Potential Appraisal,

UNIT 10 POTENTIAL APPRAISAL, Assessment Centres

and Career and
ASSESSMENT CENTRES AND Succession Planning

CAREER AND SUCCESSION

PLANNING
Objectives

After going through this unit, you should be able to :

l explain the concept of potential appraisal and its importance;
l understand what ‘assessment centre’ is and how it functions;
l differentiate between assessment centres and development centres;
l discuss the process of career planning and its importance; and
l define ‘succession planning’ and differentiate it from career planning.

Structure
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Potential Appraisal
10.3 Assessment Centres
10.4 Career Planning
10.5 Succession Planning
10.6 Summary
10.7 Self Assessment Questions
10.8 Further Readings

10.1 INTRODUCTION
Employees aspire to grow and expect this growth to take place at frequent intervals.
Achievement of organisational goal, increased productivity and fulfilment of corporate
objectives can be possible only if the employees are feeling satisfaction and
achievement. To achieve this there is a requirement for a well thought out system of
career and succession planning in an organisation. In this backdrop, this unit deals
with mechanisms of potential appraisals and ways and means employed by
organizations such as assessment centres to provide growth opportunities to employees.

10.2 POTENTIAL APPRAISAL

Many companies, which carry out performance appraisal, also keep records on the
potential of their employees for future promotion opportunities. The task of identifying
potential for promotion cannot be easy for the appraising manager, since competence
of a member of staff to perform well in the current job is not an automatic indicator of
potential for promotion. Very often the first class salesman is promoted to become a
mediocre sales manager, the excellent chief engineer is promoted to become a very
poor engineering director, and the star football player struggles to be a football
manager.
Potential can be defined as ‘a latent but unrealised ability’. There are many people
who have the desire and potential to advance through the job they are in, wanting the 33
Performance Management opportunity to operate at a higher level of competence in the same type of work. The
and Potential Assessment potential is the one that the appraiser should be able to identity and develop because of
the knowledge of the job. This requires an in-depth study of the positions which may
become vacant, looking carefully at the specific skills that the new position may
demand and also taking into consideration the more subjective areas like ‘qualities’
required. These may be areas where the employee has not had a real opportunity to
demonstrate the potential ability and there may be areas with which you, as the
appraisers are not familiar. There are few indicators of potential (Box 1) which may
be considered.
Box 1: Indicators of Potential

l A sense of reality: This is the extent to which a person thinks and acts
objectively, resisting purely emotional pressures but pursuing realistic projects
with enthusiasm.
l Imagination: The ability to let the mind range over a wide variety of possible
causes of action, going beyond conventional approaches to situations and not
being confined to ‘This is the way it is always being done!’
l Power of analysis: The capacity to break down, reformulate or transform a
complicated situation into manageable terms.
l Breadth of vision: The ability to examine a problem in the context of a much
broader framework of reference; being able to detect, within a specific
situation, relationships with those aspects which could be affecting the
situation.
l Persuasiveness: The ability to sell ideas to other people and gain a continuing
commitment, particularly when the individual is using personal influence rather
than ‘management authority’.
Source: Adopted from Philip, Tom (1983). Making Performance Appraisal Work,
McGraw Hill Ltd., U.K.
Like the Performance Appraisal, potential appraisal is also done by the employees’
supervisor who has had the opportunity to observe the employee for some time.
Potential appraisal may be done either regularly or as and when required. Generally
last part of appraisal deals with potential appraisal, as this is seen in case of Maruti
Udyog Ltd. (Illustration 1).
Illustration 1. Potential Appraisal at Maruti Udyog Ltd.
Part III of the Performance Appraisal form of Maruti Udyog Ltd. solicits information
to assess the future potential and ability of its L8 and above categories of workers to
assume a position of higher responsibility (L13) in the following format.
1) Group effectiveness (Maintaining and improving morale of group and helping
its identification with organisational objectives; optimal utilisation of available
manpower resources; directing and co-ordinating efforts and effective follow up
action to ensure accomplishment of planned objectives).

