Chapter 4
Chapter IV: Results
- How do the Ventura Health Agency and the Ventura Library plan for leadership changes?
- What are the challenges of succession planning in the Ventura Health Agency and the Ventura County Library?
Findings Organized by Questions
The significance of this question is to enable the researcher to examine how well most agencies anticipate new leadership takeover and how they plan for the same. The literature review has established that most of the CEOs who head the health agencies in the country are in their retirement age and they stop being actively involved, in matters concerning the agencies, once they resign from their position. In addition, most of their assistants fall in the same age group that requires one to retire. However, that has never been the viewpoint for everyone. Institutions normally address succession through promotion. Eventually, this result in a situation where the most energetic and young employees are relegated to the daily running of the agencies while the old move to managerial positions. In some situations, this scenario is considered a deserving case especially when the person at the top position got there by merit while in another, it is considered out of place especially where the top manager got there by playing the loyalty card yet there are other competitive people out with their potential going unnoticed. Perennial leaders in most of the health agencies are aging, and the same can be said of their assistants (Lawrence, 2013).
There are some compromising issues that compel the management to promote on grounds of age and experience as opposed to creativity and level of education. Because of this, one will find a relatively less educated CEO, who has been loyal to the institution and has worked there his/her entire career. An employee, who has overgrown in an institution, when elevated to be the final decision maker, will hardly institute changes that will make a difference. All they can do is to extend the routine as they wait for retirement to catch up. As discussed in the previous chapters, succession planning has been an inactive part of most organizations, and that has been largely due to the slow regime change especially to the modern approach to issues. For instance, in a health institution, a nurse should know something small about dentistry and, in that manner, better leaders can be carved out of a lean team and eventually fit taking over the business (Chall, and ProQuest, 1953).
The greater part of library agencies in the entire county have been used to the same approach of promoting the next in command whenever a vacancy occurs, and that is no different from the health agencies. However, although this sort of promotion may be considered standard in health care agencies, creativity is crucial when it comes to library agency promotion. Most institutions come up with a ten-year change plan that helps in effective running of institutions for ten years. Despite the fact that the general trends suggest that there have been an increase in job opportunities with time, what is striking is that the population of people above 62 years who have been working has risen from 42% in 1990 to 52% in 2009 (Molina, 2013).
These figures reflect the trend that aging people due to the experience factor as the most experienced members of the organization usually occupy most senior positions. The suggestion is that succession might have to wait a little longer before it can be recognized.
During an interview conducted during the study, one participant reviled that he retire at the age of 67. This goes against the succession plan where one should retire at the age of 65 to make room for a younger and more energetic leader. However, the interviewee reviled that this was so due to the reputation that he had in the work place. The nature of the position for which a succession planning is to be developed is usually one of the factors that will dictate whether homegrown employees are going to be evaluated for the same position or employees from outside the agency will be sought after.
The preference for the latter is usually motivated by the fact that when an employee is outsourced to take over a demanding position, due to the lucrative benefits that the employer will attach to that post, it is natural for him or her to experience some form of pressure to deliver on their on their job. This natural pressure ends up pushing them to doing better jobs than the earlier employees who held the post or those promoted from the other departments in the same agency. On more than one occasion, this approach has proven to be worthwhile and thus the preference by the employers to look outside their human resources for competitive posts has been justified. In another company, the same data is reversed in the sense that, a greater number of the workers who desired to retire at 65 ended up retiring even earlier than that. This is because those who are supposed to take over are nearly at the age of retiring, and that the policies need an adjustment review. This reason, combined with the unexpected departure of employees to other better paying jobs will actually justify succession planning although a few organizations have been able to realize that as part of their plans. The fact that employees are usually promoted from the department they have been serving as seen in many institutions demeans succession planning. This is because the basis for succession is not on merit, rather, it is made to look like a routine exercise which should not be the case (Tienda, M., Mitchell, F., National Research Council (EstadosUnidos), & National Research Council (EstadosUnidos) , 2006). Most of the students from Ventura County are yet to complete their learning and are not ready to take roles in the agency.The fact that the population make up in Ventura comprises greatly of Latinos, they are yet to burst into the leadership scene. This is because most of them are not yet ready to take over the active leadership roles in the health agency.
