Background
Banks are crucial to the expansion and advancement of every economy due to the financial services they provide. Additionally, they require strong leadership and a workable succession plan to remain active and operational (Mahtta et al., 2019). The process of identifying and preparing qualified personnel through mentoring and training to gradually replace key players within a company as they leave their roles for various reasons is described as succession planning (Odhiambo, Njanja, & Zakayo, 2014). It typically ensures workflow and continuity after key personnel migrate from the organization (Atwood, 2020).
The defined migration cycles include departing, adjusting, settling in, establishing connections, going home, and entering or exiting a nation (Kuyoro & Olanrewaju, 2020). As a result of migration, development may be affected in a wide range of ways, including an impact on productivity and labor resource use in sending countries, which in turn affects growth, poverty, and inequality. Therefore, there is a need for banking institutions to develop a viable succession plan for the future. The study will, thus, explore the impacts of mass migration on succession planning in Zenith Bank in Nigeria.
Problem
The viability of any firm depends on succession planning. This study examines the effect of mass migration on Zenith Bank Plc’s succession strategy in the Nigerian banking industry. Zenith Bank has experienced worker turnover, particularly at the CEO and high management levels. The vision, developed thirty years ago, was confronted with leadership and succession planning challenges due to the mass migration of key personnel. As the bank adopted a new succession plan, it had both positive and negative effects that impacted Zenith Bank and the entire banking sector.
Aim and Objectives
This study aims to investigate the influence of mass migration on succession planning at Nigeria’s Zenith Bank by using specific objectives as its pillars. Succession planning is a broaching process involving various steps for successful implementation, and the impact of migration could lead to changes that alter the planning. The objectives developed for this study involve several narrowed subject areas to be covered; they include:
- Analyze how talent management has impacted Zenith Bank’s performance.
- Determine what effect the current succession planning procedures have had on the operation of Zenith Bank.
- Examine how the analysis of skills and competency gaps has impacted the performance of Zenith Bank.
- Examine how much the performance of Zenith Bank has been impacted by mass migration.
Research Questions
The following questions will guide this research proposal:
- What is the relationship between Zenith Bank’s talent management and its business success?
- In what ways do Zenith Bank’s succession planning procedures affect the way the bank operates?
- How has the performance of Zenith Bank been impacted by the analysis of the skills and competency gap?
- What is the influence of demographic shifts on the financial and operational results of Zenith Bank?
Significance of the Study
This study will focus on the primary effects of succession planning on the banking industry, using Zenith Bank in Nigeria as the basis for our proposal. Most research on succession planning has been done from organizational perspectives, such as the role of leaders or overcoming the challenges associated with succession. However, there is a significant gap in studies in the sense that scholars have not given attention to the links between succession planning at organizations and migration as a broader concept.
The results of this study will help existing banking institutions make sure that they are prepared for a long future and any unforeseen circumstances and emergencies that may occur. Additionally, other financial institutions that are interested in establishing a successful succession plan and learning the effects of migration will learn from it. The report will be helpful to the government in creating laws that emphasize the sustainability of banking institutions, creating a solid foundation for them to thrive.
Literature Review
Succession Planning
To prevent any gaps in corporate management, it is necessary for organizations to put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure that leadership positions, whether temporary or permanent, are catered for. According to Ritchie (2020), succession planning is an essential leadership strategy. Henri Fayol was the pioneer of succession planning (Ahmad, Ming, & Sapry, 2020). The original meaning of the term “succession planning” was to ensure leadership continuity at the highest level.
However, the current arrangement of leadership positions provides leadership at every level of an organization (Ritchie, 2020). One of the foremost experts on corporate succession planning, William Rothwell (2005), refers to succession planning and management (SP&M) as the process that helps ensure the tenure of personnel. Therefore, an appropriate way to understand it is as any initiative intended to ensure the ongoing efficiency of a company, division, department, or work unit by planning for the strategic development and replacement of key personnel over time.
From Bridgland’s perspective, “succession management” and “succession planning” have different purposes (as cited in Guise, 2016). The former acknowledges a dynamic operational environment in which workplace, client, and employee needs are constantly evolving. Sullivan also used the term “succession management” to describe this type of planning, which she defines as “a deliberate and systematic effort by an organization to develop and prepare people to assume leadership positions and other roles of greater responsibility” (Guise, 2016). It is a proactive strategy that guarantees continuity in key positions by fostering talent within the organization through deliberate development initiatives.
Therefore, the goal of succession management is to ensure the continued performance of an organization in the event of a key employee’s departure. Without management succession planning, however, businesses risk being unprepared to replace critical personnel. Without a succession plan, unexpected staff departures may destabilize a management team (Okodugha, 2021). The bank must react rather than anticipate replacing a key manager. Proactive staffing management is needed.
Mass Migration
There are many different reasons why people start to migrate. According to neoclassical economics, they might try to move permanently abroad in order to have a higher lifetime income (Petrova, 2021). According to the new economics of labor migration, they may attempt to mitigate risks and solve market failures by temporarily relocating abroad in order to save money or diversify their sources of income (Howard, 2020).
According to segmented labor force theorists (Mihi Ramírez, Arteaga Ortiz, & Ojeda González, 2019), they may emigrate in response to deliberate government or employer efforts to recruit them, or they may do so because structural economic transformations have forced them out of their traditional livelihoods, as predicted by world systems theorists.