Outstanding Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

2) Ability to develop subordinates (Sensitivity to develop subordinate’s mental
skills; ability to provide professional guidance to produce group results)

34 Outstanding Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

3) Potential Capability (Overall rating for managerial capability to head a Potential Appraisal,
department based on your assessment related to the above two points). Assessment Centres
and Career and
Succession Planning

Outstanding Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

Source: Adapted from Tripathi, P.C. (2003). Human Resource Development, Sultan
Chand & Sons, New Delhi.
Career Path
One of the important objectives of appraisal, particularly potential appraisal is to help
employees to move upwards in the organization. People do not like to work on dead-
end jobs. Hence, a career ladder with clearly defined steps becomes an integral
component of human resources management. Most HRM practitioners favour
restructuring of a job to provide reasonably long and orderly career growth. Career
path basically refers to opportunities for growth in the organization. Availability of
such opportunities has tremendous motivational value. It also helps in designing salary
structures, identifying training needs and developing second line in command. Career
paths can be of two kinds:
a) Those where designations changes to a higher level position, job remaining more
or less the same. A good example of this is found in teaching institutions, where
an assistant professor may grow to become associate professor and a professor,
but the nature of job (teaching and research) remains the same. Career path in
such situtions means a change in status, better salary and benefits and perhaps
less load and better working conditions.
b) Those where changes in position bring about changes in job along with increased
salary, status and better benefits and working conditions. In many engineering
organisations, an employee may grow in the same line with increased
responsibilities or may move to other projects with different job demands.

10.3 ASSESSMENT CENTRES

Employees are not contended by just having a job. They want growth and individual
development in the organization. An “assessment centre” is a multiple assessment of
several individuals performed simultaneously by a group of trained evaluators using a
variety of group and individual exercises.
Assessment centers are a more elaborate set of performance simulation tests,
specifically designed to evaluate a candidate’s managerial potential. Line executives,
supervisors, and/or trained psychologists evaluate candidates as they go through one
to several days of exercises that simulate real problems that they would confront on
the job. Based on a list of descriptive dimensions that the actual job incumbent has to
meet, activities might include interviews, in-basket problem-solving exercises,
leaderless group discussions, and business decision games. For instance, a candidate
might be required to play the role of a manager who must decide how to respond to ten
memos in his/her in-basket within a two-hour period. Assessment centers have
consistently demonstrated results that predict later job performance in managerial
positions.
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) began experiments with
Assessment Centre approach in the 1950’s as a part of a wide programme of
management development. The AT&T Company designated a particular building
where the Assessments were carried out. This building became known as Assessment
centre and the name has stuck as a way of referring to the method. The method
became established in the industry in the USA during the 1960’s and 1970’s and was
35
introduced in UK during this period.
Performance Management This method is now regarded as one of the most accurate and valid assessment
and Potential Assessment procedures and is widely used for selection and development.
According to IPMA (The International Personnel Management Association), an
assessment center consists of a standardized evaluation of behavior based on multiple
inputs. They are used to assess the strengths, weaknesses and potential of employees.
The specific objective is to reinforce strengths, overcome weaknesses and exploit
potential of the employees through training and developmental efforts. Several trained
observers and techniques are used. Judgments about behavior are made, in major part,
from specifically developed assessment simulations. These judgments are pooled in a
meeting among the assessors or by a statistical integration process. In an integration
discussion, comprehensive accounts of behavior, and often ratings of it, are pooled.
The discussion results in evaluations of the performance of the assessees on the
dimensions/ competencies or other variables that the assessment center is designed to
measure. There is a difference between an assessment center and assessment center
methodology. Various features of the assessment center methodology are used in
procedures that do not meet all of the guidelines set forth here, such as when a
psychologist or human resource professional, acting alone, uses a simulation as a part
of the evaluation of an individual. Such personnel assessment procedures are not
covered by these guidelines; each should be judged on its own merits. Procedures that
do not conform to all the guidelines here should not be represented as assessment
centers or imply that they are assessment centers by using the term “assessment
center” as part of the title. The following are the essential elements for a process to be
considered an assessment center:

a) Job Analysis
A job analysis of relevant behaviors must be conducted to determine the dimensions,
competencies, attributes, and job performance indices important to job success in
order to identify what should be evaluated by the assessment center. The type and
extent of the job analysis depend on the purpose of assessment, the complexity of the
job, the adequacy and appropriateness of prior information about the job, and the
similarity of the new job to jobs that have been studied previously. If past job analyses
and research are used to select dimensions and exercises for a new job, evidence of the
comparability or generalizability of the jobs must be provided. If job does not
currently exist, analyses can be done of actual or projected tasks or roles that will
comprise the new job, position, job level, or job family. Target dimensions can also be
identified from an analysis of the vision, values, strategies, or key objectives of the
organization. Competency-modeling procedures may be used to determine the
dimensions/competencies to be assessed by the assessment center, if such procedures
are conducted with the same rigor as traditional job analysis methods. Rigor in this
regard is defined as the involvement of subject matter experts who are knowledgeable
about job requirements, the collection and quantitative evaluation of essential job
elements, and the production of evidence of reliable results. Any job analysis or
competency modeling must result in clearly specified categories of behavior that can
be observed in assessment procedures.
A “competency” may or may not be amenable to behavioral assessment as defined
herein. A competency, as used in various contemporary sources, refers to an
organizational strength, an organizational goal, a valued objective, a construct, or a
grouping of related behaviors or attributes. A competency may be
considered a behavioral dimension for the purposes of assessment in an assessment
center if
i) it can be defined precisely
ii) expressed in terms of behaviors observable on the job or in a job family and in
36 simulation exercises.
iii) a competency also must be shown to be related to success in the target job or Potential Appraisal,
position or job family. Assessment Centres
and Career and
Succession Planning
b) Behavioural Classification
Assessment centre requires that Behaviors displayed by participants must be classified
into meaningful and relevant categories such as dimensions, attributes, characteristics,
aptitudes, qualities, skills, abilities, competencies, and knowledge.
c) Assessment Techniques
The techniques used in the assessment center must be designed to provide information
for evaluating the dimensions previously determined by the job analysis. Assessment
center developers should establish a link from behaviors to competencies to exercises/
assessment techniques. This linkage should be documented in a competency-by
exercise/ assessment technique matrix.

d) Multiple Assessments
Multiple assessment techniques must be used. These can include tests, interviews,
questionnaires, sociometric devices, and simulations. The assessment techniques are
developed or chosen to elicit a variety of behaviors and information relevant to the
selected competencies/ dimensions. Self-assessment and 360 degree assessment data
may be gathered as assessment information. The assessment techniques will be pre-
tested to ensure that the techniques provide reliable, objective and relevant behavioral
information. Pre-testing might entail trial administration with participants similar to
assessment center candidates, thorough review by subject matter experts as to the
accuracy and representativeness of behavioral sampling and/or evidence from the use
of these techniques for similar jobs in similar organizations.

e) Simulations
The assessment techniques must include a sufficient number of job related simulations
to allow opportunities to observe the candidate’s behavior related to each competency/
dimension being assessed. At least one—and usually several—job related simulations
must be included in each assessment center. A simulation is an exercise or technique
designed to elicit behaviors related to dimensions of performance on the job requiring
the participants to respond behaviorally to situational stimuli. Examples of
simulations include, but are not limited to, group exercises, in-basket exercises,
interaction (interview) simulations, presentations, and fact-finding exercises. Stimuli
may also be presented through video based or virtual simulations delivered via
computer, video, the Internet, or an intranet. Assessment center designers also should
be careful to design exercises that reliably elicit a large number of competency-related
behaviors. In turn, this should provide assessors with sufficient opportunities to
observe competency-related behavior.
f) Assessors
Multiple assessors must be used to observe and evaluate each assessee. When
selecting a group of assessors, consider characteristics such as diversity of age, sex,
organizational level, and functional work area. Computer technology may be used to
assess in those situations in which it can be shown that a computer program evaluates
behaviors at least as well as a human assessor. The ratio of assessees to assessors is a
function of several variables, including the type of exercises used, the dimensions to
be evaluated, the roles of the assessors, the type of integration carried out, the amount
of assessor training, the experience of the assessors, and the purpose of the assessment
center. A typical ratio of assessees to assessors is two to one. A participant’s current
supervisor should not be involved in the assessment of a direct subordinate when the
resulting data will be used for selection or promotional purposes. 37
Performance Management g) Assessor Training
and Potential Assessment
Assessors must receive thorough training and demonstrate performance that meets
requirements prior to participating in an assessment center. The training should focus
on processing of information, drawing conclusions, interview techniques and
understanding behaviour.

