A Systematic Literature Review of Factors Affecting Succession
Planning Implementation in Empirical Studies
Abstract: Today’s businesses must devote significant resources to succession planning to guarantee the steady
flow of new talent and the safekeeping of institutional knowledge. The goal of this paper is to analyse the
results of empirical research on the implications of succession planning (SP), discover strategies employed by
organisations, and recognise the factors that determine the implementation of succession planning, along with
the potential issues and challenges that may arise. This literature review was structured using a systematic
review methodology. Of a total of 259 publications, 32 that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were
considered. The results show that most of the research was conducted in Western and developed Asian
countries, whereas few studies have been published in the Middle East or among Arab countries. Moreover, the
results show that most of the current studies ranged across several contexts, including healthcare, educational
institutions, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), family businesses, and private sectors, with a limited focus
on the public sector. The findings indicate that the availability of a talent pool, congruence with human
resource (HR) activities, management buy-in, and organisational dedication is the most influential aspects of SP
implementation.
Key-Words: - Succession planning, succession management, systematic literature review, factors, talent
development, issues, and challenges
Received: March 21, 2023. Revised: July 2, 2023. Accepted: July 13, 2023. Published: July 21, 2023.
1 Introduction
Nowadays, organizations all over the world are
confronted with high rates of employee turnover,
and directors are concerned as they struggle to fill
crucial jobs requiring candidates with specific skills
and backgrounds, [1]. Therefore, organisations have
started to implement effective systematic succession
plans to overcome the unplanned costs of hiring
unprepared employees, strategic decision-making
delays, operational progress disruption, and loss of
organisational knowledge, [2]. Nevertheless, the
effectiveness of these plans is still debatable, as
numerous factors impact the successful
implementation of succession planning (SP), [3],
[4]. Most of the current organisational studies focus
on the SP process; however, limited studies have
focused on the factors that affect the effectiveness of
succession planning implementation. Nevertheless,
most of the underlying empirical studies from
Western countries focus on higher educational
institutions, [5], [6], [7], the healthcare sector, [8],
[9], [10], schools, [11], and family businesses, [12],
[13], [14], which may have limited validity to be
generalised to other sectors.
The purpose of this paper is to uncover the
issues and challenges of SP implementation by
observing the findings from empirical studies on SP.
Specifically, this paper aims to discover and analyse
the factors that either foster or hinder organisations
from implementing succession plans. Nevertheless,
this study is expected to contribute to the human
resources management and development field by
providing a comprehensive summary of the status of
empirical studies and research in the SP and
1ABDULLAH TALIB AL JAHWARI, 2MOHD NUR RUZAINY ALWI
1College of Graduate Studies, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), MALAYISA
2College οf Business Management and Accounting, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), MALAYISA
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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.142
Abdullah Talib Al Jahwari, Mohd Nur Ruzainy Alwi
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management literature. It will also reflect on the
current gaps and recommend ways and areas of
research to fill them. To reach these goals, this study
aims to answer the following questions:
Q1. What is the main focus of succession planning
and management (SP&M) studies?
Q2. What are the main factors found in previous
research that are vital in making SP more effective?
Q3. What are the main theories and models used in
SP studies?
2 Method
To answer the study's questions, a systematic
literature review was undertaken, which is regarded
as a major technique for 'identifying, evaluating, and
integrating the findings of all relevant, high-quality
studies on particular issues and problems', [15],
[16]. It has been characterized as a type of study that
evaluates, critiques, and synthesizes relevant
research on a subject in an integrated manner to
develop new frameworks and thoughts on the topic,
[17].
In order to guarantee that this review has taken
into account every significant previous study, a
broad search of the most well-known databases in
human resource (HR) and organisation studies,
including Emerald, Scopus, Willey, ProQuest,
Springer Link, Sage, Science Direct, and Taylor &
Francis, was conducted. The timeframe for this
review includes all published papers from January
2010 to January 2020. Several keywords were
searched using terminology related to SP, such as
‘succession planning’, ‘succession management’,
‘manpower planning’, and ‘talent management’.
The database search generated 259 publications
with titles including succession planning or
management that were then screened by reviewing
the abstract to determine their relevance to the
research topic and their fit with the inclusion and
exclusion criteria to filter the articles and identify
the more relevant studies. Studies were considered
for inclusion if they satisfied one or more of the
following inclusion criteria: (1) empirical study, (2)
focusing on SP, (3) English language, (4) published
in a peer-reviewed journal (5) published from 2010
to 2020 and (6) sought to answer the research
questions. The findings from each database are
summarized in Figure 1, along with the filtration
technique that was used. Applying the inclusion
criteria mentioned above, two stages of screening
were conducted, as presented in Figure 1. Initially,
120 publications were identified to match the
inclusion criteria after reading the abstracts of 259
investigations. The full texts of the 120 studies were
then reviewed. The most relevant papers for the
final analysis were determined as 32 of the 120
articles in total.
Fig. 1: Summarisation of Systematic Literature Review Process
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3 Results and Discussion
This systematic literature review ranges across
several contexts, including healthcare, educational
institutions, small and medium enterprises (SMEs),
family businesses, and private and non-profit
sectors.
Regarding the regional distribution of studies,
the review found that most studies were conducted
in Western countries (Europe and the USA) and
Asia, and limited studies were conducted in
developing countries in the Middle East.
