In organisational development, succession planning is the process of identifying and preparing suitable employees, through mentoring, training and job rotation, to replace key players (such as the CEO) within an organization as their terms expire.

The example of General Electric is a good recent one where CEO Jack Welch and the Board of Directors engaged in a lengthy and systematic review of the potential successors prior to his retirement.

With the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2003, succession planning in the USA has risen in importance as a corporate governance issue.

External links

• lominger.com - Succession planning tools

Management | Organizational studies and human resource management