Succession planning sometimes is called succession management to emphasize the active and continuous nature of the efforts in preparing people to meet an organization's needs for talent over time. Rothwell, J.W (2005) defined it as any effort designed to ensure the continued effective performance of an organization, division, department, or work group by making provision for the development, replacement, and strategic application of key people over time. Succession planning is usually part of a larger talent management program that is intended to attract the best through recruitment, keep the best through effective retention practices, and develop the best people through well-targeted talent development efforts. According to CIPD succession planning is a process for identifying and developing potential future leaders or senior managers, as well as individuals to fill other business in short or long-term. In addition to training and development activities, succession planning programs typically include the provision of practical, tailored work experience that will be relevant for future senior or key roles by CIPD 2012.
On their contribution in this discussion, Charan et al (2001) described this concept as a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available. Effective succession or talent-pool management concerns itself with building a series of feeder groups up and down the entire leadership pipeline or progression. In contrast, replacement planning is focused narrowly on identifying specific back-up candidates for given senior management positions. Armstrong (2009) defined succession planning as the process of assessing and auditing the talent in the organization in order to answer three fundamental questions. First, are there enough potential successors available; a supply of people coming through who can...