The identified articles’ main focuses can be
classified into four main themes. The first is the
motives and reasons that drive organisations to
implement SP. For instance, [18], [19], [20],
theorised SP as an employee engagement strategy
that creates job security, increases positive job
attitudes, and discourages turnover intentions.
Furthermore, studies that focus on family businesses
and SMEs have highlighted SP as a strategy to
ensure business growth and continuity. The findings
from previous studies demonstrated that the
unplanned departure of quality talent and
leaders without ready successors can be harmful
to organisations and may prevent them from
succeeding in today’s competitive market, [21],
[22].
Nevertheless, [18], [23], studied the relationship
between SP and knowledge transfer and found that
SP is an efficient method of passing on knowledge
to the next generation, who will inevitably assume
key leadership roles in the future. The brain drain
that occurs when key personnel depart cannot be
easily replaced unless there is a pool of successors
waiting in the wings to take over the responsibilities
of the retiring staff.
Second, SP stages and processes have been
discussed thoroughly in the literature, presenting
numerous stages that organisations should follow to
implement professionally and achieve the expected
outcomes, [16], [19], [21], [23], [24], [25]. The
important stages shared by all of these studies are
need recognition, candidate selection and
evaluation, candidate development or improvement,
and SP assessment. The third main theme discussed,
which represents one of the goals of this study, is
the theories and models used in the SP literature to
discuss the relationship between different factors
and SP. Table 1 includes a list of the theories and
models discussed in the studies. The leadership
succession model by [26], is the most common
model used in the current studies, as it discusses the
factors and steps organisations should follow to
implement effective SP. Moreover, agency theory,
which studies the relationship between board
interventions in the SP process, is common in the SP
literature, [27]. Strategic management theory,
transformational leadership theory, dynamic theory
of management, and socialisation theory have also
been studied and implemented in SP research as
underpinning theories to guide SP implementation
or to study the factors that impact its effectiveness.
Table 1. Theories used in previous studies related
to succession planning
No.
Theory/Model used
1
Leadership
succession model
2
Strategic
management theory
3
Game theory
4
Transformational
leadership theory
5
Dynamic theory of
knowledge
management
6
Socialisation theory
7
Agency theory
Nevertheless, the main aim of this review is to
identify the most effective factors that impact SP
implementation. The review found that there were
21 factors used in the various studies across
different contexts. It is noted that some are used
more frequently than others, as illustrated in Table
2, due to their strong effect. These factors have been
found to either facilitate the SP process or to be
barriers if they do not exist or are dealt with
ineffectively. From the 14 studies that discussed the
factors, having an internal talent pool was
considered one of the most frequently utilised
factors, where it has been an essential element of a
successful succession plan, [5], [11], [19], [21],
[28], [29]. From the review, it could be noted that
the second most studied factor was alignment with
other HR activities, having been applied six times
and determining that for SP to be effective, it should
be aligned, linked, and embedded in all organisation
strategies. Also, HR should have a comprehensive
strategy for people management and workforce
planning, [11], [28], [29].
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Next, top management support and organisational
commitment to continue the process in the long term
have been studied four times and found to be
strongly related to effective SP implementation. Top
management support is described as the driver of
change and is required for the long term and as a
means to keep people motivated and energised.
Also, factors such as the involvement of
stakeholders, organisational culture, and the
availability of effective performance management
systems were studied three times each and found to
have a direct impact. Meanwhile, the availability of
training development opportunities, feeling the need
to plan, the formality of the process, and monitoring
and evaluation of the progress were studied twice
and play an important role in ensuring effective
implementation in SP, [3], [5], [11], [29], [30]. It
can be concluded that some of these factors are
significant, as they either positively or negatively
affect the effective implementation of SP. On the
other hand, some of the factors are rarely used but
still effective in SP and should be considered in
future studies.
4 Conclusion
This SLR paper is among the few to analyse
empirical studies on SP implementation in various
organisations. The review of 32 papers helped to
draw a clear picture of the current research in SP
and the gaps in the literature that require more focus
in future studies. The review illustrates various
reasons that drive organisations to invest time and
money in implementing SP. Moreover, it has been
found that previous research was mostly conducted
in the the private sector, family firms, the health
sector, and schools, which may draw attention to
future studies to focus more on the public sector.
Nevertheless, this study reveals that most current
papers are found to be practical or point-of-view
papers, while only a few studies focus on testing
theories and models in practice.
Finally, the most important aim of this study was to
identify the most effective factors related to SP. It
was found that the availability of an internal talent
pool, alignment with HR activities, top management
support, and organisational commitment are among
the most effective factors. As a result, this study’s
objectives have been achieved by identifying factors
and theories and finding gaps in future studies.
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Table 2. Factors that impact SP implementation
Factor
Reference
Involvement of
stakeholders
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Performance
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Formality of the
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49.
Contribution of Individual Authors to the
Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting
Policy)
-Abdullah Al Jahwari was responsible for writing
the paper and conducting the systematic literature
review.
-Mohd Nur Ruzainy has worked to guide the main
writer in reviewing the paper and recommending the
required changes. He also supported the analysis
process and the formulation of the findings.
Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a
Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflict of interest to declare
that is relevant to the content of this article.
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)
This article is published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.142
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