h) Recording Behaviour
A systematic procedure must be used by assessors to record specific behavioral
observations accurately at the time of observation. This procedure might include
techniques such as handwritten notes, behavioral observation scales, or behavioral
checklists. Audio and video recordings of behavior may be made and analyzed at a
later date.

i) Reports
Assessors must prepare a report of the observations made during each exercise before
the integration discussion. It is suggested that assessors must prepare the report
immediately after the assessment is over otherwise they are likely to forget the details.
Not only this, these reports must be independently made.

j) Data Integration
The integration of behaviors must be based on a pooling of information from
assessors or through a statistical integration process validated in accordance with
professionally accepted standards. During the integration discussion of each
dimension, assessors should report information derived from the assessment
techniques but should not report information irrelevant to the purpose of the
assessment process. The integration of information may be accomplished by
consensus or by some other method of arriving at a joint decision. Methods of
combining assessors’ evaluations of information must be supported by the reliability
of the assessors’ discussions. Computer technology may also be used to support the
data integration process provided the conditions of this section are met.

Uses of Assessment Centres

Data generated during the process of Assessment can become extremely useful in
identifying employee potential for growth. This data can be used for:

a) Recruitment and Promotion: Where particular positions which need to be

filled exist, both internal and external can be assessed for suitability to those
specific posts.

b) Early Identification of Personnel: The underlying rationale here is the need for
the organization to optimise talent as soon as possible. High potential people also need
to be motivated so that they remain with the organization.

c) Diagnosis of Training and Development Needs: It offers a chance to establish

individual training and development needs while providing candidates with a greater
appreciation of their needs.
d) Organizational Planning: Assessment centers can be used to identify area where
widespread skill deficiencies exist within organizations, so that training can be
developed in these areas. Results can also be integrated with human resource planning
data to provide additional information concerning number of people with particular
skills needed to meet future needs.

38
Assessment Centres and Development Centres Potential Appraisal,
Assessment Centres
Traditionally an assessment centre consisted of a suite of exercises designed to assess and Career and
a set of personal characteristics. It was seen as a rather formal process where the Succession Planning
individuals being assessed had the results fed back to them in the context of a simple
yes/no selection decision. However, recently we have seen a definite shift in thinking
away from this traditional view of an assessment centre to one which stresses the
developmental aspect of assessment. A consequence of this is that today it is very rare
to come across an assessment centre which does not have at least some developmental
aspect to it. Increasingly assessment centres are stressing a collaborative approach
which involves the individual actively participating in the process rather than being a
passive recipient of it. In some cases we can even find assessment centres that are so
developmental in their approach that most of the assessment work done is carried out
by the participants themselves and the major function of the centre is to provide the
participants with feedback that is as much developmental as judgmental in nature.
Assessment centres typically involve the participants completing a range of exercises
which simulate the activities carried out in the target job. Various combinations of
these exercises and sometimes other assessment methods like psychometric testing and
interviews are used to assess particular competencies in individuals. The theory behind
this is that if one wishes to predict future job performance then the best way of doing
this is to get the individual to carry out a set of tasks which accurately sample those
required in the job. The particular competencies used will depend upon the target job
but one should also learn such competencies such as relating to people; resistance to
stress; planning and organising; motivation; adaptability and flexibility; problem
solving; leadership; communication; decision making and initiative. The fact that a set
of exercises is used demonstrates one crucial characteristic of an assessment centre,
namely; that it is behaviour that is being observed and measured. This represents a
significant departure from many traditional selection approaches which rely on the
observer or selector attempting to infer personal characteristics from behaviour based
upon subjective judgment and usually precious little evidence. This approach is
rendered unfair and inaccurate by the subjective whims and biases of the selector and
in many cases produces a selection decision based on a freewheeling social interaction
after which a decision was made as whether the individual’s ‘face fit’ with the
organisation.

