. We should reasonably integrate these two processes.

Sonnenfeld (1988) indicates “The manner and circumstances of departure affect the continuity of achievements, the respect held for the leader’s accumulated experience and wisdom, the quality of succeeding executive management, and the degree of trust and harmony among the workforce.” (p. 50). A top leader is an immediate person who combines leaders or managers who will retire shortly (retirees) with successors, the top leader and retirees mentor successors about their accumulated experience, wisdom, and qualities. However, successors should classify to acquire appropriate accumulated experience and qualities from retirees. Additionally, successors will study new experiences, competencies, and qualities to meet their recommended KRAs. Thus, this transfer process has also applied the component of individualized consideration in transformational leadership.