Succession Planning Practices and Challenges in Malaysia's Public Universities: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Succession planning is a process of potential talent identification, classification, and growth of talents, and ensures a continuously abundant supply of potential candidates with leadership qualities in universities. Nevertheless, succession planning is not a common practice in universities around the world, likewise in Malaysia. The statistics have shown that universities worldwide are facing the issues of mass retirement of key leaders who came from the baby boomer generation. These universities will lose the institution memory when they leave their offices, hence, universities may face leadership crisis. Therefore, this paper intends to review the succession planning practices in Malaysia’s public universities and also discusses the challenges faced by them when they try to implement succession planning. A systematic literature review was conducted pertaining to the succession planning practices and issue in Malaysia’s public universities. The inclusion criteria are: (i) publications between 2010 and 2019, (ii) Malaysia’s public universities succession planning only, and (iii)publications written in English. Four themes have emerged for these practices. They are potential leader identification, leadership development, promotion, and centre-in-charge. At the same time, the issues faced are financial limitation in a university, brain drain syndrome, university recruitment requirements that do not require leadership, two houses of legislature in a university, short tenure of managerial leadership positions, and misconceptions among staff of leaders who were chosen by default. It is hoped that this review can help the relevant stakeholders in Malaysia’s public universities to plan for a better structured and systematic succession planning.