Differences between Assessment and Development Centres

The type of centre can vary between the traditional assessment centre used purely for
selection to the more modern development centre which involves self-assessment and
whose primary purpose is development. One might ask the question ‘Why group
assessment and development centres together if they have different purposes?’ The
answer to that question is threefold.
a) they both involve assessment and it is only the end use of the information
obtained which is different i.e. one for selection and one for development.
b) it is impossible to draw a line between assessment and development centres
because all centres, be they for assessment or development naturally lie
somewhere on a continuum somewhere between the two extremes.
c) Most assessment centres involve at least some development and most
development centres involve at least some assessment. This means that it is very
rare to find a centre devoted to pure assessment or pure development. It is easier
to think about assessment centres as being equally to do with selection and
development because a degree of assessment goes on in both.
d) Development Centres grew out of a liberalization of thinking about assessment
centres. While assessment centres were once used purely for selection and have 39
Performance Management
and Potential Assessment
evolved to have a more developmental flavour, the language used to describe
them has not. Another problem with using the assessment - development
dichotomy is that at the very least it causes us to infer that little or no assessment
goes in development centres. While one hears centres being called assessment or
development centres assessment goes on in both and to that extent they are both
assessment centres. The end result of this is that it is not possible to talk about
assessment or development centres in any but the most general terms. A number
of differences between assessment and development centres exist are presented
below:
a) Assessment centres have a pass/fail criteria while Development centres do
not have a pass/fail criteria
b) Assessment centres are geared towards filing a job vacancy while
Development centres are geared towards developing the individual
c) Assessment Centres address an immediate organisational need while
Development Centres address a longer term need
d) Assessment Centres have fewer assessors and more participants while
Development Centres have a 1:1 ratio of assessor to participant
e) Assessment Centres involve line managers as assessors while Development
Centres do not have line managers as assessors
f) Assessment Centres have less emphasis placed on self-assessment while
Development Centres have a greater emphasis placed on self-assessment
g) Assessment Centres focus on what the candidate can do now while
Development Centres focus on potential
h) Assessment Centres are geared to meet the needs of the organisation while
Development Centres are geared to meet needs of the individual as well as
the organization.
i) Assessment Centres assign the role of judge to assessors while
Development Centres assign the role of facilitator to assessors.
j) Assessment Centres place emphasis on selection with little or no
developmental while Development Centres place emphasis on
developmental feedback and follow up with little or no selection function.
k) Assessment Centres feedback and follow up while Development Centres
give feedback immediately.
l) Assessment Centres give feedback at a later date while Development
Centres involve the individual having control over the information
obtained.
m) Assessment Centres have very little pre-centre briefing while Development
Centres have a substantial pre-centre briefing.
n) Assessment Centres tend to be used with external candidates while
Development Centres tend to be used with internal candidates.

