Investigating succession planning practices in South African construction companies

Globally, the implementation of succession planning in the construction industry is not developing. Literature indicates that, while construction companies understand succession planning, their lack of implementation directly affects employee retention. This research employed a qualitative research design to investigate the extent to which certain South African construction companies implement succession planning. Data were collected from six human resource executives serving across six South African construction companies. Overall, the results confirmed a lack of succession planning implementation at the respective companies. This study found that the HR executives understand the concept of succession planning even though it is not formalised. Furthermore, leadership buy-in was found to be lacking, which was negatively impacting the succession planning implementation. Certain specific factors were also discovered to be contributing to the hindering of the succession planning implementation. These factors include lack of retention strategy, lack of career discussion, lack of skills development, and lack of available positions. Suggestions and recommendations in light of these findings are provided.

Grantor

Organisational Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Mfeka, Susan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Duffy, Carren

• construction companies
• succession planning
• employee retention
• South Africa

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36613

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36613