Succession Management Strategies in Public Sector Organizations

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X0102100202
• Date: 01 June 2001
• Author: Dahlia Bradshaw Lynn
• Published date: 01 June 2001
• Subject Matter: Articles

REVIEWOFPUBLICPERSONNELADMINISTRATION / Summer 2001

Lynn/SUCCESSIONMANAGEMENTSTRATEGIES

Succession Management Strategies

in Public Sector Organizations

Building Leadership Capital

DAHLIA BRADSHAW LYNN

University of Southern Maine

This research reviews the development of succession management strategies in

public service organizations. The results reinforce the directlink between organi-

zational culture and leadership and the need for new human resource manage-

ment initiatives to foster the systematic identification, recruitment, develop-

ment, and selection of high-potential candidates to improve leadership growthin

the public sector.

An essential employee in a public sector agency unexpectedly resigns leav-

ing the organization with a substantial gap in institutional memory,

knowledge, and leadership. Institutional personnel, community leaders, and

stakeholders are asking critical questions. How long will it take to have a

replacement? Are there internal candidates? Where can the right person be

found? Why is someone not ready for this job? Why didn’t the organization

plan for this occurrence?

According to Blunt (2000), growing the next generation of public sector

leaders may be “the single most critical responsibility of senior public ser-

vice leaders today” (p. 4). The natural ebb and flow of human events—

retirement, career mobility, ill health, termination, or even death—require

institutional responses to the leadership gaps all organizations inevitably

face (Friedman & Singh, 1989; Marshall, 1997). The importance of the

identification and development of leadership potential and the process cho-

sen by an organization cannot be underestimated (Zald, 1970), for “out-

comes of leadership succession choices may . . . have a large impact on orga-

nizational directions and policies” (p. 245).

Current systems for developing future public managers have been char-

acterized as “largely serendipitous” (Huddleston, 1999). Efforts to address

the question of leadership capacity confirm what many leaders and practi-

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tioners already know—there is a growing gap of leadership talent in the

public service (The Leadership Development, 1999).

There are varieties of alternative strategies in the selection of new leaders.

Public and private sector responses have involved different approaches to

the identification and development of institutional leadership capacity.

Public sector leadership is primarily predicated on open competition,

merit, and competitive testing mechanisms or seniority (incorporating col-

lective bargaining as a subset of a civil service personnel system).

Conversely, the private sector response to executive replacement not

only includes open competition and competitive testing mechanisms but

may also encompass a number of different strategies involving the early rec-

ognition of high-potential candidates, providing opportunities for profes-

sional development and ultimately advancement within the organization.

Although the initiators of organizational change may vary, public and

private organizations increasingly share a common experience. Whether

public or private, the ability of an institution to survive turbulent times is

based on the organization’s capacity to produce sustained and high quality

leadership over time. “Sustained innovation,” the ability to keep change

alive, extends beyond sector characteristics and encompasses the leadership

capacity of all organizations (Schall, 1997). Thus, effective and sustained

leadership contributes toward an organization’s weathering storms of

change, whether caused by downsizing, technology,or public expectations

(National Academy of Public Administration [NAPA], 1997).

How organizations address leadership capacity building is an important

indicator of an organization’s ability to develop the intellectual capacity

necessary for it to thrive. This is no less the case for public sector agencies

facing formidable challenges in identifying and nurturing the next genera-

tion of public service leaders. Increasingly, leadership capacity building is

receiving renewed attention as governmental and other public sector agen-

cies face mounting pressures to ensure organizational sustainability, flexi-

bility, and responsiveness in the face of increasing uncertainty and

limitations.

The inability of the public sector to meet leadership needs is similar to

that of the private sector. What stands in marked contrast is the way each

sector has responded to the challenge of building leadership capacity.Lead-

ership strength within public organizations has traditionally rested on the

ability of public managers to provide reliable and predictabledirection in an

environment characterized by incremental change and improvement

(NAPA, 1997). Increasing turbulence in the public sector environment,

characterized by organizational restructuring, funding uncertainties, and

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