Constraints to Succession Management in State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

Succession Planning/Management plays an important role in fostering organizational continuity as it provides the platform for identifying and developing suitable heirs to critical roles in an organization. Despite this critical role, many organizations are seemingly constrained in implementing Succession Planning/Management. The overall objective of the study was to establish the constraints to succession management in state corporations in Kenya. The study specially aimed to; establish the influence of human resource policy; ascertain the influence of business goals; establish the influence of top management involvement; evaluate the role of talent pool development; assess the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation on succession management in state corporations. The study discussed both theoretical and empirical literature on succession management. The study adopted a descriptive research design and the study population comprised of a total of 162 top level HRM in state corporations. The study adopted a census design to reach the top level HRM in 162 state corporations. The study used semi-structured questionnaires as the main data collection instrument and a pilot study was carried out to pretest the questionnaires for validity and reliability. The gathered data was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics data analysis methods using a statistical package for social scientists SPSS. Pearson’s Correlations Analysis and Regression Analysis were also used to support the deductions in the study. The study found out that most state corporations lacked proper succession management systems. It was concluded that study the major constraints to succession management in state corporations in Kenya includes; human resource policy, top management involvement, non-alignment to business goals, weak talent pool development systems and weak monitoring and evaluation systems. The study recommended for the improvement of HR policy framework, formulation of clear business goals and aligning to broader corporate planning processes, strong support from top management in implementation of succession management strategies, implementation of talent pool development mechanisms and robust monitoring and evaluation systems.