W4: Succession Plan

Succession Plan
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Succession Plan
Hastings (2014) defines succession planning as the process that involves an organization ensuring that it recruits its workers to fill the crucial roles within the firm. The process prevents cases of employee unpreparedness in cases of unfilled vital roles (Rothwell & Dawsonera, 2016). The succession planning process involves recruiting superior workers and boosting their knowledge and skills. This practice helps to prepare them in case any form of promotion arises, especially when it comes to more challenging roles. Any given organization is expected to fulfill its ethical obligation of having a succession plan in place, which is meant for incumbents, employees, and managers.
Firstly, the implementation of a succession plan is an ethical obligation from the incumbents and owners of firms because they can provide the workers with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities (Rothwell & Dawsonera, 2016). As owners of corporations, the incumbents fulfill their ethical responsibility of ensuring that employees at the workplace possess the necessary skills to enable them to meet customer’s expectations. In this case, having a succession plan is an ethical role in ensuring that employees are equipped with the right knowledge and that they can fulfill various positions within the firm. Evidently, incumbents have an ethical responsibility to ensure that there is a flow of the succession pipeline. Therefore, this type of planning enables incumbents to fulfill their moral responsibility.

Second, succession planning is also an ethical obligation to the employees, especially those who are eligible for promotion. Workers in various firms should ensure they are proficient and have the required skills to enable them complete assigned tasks. Precisely, employees take part in succession planning by participating in the training process arranged by the management (Hastings, 2014). As essential resources of a company, it is also the responsibility of employees to ensure they acquire the necessary skills to prepare them for the next roles during a promotion. Practical training is key element of succession planning, which enables employees to become active players who have great potential in their organizations.
Additionally, the managers of organizations also have an ethical obligation to implement and advocate for succession planning (Rothwell & Dawsonera, 2016). As leaders of firms, succession planning enables managers to identify high potential employees who can fill in the new roles. These managers are in charge of ensuring that a business has the right workers based on the company’s functionality. According to Hastings (2014), managers should increasingly lead in talent-building within their firms to boost the skills and knowledge of workers. In most cases, managers are blamed when employees resign, and there are no subordinates to replace them. Through succession planning, a manager fulfills his ethical and moral responsibility by ensuring that the right employees are identified to serve clients.
Conclusively, the planning process is an important requirement by firms in the business environment. The practice has enabled firms in the contemporary business environment to have potential successors for different positions. This form of planning has ensured that incumbents are able to fulfill their ethical obligation by hiring competent employees. It also motivates the workers to take part in the training process to make sure they are equipped to serve customers. Managers also achieve their ethical responsibility through identification of high potential workers. Overall, succession planning is essential for any given organization since it enables members of a firm to fulfill their ethical duties to their clients.
References
Hastings, S. (2014). Succession planning: Take two. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training & Development.
Rothwell, W. J., & Dawsonera. (2016). Effective succession planning: Ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within. New York: AMACOM.