Preparing for leadership transition: An examination of the impact of organizational communication in the administration of succession planning programs

Organizations today are increasingly focused on the internal development of employees for the purpose of leadership continuity and eventual transition. Currently, the baby-boomer generation has begun to retire, and over the next 5 to 10 years there will be an extraordinary amount of retirements that will have a significant impact to both public and private sector organizations. At this time, however, most of the research about leadership transition has focused on the establishment of models and programs specifically for the administration of succession planning programs. Moreover, there has been an increased awareness to the criticalness of communication of succession planning, but little in the way of analyzing the effectiveness of the communication processes that drive the program.This research project was predicated on the work of succession planning experts regarding the importance of communication in succession planning. Specifically communication processes were examined during the administration of a succession planning program. This research made use of behavioral observation, archival data, and supporting data retrieved from succession planning surveys. The data were analyzed to establish whether or not the organization studied in this research project had effective communication processes in place for the purpose of administering its succession planning program.The findings of this research project suggest that organizations need to perform critical internal examinations of their current methods and strategies for the communication of their succession planning programs. The results also suggest that organizations need to pay greater attention to the middle management level responsible for front end of the program. In addition, this research created new avenues for research regarding the measurement of communication processes for succession planning programs.This research project contributes to the understanding of the importance of communication concerning the administration of succession planning programs within organizations. Secondly, the research also produces new avenues in the way of organizational development interventions for enhancing succession planning programs within organizations. Finally, the relatively new method of collecting and analyzing data regarding the communication processes for succession planning should provide for the development and enhancements to tools used for measuring the effectiveness of succession planning programs in organizations.