The Succession of Chief Executive Officers

The review analyzes an article on succession planning as one of the areas of organizational development. Organizational development entails managing institutional change and performance to ensure that the change does not affect organizational performance. The article addresses a contemporary issue managing the succession of CEOs. Currently getting an individual for a high-ranking position like the CEO is not a short time undertaking. The article is diverse because it presents both the benefits of engaging in succession planning and the possible repercussion if a company does not have a succession plan. Additionally the article suggests that firm should develop role profiles to facilitate succession this making it highly applicable in the solving succession as a current OD issue.

The succession of Chief Executive Officers Getting Serious

The article talks about CEO succession in the current corporate world. The article gives a practical example that 20% of CEOs of the S&P 500 companies have resigned since 2016 (Stevenson, 2017). Most of the departures have not been planned, and they can have negative implications for the firm. Therefore, due to such abrupt turnovers company boards could benefit from having succession plans and making the process a continuous process.

Even if a firm does not expect to replace its CEO at a near point in time, it is strategic to plan for future leaders to ensure that the entities are ready for any shift or events. According to the article CEO, succession should not be a one-off event but a continuous process (Stevenson, 2017). Developing effective leadership is complex and requires time, and without early preparation, the board can be caught having a short time such that they are not able to replace the leaving CEOs on a timely basis. Developing leaders from within the organization is less costly, and it ensures that the priorities of the organization are aligned with the leadership. The directors, therefore, need to compile profiles showing the most critical knowledge, drivers and traits that future CEOs or managers should have.

The article relates to organizational development (OD) in that OD is concerned with studying of successful organizational shifts and performance and the article talks about changes in leadership management, which is vital for the success of any organizations. There are shifts in the availability of people to be employed as CEO. The article is comprehensive because it presets both the effect of planning and not planning for succession. It also gives an approach, which firms can take to ensure adequate replacement though building profiles. It is, thus, an influential article.  

Conclusion

Firms should engage in CEO succession as well as for other leadership positions. Such an approach ensures that firms are strategically prepared and that the change is managed without affecting the firm negatively.

Reference

Stevenson, J. (2017). CEO Succession Gets Serious. Retrieved from https://www.kornferry.com/institute/ceo-succession-gets-serious