ABSTRACT
The general pattern of the succession-planning that appears to underlie the results is that of a decision problem extending over time. During the latter part of the manager's career, succession begins to loom as a problem requiring action. In the meantime, however, the company is without a plan, and if the death or forced retirement of the manager brings about succession anyway, then the son is likely to be the successor. If there is no one within the company who can be considered for succession, then an outsider is sought, and the same factors–size, growth, and ownership–influence the attractiveness of the position and hence the amount of delay in getting a plan for succession formulated. The succession-planning process serves to link together the factors and relationships that this analysis has shown are involved, the pattern does not of course convey a picture of the variety of ways in which the succession problem is handled by individual companies.
