Content analysis of succession planning in nursing management: a qualitative study

AIM

The identification and development of managerial talents for nursing manager succession in the future should be a concern for organisations, as the concept of succession planning has not been seriously addressed in nursing. This study aimed to explore managers' perceptions of the concept of succession planning in nursing management.

DESIGN

This qualitative study used a conventional content analysis approach.

METHODS

Participants included 15 nursing managers, who were purposively selected based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After obtaining ethical approval, data were collected through semistructured interviews. MAXQDA software was used for data management, and data analysis was performed using the seven-stage method by Graneheim and Lundman. The credibility and dependability of the data were assessed using Guba and Lincoln's criteria.

RESULTS

The main categories identified in this study were barriers to succession planning, facilitators, succession planning requirements, contextualisation, succession planning cycle, the dynamism of the successor organisation and consequences of lack of succession planning. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that organisations plan and adopt policies to develop qualified personnel management in nursing organisations and appoint these individuals to critical managerial positions.

The influence of organizational death on work priorities and the moderating role of attachment internal working models

Downturns in the global economy have caused even large organizations to cease to operate; a phenomenon often dubbed "organizational death". Two studies focused on individual coping strategies in times of organizational death and the possible moderating role of attachment as a personality factor. Experiment 1 (N = 162) explored the effects of the saliency of organizational death on work priorities, and the moderating role of dispositional attachment orientation. Experiment 2 (N = 119) examined the interaction between dispositional attachment and the recall of an attachment event on work priorities. Participants reported their work priorities after being primed to imagine that their organization must either shut down or undergo an organizational crisis (or were assigned to a neutral control group), and completed the Experiences in Close Relationships scale to determine their attachment orientation. In Experiment 2, participants were also asked to recall a secure/insecure event after organizational death (or organizational crisis) priming to test the impact of external attachment event recall saliency and its interaction with dispositional attachment on work priorities. Dispositional avoidance (but not anxiety) moderated the effects of the organizational priming condition on work priorities. Recall of an attachment event interacted with dispositional avoidance (but not anxiety) on work priorities after organizational death priming. The saliency of organizational death mitigated the moderating role of individual differences on the effects of both dispositional orientation and priming of an attachment event on work priorities. Thus, a significant event that undermines one of the pillars of security in adulthood may lessen individual differences in work priorities following this exposure.