10.4 CAREER PLANNING

Career is viewed as a sequence of position occupied by a person during the course of
his lifetime. Career may also be viewed as amalgam of changes in value, attitude and
motivation that occur, as a person grows older. The implicit assumption is that an
invididual can make a different in his destiny over time and can adjust in ways that
would help him to enhance and optimize the potential for his own career development.
Career planning is important because it would help the individual to explore, choose
and strive to derive satisfaction with one’s career object.
40
The process by which individuals plan their life’s work is referred to as career Potential Appraisal,
planning. Through career planning, a person evaluates his or her own abilities and Assessment Centres
and Career and
interests, considers alternative career opportunities, establishes career goals, and plans Succession Planning
practical developmental activities.
Career planning seeks to achieve the following objectives:
a) It attracts and retains the right persons in the organisation
b) It maps out careers of employees suitable to their ability, and their willingness to
be trained and developed for higher positions
c) It ensures better use of human resources through more satisfied and productive
employees
d) It ensures more stable workforce by reducing labour turnover and absenteeism
e) It utilizes the managerial talent available at all levels within the organisation
f) It improves employee morale and motivation by matching skills to job
requirements and by providing job opportunities for promotion
g) It ensures that promising persons get experience that will equip them to reach
responsibility for which they are capable
h) It provides guidance and encouragement to employees to fulfill their potential
i) It helps in achieving higher productivity and organizational development
The essence of a progressive career development programme is built on providing
support for employees to continually add to their skills, abilities and knowledge. This
support from organisation includes:
a) Clearly communicating the organisation’s goals and future strategies.
b) Creating growth opportunities
c) Offering financial assistance
d) Providing the time for employees to learn.
On the part of employees, they should manage their own careers like entrepreneurs
managing a small business. They should think of themselves as self-employed. They
should freely participate in career planning activities and must try to get as much as
possible out of the opportunities provided. The successful career will be built on
maintaining flexibility and keeping skills and knowledge up to date.
Career anchors
Some recent evidence suggests that six different factors account for the way people
select and prepare for a career. They are called career anchors because they become
the basis for making career choices. They are particularly found to play a significant
role amongst younger generation choosing professions. They are briefly presented
below:
a) Managerial Competence: The career goal of managers is to develop qualities of
interpersonal, analytical, and emotional competence. People using this anchor
want to manage people.
b) Functional Competence: The anchor for technicians is the continuous
development of technical talent. These individuals do not seek managerial
positions.
c) Security: The anchor for security-conscious individuals is to stabilize their
career situations. They often see themselves tied to a particular organization or
geographical location.
d) Creativity: Creative individuals are somewhat entrepreneurial in their attitude.
They want to create or build something that is entirely their own. 41
Performance Management e) Autonomy and independence: The career anchor for independent people is a
and Potential Assessment desire to be free from organizational constraints. They value autonomy and want
to be their own boss and work at their own pace. This also includes an
entrepreneurial spirit.
f) Technological competence: There is a natural affinity for technology and a
desire to work with technology whenever possible. These individuals often
readily accept change and therefore are very adaptable.

Career Planning Process

It is obvious from the foregoing analysis that individuals differ a great deal in term of
their career orientation .The career orientation is influenced by the preference for a
particular career anchor, the life cycle stage, individual difference in values, goals,
priorities, and aspiration. Organization also on the other hand differ in term of career
path and opportunities that they can provide given the reality of their internal and
external environments .The career system available in organizational depend on their
growth potential, goals and priorities. The difference between what the employees look
for in their career progression and what career growth opportunities the organization
is able to provide, gives rise to situation of potential conflict. If the conflict is allowed
to persist, the employee will experience dissatisfaction and withdraw from being
actively engaged in the productive pursuit .They might even choose the option of
leaving the organization. In either case, the organization is not able to optimally utilize
the potential contribution of its employee towards the achievement of its goal.
The possibility of conflict between the individual-organization objective calls for
career planning efforts which can help identify areas of conflict and initiate such
action as necessary to resolve the conflict . Career planning thus involves matching of
rewards and incentives offered by the career path and career structure with hope and
aspiration of employees regarding their own concept of progression. A general
approach to career planning would involve the following steps:
a) Analysis of the characteristic of the reward and incentives offered by the
prevailing career system needs to be done and made know to employee .Many
individuals may not be aware of their own career progression path as such
information may be confined to only select group of managers.
b) Analyse the characteristic of the hopes and aspirations of different categories
of employee including the identification of their career anchor must be done
through the objective assignment. Most organization assume the career aspiration
of individual employee which need not be in tune with the reality .The individual
may not have a clear idea of their short and long term career and life goals , and
may not be aware of the aspiration and career anchor .
c) Mechanism for identifying congruence between individual career aspiration
and organizational career system must develop so as to enable the organization to
discuss cases of mismatch or incongruence. On the basis of analysis, it will be
necessary to compare and identify specific area of match and mismatch for
different categories of employee.
d) Alternative strategies for dealing with mismatch will have to be formulated.
Some of the strategies adopted by several organization include the following :
l change in the career system by creating new career path , new incentives,
new rewards, by providing challenge through job redesign opportunities for
lateral movement and the like.
l change in the employees hopes and aspirations by creating new needs, new
goals, new aspiration or by helping the employees to scale down goal and
aspiration that are unrealistic or unattainable for one reason or the other.
42
 l Seek new basis of integration, compromise or other form of mutual change Potential Appraisal,
on the part of employee and organizational through problem solving, Assessment Centres
and Career and
negotiation or other devices. Succession Planning
l A framework of career planning process aimed at integrating individual and
organizational needs is presented.
e) Reviewing Career Plans a periodic review of career plans is necessary to know
whether the plans are contributing to the effective utilization of human resources
by matching employee objectives to job needs. Review will also indicate to
employee in which direction the organizations is moving, what changes are likely
to take place and what skills are needed to adapt to the changing needs of the
organization.

