Succession Planning Practices and Performance of Universities in Tanzania

Abstract

Organisational performance has been a key area of research inquiry for a couple of decades including in service entities like universities. This study sought to determine the moderating role of top management support on the relationship between succession planning practices and performance of universities in Tanzania. It was guided by five objectives: to determining the relationship between employee mentoring and performance of universities in Tanzania; to assess the relationship between employee coaching and performance of universities in Tanzania, to evaluate the relationship between job sharing and performance of universities in Tanzania; to examine the relationship between job rotation and performance of universities in Tanzania and finally, to establish the moderating effect of top management support on the relationship between succession planning practices and performance of universities in Tanzania. The independent variable was succession practices operationalized as employee mentoring, employee coaching, employee job sharing and employee job rotation. The dependent variable was university performance, measured through levels of enrolment, publications, and graduation. The moderating variable was top management support that was studied through funds allocation, time scheduling and moral support. Five theories anchored the study: Resource-Based Theory, Human Capital Theory, Herzberg Two-Factor Theory, Reinforcement Theory and Theory U. The study was founded on the positivism research philosophy, adopting cross-sectional survey design with a population of the study from 28 registered full-fledged universities in Tanzania upon which 379 respondents being academic staff members were obtained using stratified random sampling technique. Frequencies, mean, and standard deviations constituted the descriptive analysis. Inferential analysis was conducted using correlation and regression analyses. Employee job sharing had the greatest statistically significant effect on performance of universities, followed by employee mentoring, employee coaching, and employee job rotation. The regression results further confirmed that succession planning practices significantly predict university performance. Top management support exerted a significant moderating role on the relationship between succession planning practices and performance of universities, with employee job sharing proving highly significant after moderation, followed by employee coaching, employee mentoring, and employee job rotation. The five null hypotheses of the study were rejected and therefore, the study concludes that succession planning practices have a significant positive effect in influencing university performance and that top management support positively and significantly moderates the relationship of the two variables. It is recommended that, universities need to have policies that guide and ensure that succession planning practices are infused into their strategic fabric, as well as strengthen the role of top management to enhance performance.