The results indicate that, there are up to 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Ventura, most of them being Latinos who work for low wages. This is a wrong stand for anyone aspiring to end up in the top leadership position. Under such circumstances, the health agency is tied to outsourcing leaders from outside the borders since the county itself is unable to meet that needs from within its population.
Some of the issues that compromise the search for leadership include insurance coverage. The result has been found to be that between ages of 0–64, some Latino citizens are insured while the unregistered are not covered (Molina, 2013). The challenge is therefore in this diversity where the right person for leadership succession can happen to be in the unfavorable side of life and the weak links are the one benefiting from the initiatives of the organization.
The introduction of digitized operations in both health agencies and library agencies has seen a revolution in many operations including succession planning.. Technology has had a major influence on the requirements that a leader is meant to have in order for an organization to benefit.
The health agencies in California have been trying very much to ensure that every nursing student who is attached to the health agency is introduced to informatics as a way of ensuring that every student is versed with this technological approach to learning. The significance of this however, might not be a direct reflection in the direction the agency is taking in succession planning but, rather, a step in preparing for the same at a future date. Succession planning in the past has had to be viewed as a reward for employee loyalty to the agency, and that has derailed the essence of organizations being in existence. For instance, instead of establishing the reason why an employee would be best suited to take over the leadership of the agency, the two organizations, with the guidance of directors have been dictating the succession planning process to suit the most immediate needs instead of the anticipated for the growth of the agency. From the data, these agencies have failed to live up to the expectations of the stakeholders, and that is attributed to succession planning approach currently working in these agencies.
The institutions discussed have indicated that they do not have forward focused leadership in their system such that when an individual is promoted to a position, they want to work from that position until they retire and that orientation hampers growth. Paying loyalty to your employer is an admirable trait in any employee, however, failing to work hard for a promotion is consequential to all the young employees who are ambitious, and it is hard to bend the labor laws without having financial setbacks. For instance, if an employee is to be terminated and or demoted, perhaps their salary and or wages will not be reviewed downwards or else, the agency will have to encounter cost. In one of the library agencies, some of the employees there stayed for up to 10 years and according to them, there is no need to transfer as they hope for promotion and perhaps, they are comfortable working from those positions as long as their dues are not reviewed. This signals uninspired team of employees who can never be relied upon to spur development and improvement within the institution at whatever cost. On the side of the institution, the failure is in the succession planning which needs to be reviewed to have set limits. For instance, the agencies should ensure that an employee should not stay more than four years in one position before their performance is evaluated for promotion.
Having employees who are oriented in such a manner however, much as they may be committed to their work, as long as they are not forward in their thinking, they will never be the steering part of succession planning in the organization. The challenge that most agencies encounter in organizing their succession plans is the fact that, succession in some instances has been localized and limited to veteran employees who are perhaps, in their last years of service as opposed to fresh blood with new ideas to offer. The fact that this position has never been made open to any other interested party has sometimes made it unlikely to anticipate for changes in results, and in particular, client satisfaction which is usually the essence of having new leadership in place.
A few other institutions from the research have been able to ensure that there is diversity in the people who are always destined for top leadership in the organization and in fact, some have adopted career development and leadership development programs that enable the organizations to define their future leaders early in time. This has been notable among a few of the health and library agencies who, in the quest for succession planning, have been able to restructure the way leaders are molded and prepared for the top management in the agency. The impact of such a move is quite visionary and committed to ensuring that goals and mission guide the delivery services at all times.
One of the employees in her 80th birthday has vowed the “until death do us path” clause over her position though she is not motivated to even take up roles in a higher level. The fact that employees are growing with such an attitude is an implication that perhaps, most of the employees have specialties in one career without auxiliary education and are not even willing to grow their career. This would eventually derail the succession planning process. This trend seems a disease in time in the sense that, almost all the organizations have the same deficiency and perhaps, the succession and planning that is under review needs some time before it can be realized. It was also established that a few of the organizations were able to review the contracts of their employees and those who could not deliver were considered redundant and would have their contracts terminated. While searching for the top leaders in the business world, a compromise is always established such that an employee who is not able to deliver on their mandate is replaced with one who can deliver the same job in a shorter time while being subject to the same terms and conditions as the previous employee. This condition is not so for the two agencies in question and that what is affecting their succession planning process.
