Succession Planning in Research Institutions

greenspun.com : LUSENET : What keeps you up at night? : One Thread

I am a management consultant in Halifax, Nova Scotia and am trying to raise a red flag for a client here who runs a well known research institute. A series of events has led to a graying research team at this establishment. This is well known.

The problem I raised with the executive there is this: "How can you ensure that the quality of new recruitment, following baby-boomer retirement, will be adequate to retain the high quality results the Institute is known for. After all, there appears to be a significant migration of the brightest potential staff into the IT sector, which barely existed when the baby boom cohort was recruited. In other words, has the quality of the recruitment pool been weakened because fewer outstanding people are choosing, say, Biology in response to the lure of the IT industry." I believe that this could be a serious long term problem for a lot of research facilities, but I can find no data to support the proposition. Furthermore, Halifax is a bit of an outpost in terms of contacts who might be aware of the situation.

Does anyone know of some valid research which documents this situation? Also any relevant articles on priority succession planning?

-- Ed Pottie (potties@ns.sympatico.ca), March 21, 2001

Answers

A great book is Grow Your Own Leaders. It gives alot of info on the leadership shortage crisis and a new framework for succession planning called acceleration pools. Very practical, alot of helpful information. Good luck

-- Laurie Muscato (lamuscato@independenthealth.com), April 08, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