Problem Statement
Institutions across the world struggle to find succession planning practices that are effective and practical. Professionals in the field of management argue that the practice of successive planning is dynamic, which is characterized by complexity and uncertainty (Barzelay & Campbell, 2003). Proper succession planning is the art of success for all government institutions and business corporations throughout the world. Succession planning primarily involves the process of identifying and developing people with the potential to fill future vacancies in organizations. Most institutions and corporations prefer developing internal employees of the institution since they have prior experience and knowledge of the organizational tasks. Effective succession is a tool of talent-pool management that is concerned with building a series of feeder groups throughout the entire leadership progression (Oakes, 2009). The fundamental philosophy in succession planning is the argument that the top talents in the institutions must be properly managed for purposes of utilitarianism (Baumer, Kreutter & Messner, 2012). Corporations both profit and non-profit oriented, make succession planning part of the leadership culture in order to enhance the effectiveness of the practice.
The United States government, however, has not realized the significance of succession planning and its associated outcomes. Although some institutions have the culture of succession planning, it is either traditional or procedurally ineffective to ensure that future employees have the talent and capability to assume top management positions upon retirement of the executive officers (Barzelay & Campbell, 2003). The United States government falls in this category since it has not been able to effectively address the issue of excellent preparation for future planning. The government seems to be lacking the machinery to forecast on the substantial impact of retaining talented employees on future outcomes and performance of the government agencies.
Succession planning management is not a new phenomenon. Institutions have always struggled to identify, develop and retain their most talented employees for decades. However, the 21st century has seen succession planning suddenly popping up on all organizations’ radar screen (Oakes, 2009). Currently, all institutions are facing higher demands in the labor market arena due to rapid retirement of Baby Boomers and the widening talent gap. The paper-based and home-grown succession planning that most institutions depended on in the past no longer meet today’s workforce demands. The strategy of enhancing results requires institutions to begin with basics and create strong processes that apply proper tools and technology to instill a mind-set devoted to talent development in the institutions.
Objectives of the Study
Research Questions
- What are the succession planning approaches that government leaders use to ensure employee retention?
- What are the current trends in succession planning in the United States government?
- Which best practices have government leaders instituted to enhance the effectiveness of succession planning?
Research Methodology
Research methodology focuses on the methods that the researcher will use in the study; the section will guide the researcher because it discusses the techniques of data collection and analysis that the researcher will apply to ensure that the study succeeds. The researcher will use methods and strategies that fit the study to prove reliability and validity of the information in the literature review.
The research will adopt a primary methodology of data collection. This method of data collection involves the researcher collecting the actual data from the field (Fink, 2009). The researcher will use thirty-five, self-administered questionnaires. The questions will contain both closed and open-ended questions. Self-administered questionnaires will guarantee the research the opportunity to access a large number of respondents in a variety of government agencies. The main disadvantage of self-administered questionnaires concerns the costs of producing and disseminating higher number of questionnaires (Fink, 2009). The researcher will disseminate the questionnaires and collect data that is valid, reliable and complete.
The researcher will analyze the data collected by selecting, conceptualizing and converting the data collected from the respondents. The researcher will analyze the responses to identify similarities and inconsistencies in the data. Data reduction will be followed by coding, which will lead to quicker retrieval of data sets. The open-ended questions that will not be coded will be analyzed through the method of qualitative abstraction (Fink, 2009). The researcher will represent the analyzed data using tables, percentages, pie charts and bar graphs.
Sources of Data
The objective of the study is to find out how government leaders can best prepare for future staffing by doing effective successive planning. The main source of data includes government agencies in the states. The researcher will request the internal publics in government agencies to fill the questionnaires. Among the expected participants in the research include employees and senior leaders in the government agencies.
Possible Outcomes from the Research
The researcher intends to learn the best approaches to successive planning that can be used to retain the top talented employees. The researcher will identify the current trends in succession planning and management among the United States government leaders, which will be vital in understanding the concept of succession planning. Additionally, the study will enable the researcher to identify the best practices that the government leaders should use in order to ensure effective successive planning.
References
Barzelay, M., & Campbell, C. (2003). Preparing for the future: Strategic planning in the U.S. Air Force. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press.
Baumer, U., Kreutter, P., & Messner, W. (2012). Globalization of professional services: Innovative strategies, successful processes, inspired talent management, and first-hand experiences. Berlin: Springer.
Fink, A. (2009). How to conduct surveys: A step-by-step guide. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Oakes, K. (2011). The executive guide to integrated talent management. Alexandria, VA: Astd press.