Statistically, the greater parts of the organizations who have been replacing their staff have been doing it on their own and this has been likened to recycling of the same talent that does not have the right influence on the new culture. The performance of some other organization has been declining and others stagnating with a few progressing due to this nature of succession planning. While multinational agencies are prospering, many leaders in the health and library agencies fail to appreciate what others do while planning for their succession. The politics of succession in any working environment usually have a rectifying approach to critical issues, and if consulting is not brought on board, the pertinent issues end up behind the shadows.
The contribution of a consultant in succession planning is invaluable to both the employee and the employer in the sense that, an employee needs to be advised whether they should present themselves to be considered for leadership in whatever position and be advised on how things work out in that capacity as well. The employer on the other hand, needs to be equally advised on the importance of recruiting a successor for a certain position having certain qualities. Some of the benefits that employees in an organization are entitled can be reviewed with the consent of a consultant. Sometimes reviewing them favorably can attract a good potential successor to take over leadership in the agency.
The results however, indicate that the county health agencies have been hiring consultants to serve management interests like that concerning management of pension fund. The influence of succession politics sometimes renders the sentiments of the consultant irrelevant in the end especially if the norm of the organization is to have this small institution for the sake of having them. Employees stand to benefit and grow to be reliable leaders in the organization when consultant are available to organize for auxiliary training on how to lead the health fraternity and ensuring system are in place to deliver the right service to the people.
Succession planning sometimes requires a systematic review of remuneration, benefits and even roles of each position and perhaps, the qualification of the new employee for the position. All these events must be systematic if a paradigm shift is to be achieved.
Internal training is one of the aspects that many employers have resorted to in enhancing a productive team that is able to take up leadership roles at a later date. This is enhanced by ensuring that the workers reciprocate in response by being positive in their attitude and appreciating the fact such education takes time before it is rolled out again. Such constructive approaches to succession planning can only happen when consultants working in partnership with the organization are sought after to provide their peace of mind regarding preparing for the same. Perhaps, it would be interesting to see that so much potential in the current employees can be exposed with timely training and end up reducing the time lost in searching for the candidate thought to be right for the position however, due to the partial consulting, the agencies in this context might not realize that in time.
The health agencies in Ventura County hardly offer education that is meant to establish leaders in the employees because there is an overwhelming need to have an active team to focus on service delivery. However, successful service delivery is barren if the leadership system is too old to deliver a current ideology in the right way. For instance, when most of the organizations have their top leaders and assistants both on their retirement ages, none of them will be concerned with passing the baton to the younger generation of leaders and that is usually another challenge. The incoming team should always have someone who sits at the top leadership and who is pro change to ensure that there is a transformation in leadership but from the literature and data presented, the reverse is the case. Engaging consultants result in restructuring the setup of leadership to ensure that the successor of any position has the desired leadership.
The contributions of consultants in defining the future of the organization’s leadership have proven invaluable in the recent past and to single out an example, consultants will come with the expertise that help in highlighting the future of every agency and perhaps, advice the panelist on whether or not to adopt a new team of young talent and have them in leadership or do it progressively. From the impression that most organizations are still promoting most of the homegrown employees who started their first formal employment in those institutions, is an indication that a few have incorporated consulting as part of their approach to succession planning. Whenever consultants are involved in this process, it becomes likely that they will advise rightfully on how to establish the right team of entrant employees. This is by ensuring that there are value added projects that push the employees to revealing their potential. Recruits who exhibit desired leadership traits should be noted and prepared for promotions. This can be achieved through consulting experts (Who's who in the West, 1949). It is therefore clear that health and library agencies in Ventura County partially incorporated consulting in their succession planning process.
Conclusion
As much as it is desired that succession planning should be made as one of the core businesses of these public agencies, what is clear though is the fact that some good amount of time has to elapse before the right thing can be done. When most of the institutions are promoting on the basis of such an outdated approach as loyalty to the organization, such real qualities as what somebody can bring to the institution has been relegated in the list of priorities. Perhaps, from the data most of the institutions strike below their mission in this succession planning. It was also interesting to establish that most of the public institutions still lag behind the private institutions in performance (Tienda, Mitchell,and National Research Council, 2006). This has been largely due to the succession planning approach in the two sectors where in the private sector, the business aspect is guarded against all interference, while the public sector finds this of minimum concern. Contributions made by consulting firms should never be underestimated, but instead, should be adopted as crucial entities. This is because of the standards that consulting firms conform to in comparison to any other firms.
References
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