A quantitative study : administrative leaders' perceptions of succession planning and management practices within community colleges

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the perceptions of senior administrative and middle manager community college leaders regarding current succession planning and management practices occurring within their institutions. Three research questions guided this study: (1) Is the four succession planning and management components structurally related, (2) Is there a difference in how senior administrative and middle manager leaders evaluate succession planning and management components, and (3) Is there a difference between size and location of institution in regards to status of succession planning and management components? A suitable succession planning and management instrument was not found; therefore, the Wright-Coward Succession Planning and Management Survey (WCSPMS) instrument was developed. An exploratory factor analysis was used to address research question one and test the structural relationship of the common succession planning and management components of the survey. A second statistical procedure, multivariate analysis of variance, was used to analyze differences between the four dependent measures of succession planning and management and leadership level, and institutional factors. Findings from this study suggested (1) items on the WCSPMS instrument are correlated and three relatively independent succession planning and management factors are associated with the 20 underlying items, and (2) there is a statistical significant difference between leadership level in regards to perceptions of succession planning and management practices. Furthermore, this study indicated there is much work to be done by community college leaders in the area of succession planning and management.