10.5 SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession planning is an ongoing process that identifies necessary competencies, then
works to assess, develop, and retain a talent pool of employees, in order to ensure a
continuity of leadership for all critical positions. Succession planning is a specific
strategy, which spells out the particular steps to be followed to achieve the mission,
goals, and initiatives identified in workforce planning. It is a plan that managers can
follow, implement, and customize to meet the needs of their organisation, division,
and/or department.
The continued existence of an organization over time require a succession of persons
to fill key position .The purpose of succession planning is to identify and develop
people to replace current incumbents in key position for a variety of reasons.
Some of these reasons are given below:
l Superannuation: Employees retiring because they reach a certain age.
l Resignation: Employees leaving their current job to join a new job
l Promotion: Employees moving upward in the hierarchy of the organization.
l Diversification: Employees being redeployed to new activities.
l Creation of New Position: Employees getting placed in new positions at the
same level.
Succession can be from within or from outside the organization. Succession by people
from within gives a shared feeling among employee that they can grow as the
organization grows. Therefore organization needs to encourage the growth and
development with its employee. They should look inward to identify potential and
make effort to groom people to higher and varied responsibilities. In some
professionally run large organizations, managers and supervisor in every department
are usually asked to identify three or four best candidate to replace them in their jobs
should the need arise. However, the organization may find it necessary to search for
talent from outside in certain circumstance. For example, when qualified and
competent people are not available internally, when it is planning to launch a major
expansion or diversification programmes requiring new ideas etc.. Complete
dependence on internal source may cause stagnation for the organization. Similarly
complete dependence on outside talent may cause stagnation in the career prospects of
the individual within the organization which may in turn generate a sense of
frustration.
Succession planning provides managers and supervisors a step-by-step methodology
to utilize after workforce planning initiatives have identified the critical required job
needs in their organization. Succession planning is pro-active and future focused, and
enables managers and supervisors to assess, evaluate, and develop a talent pool of
43
Performance Management individuals who are willing and able to fill positions when needed. It is a tool to meet
and Potential Assessment
the necessary staffing needs of an organization/department, taking not only quantity of
available candidates into consideration, but also focusing on the quality of the
candidates, through addressing competencies and skill gaps.

10.6 SUMMARY
Continuous self and staff development are essential to continuous performance
improvement. One’s own self-development needs to be related to your personal
strengths and weaknesses and to the career aspirations. This requires planning of
career progression and setting career goals. This can be achieved by identifying
potentialities of employees with the help of potential appraisal and various methods
involved in it viz. assessment centre.

10.7 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) Explain the concept of ‘potential appraisal’ with illustrations.
2) What is career planning? Discuss its needs, purpose and objectives.
3) Is assessment centre same with development centre? If not, what are the
differences?
4) Write a comprehensive note on succession planning citing suitable examples.

10.8 FURTHER READINGS

Aswathappa, K.: “Human Resource and Personnel Management”, (1999) Himalaya
Publishing House, New Delhi.
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