Development can be thought of as growing capabilities that go beyond those required by the current job; it represents efforts to improve employees’ ability to handle a variety of assignments. Development is beneficial to both the organization and the individuals. Employees and managers with appropriate experiences and abilities enhance the ability of an organization to compete and adapt to a changing competitive environment. In the development process, the individuals’ careers also gain focus and evolve.
At the organizational level of analysis, executives responsible for crafting the broader organizational strategies should establish a system for developing the people who will manage and achieve those identified strategies. The successful CEO is likely to have employee and managerial succession plans on several levels and in several different succession pathways as part of that development. Specific development needs can be identified by HR planning. Currently, more jobs are taking on the characteristics of knowledge work. People in such jobs must combine mastery of technical expertise with the ability to work in teams with other employees, form relationships with customers, and analyze their own practices. The practice of management increasingly involves guiding and integrating autonomous, highly skilled people.
The HR Development Process
Development should begin with the HR plans of an organization. As discussed in Chapter 2, such plans deal with analyzing, forecasting, and identifying the organizational needs for human resources. Also, HR planning allows anticipating the movement of people through the organization due to retirement, promotion, and transfers. It helps identify the capabilities that will be needed by the organization in the future and the development necessary to have people with those abilities on hand when needed.
Figure 11—2 illustrates the HR development process. As the figure shows, HR plans first identify necessary abilities and capacities. Such capacities can influence planning in return. The specific abilities needed also influence decisions about who will be promoted, and what the succession of leaders will be in the organization. Those decisions influence—and are influenced by—an assessment of the development needs in the organization. Two categories of development planning follow from this needs assessment: organizational and individual. Finally, the success of the developmental process must be evaluated and changes made as necessary over time.
Succession Planning
Succession planning can be an important part of development. For example, combined with skills training, management development, and promotion from within, it has been linked to “turning around” a plant acquired by another company. The general result for the plant was a large increase in capacity over four years, with virtually no infusion of new managers or employees. Existing talent was developed instead.
SUCCESSION IN SMALL AND CLOSELY HELD ORGANIZATIONS Succession planning can be especially important in small- and medium-sized firms, but studies show that these firms have done the least planning. Few small- and medium-sized firms have formal succession plans. In closely-held family firms (those that are not publicly traded on stock exchanges), many CEOs plan to pass the business on to a family member. Planning in advance for the orderly succession and development needs of the successor is important to avoid a host of potential problems.
REPLACEMENT CHARTS Traditional career paths in a company include a range of possible moves: lateral moves across departments, vertical moves within departments, and others. Each possible path represents actual positions, the experience needed to fill the positions, and the relationships of positions to each other. Replacement charts (similar to depth charts used by football teams to show the backup players at each position) give a simple model of the process. The purpose of replacement charts is to ensure that the right individuals are available at the right time, and that they have had sufficient experience to handle the targeted jobs. Replacement charts can be part of the development planning process by specifying the nature of development each employee needs to be prepared for the identified promotions. This information can be used to identify development needs and “promotion ladders” for people.
Succession planning can be an important part of development. For example, combined with skills training, management development, and promotion from within, it has been linked to “turning around” a plant acquired by another company. The general result for the plant was a large increase in capacity over four years, with virtually no infusion of new managers or employees. Existing talent was developed instead.
SUCCESSION IN SMALL AND CLOSELY HELD ORGANIZATIONS Succession planning can be especially important in small- and medium-sized firms, but studies show that these firms have done the least planning. Few small- and medium-sized firms have formal succession plans. In closely-held family firms (those that are not publicly traded on stock exchanges), many CEOs plan to pass the business on to a family member. Planning in advance for the orderly succession and development needs of the successor is important to avoid a host of potential problems.
REPLACEMENT CHARTS Traditional career paths in a company include a range of possible moves: lateral moves across departments, vertical moves within departments, and others. Each possible path represents actual positions, the experience needed to fill the positions, and the relationships of positions to each other. Replacement charts (similar to depth charts used by football teams to show the backup players at each position) give a simple model of the process. The purpose of replacement charts is to ensure that the right individuals are available at the right time, and that they have had sufficient experience to handle the targeted jobs. Replacement charts can be part of the development planning process by specifying the nature of development each employee needs to be prepared for the identified promotions. This information can be used to identify development needs and “promotion ladders” for people.
