Abstract
The main aim of the chapter is to identify the leadership style that promotes succession planning through the existence of leadership development practices within organizations. The middle and top leaders are very important to identify and develop new leaders within the organization. The authors reach three main conclusions: 1) The laissez-faire leadership style is related to the succession planning. Succession planning is positively influenced by leaders that adopt a passive leadership style. 2) There are some practices of leadership development that are related to the existence of succession planning in organizations. 3) The 360º feedback and coaching/executive coaching are related to the succession planning. These practices promote the human capital development, so it is assumed that succession planning may be related to the leader development. Theoretically they concluded that organizations should have a leadership pipeline in order to prepare leaders to assume leadership positions.
TopBackground
Organizations have increasingly complex and demanding environments. Gareth Morgan, in his book Images of organization, seeks to better understand this environment, using metaphors. These reflect the daily life of organizations. This paper has underlying the metaphor of organizations as brains, where “organizations are information-processing systems capable of learning to learn” (Morgan, 1986, 80). In 1991, Peter Senge emerges with the approach of Learning Organizations. This gave rise to the proliferation of scientific studies, contributing to greater prominence of human resource development (HRD) in economic terms and organizational (Tomé, 2011). In organizational context, the HRD function is very important for the leadership development because it allows connection between corporate and business-unit strategies. Without this connection, high potentials can leave the organization for lack of opportunities. On the other hand, it is essential integrate the human resource systems with leadership development, as shown in Figure 1. There is no development without strategic planning, succession planning, recruitment, and selection according to the organization's needs, a process of performance assessment, a plan for training and development of customized career.
Figure 1. Integrated Leadership Development Systems
Key Terms in this Chapter
Leader Development: Refers to the development of individual skills of the leader.
Leadership: Is a process of reciprocal influence between the leader and the follower.
Succession Planning: Is a process of identifying and developing people with characteristics to assume strategic positions within the organization.
Leader: Is someone who has the ability to influence, share, and inspire their vision on others; others live and feel this vision as their own.
Transformational Leadership: Is a leadership style based on the leader's charisma, in its concern to inspire and motivate others and in their willingness to encourage personal and professional development of its followers.
Leadership Style: Refers to the characteristic behaviors of a leader in directing, influencing, guiding, and managing a group of people.
Leadership Development: Refers to the development of leadership processes within the organization, involving the development of its human and social capital.