Management Development and Succession Planning Lessons forHealth Service Organisations

In this article a definition of succession planning is given, outlining the potential benefits and problems of implementing a successionplanning programme in a health service organisation, and factors critical for the success of such a programme are discussed. A case study is presented of one large health service organisation which recently implemented a successionplanning programme. In this case study, a brief overview is given of the organisational setting, the philosophy and objectives of the programme are outlined and the programmes implementation and early outcomes are described.