Theoretical Framework
Leadership Model Succession Theory
Fred Fiedler and Martin M. Chemers developed the leadership model succession theory in 1975. According to them, for a business to establish a proper transition in the leadership sphere, it must utilize redundancy in the management structure (Ritchie, 2020). To prepare the selected candidates for the role, prior planning by designating a successor to take the leadership post before the current officeholder leaves is crucial.
Additionally, it will facilitate a smooth transition and lessen tension. The structure of succession ensures that the business can continue operating long after its founders have passed away. The leadership type influences enterprise management at the top of the company (do Paço et al., 2021). The varied nature of most succession models is explained by organizational management.
Requisite Organization Theory
Requisite Organization (RO) is a science-based management theory that traces links between organizational ineffectiveness and its poor structure and systems, rather than underperforming employees. Thus, when implementing a succession management policy, an employee’s potential capabilities are important to consider (Jaques, 2017).
According to RO Theory, talent identification should be evaluated in terms of the temporal horizon (Ford, Ford, & Polin, 2021). A succession plan must consider how long a person can effectively plan and work in the future (Ahmad, 2020). According to this model, evaluation entails the outgoing leadership assessing subordinates to determine their likely proficiencies.
Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration
E.G. Ravenstein made the first attempt to define the “laws of migration” as early as 1885 (Alexander & Steidl, 2012). In relation to inter-county migration in Britain during the nineteenth century, Ravenstein discovered a set of generalizations using birthplace information, which he referred to as the laws of migration. Some of his generalizations include that most migrants only travel short distances.
Long-distance migrants typically prefer to travel to major commercial and industrial hubs. He further postulates that migration happens in stages. People from the countryside swarm into the nearby, quickly expanding town. It can be challenging to prove that migration happens in stages, which creates a gap in research focus.
Research Philosophy
In the current study, interpretivism appears to be the most suitable approach, given the nature of the proposed research. Considering the study’s aim to define the impact of the succession plan on Zenith Bank’s performance, it is crucial to focus on examining the actual process and how specific influence was achieved. In other words, the matter requires a qualitative type of research, which means that the focus of the study will be to gain insight into how the employees’ skill analysis and competency gap shaped the company’s success.
It is noteworthy that statistics are not pertinent to the study’s objective, thereby excluding the possibility of employing positivism as the philosophical basis for this examination (Hürlimann, 2019). Furthermore, the latter philosophy does not allow interpretation, which strongly opposes the goals of this analysis.
In scholarly methodology, interpretivism research philosophy says that the social world can be interpreted subjectively. In this sense, significant attention will be given to understanding the ways through which people experience the social world (Žukauskas, 2018). In such a philosophy, the research being conducted is based on and depends on the interests of a researcher.
As a result, the investigator is responsible for adopting an empathic approach toward the examination’s participants to understand their roles and meanings to the analyzed matter (Hürlimann, 2019). Thus, it is impossible to implement critical realism philosophy from a realistic point of view; the belief that people shape their own world will be strictly opposed, further complicating this research process due to conflicting views on the issue.
Similarly, since the pragmatic approach combines elements of positivism and interpretivism, the focus of the study will shift. In contrast to exploring the implementation process of the succession plan that shapes the company’s performance, pragmatism will likely lead to investigating the outcome of the employees’ impact, rather than its consequences (Hürlimann, 2019). Besides, the interpretation conflict may complicate the analysis of the gathered data through questionnaires and interviews.
Research Design
Type and Approach
The research paradigm will be interpretive with an inductive methodology. Inductive reasoning is a method by which the understanding of general principles is made based on a series of observations. Therefore, the researcher will make generalizations based on the data gathered and interpreted, in contrast to deductive reasoning, which entails drawing specific conclusions from general information (Hürlimann, 2019).
Hence, it is crucial that the retrieved information aligns with the research’s objectives and is relevant to the production of further conclusions. Furthermore, considering the chosen philosophy, the study will explore the matter instead of explaining or describing it. In fact, the impact of the succession plan on the company’s performance requires a thorough investigation to gather qualitative data for further findings.
Strategy
The study will use a combination of two approaches:
- Questionnaire: A questionnaire will be given to employees to analyze the impact of skills and competency gaps on Zenith Bank’s performance. Since the goal of employing questionnaires is to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, this study will use both qualitative and descriptive methodologies.
- Interviews and phone calls: One-on-one interviews will be used for the senior management. For those who may be far, a phone call will be used to obtain accurate information.
Data Collection and Analysis
The research study will utilize a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, as well as primary sources, to ensure the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the study’s findings. In contrast to longitudinal studies, cross-sectional studies examine populations at a single point in time. This is helpful as it is intended to conduct the survey and interviews quickly.
While analyzing this Likert and Likert-type data, focus on the median or mode rather than the mean. To evaluate the ordinal qualities of the replies (most likely, least feasible, most time-consuming, etc.), we will utilize a non-parametric technique, such as Chi-squared in Excel (Onumonu & Anutanwa, 2017). In this case, the parametric analysis would be inappropriate since the answers do not follow a normal distribution. Concerns about adopting an ordinal number system to treat these distances as uniform.
The quantitative data will not be analyzed immediately until after the focus groups have met, to eliminate the possibility of bias and ensure the validity of the questions. According to grounded theory, the notes and transcripts from the focus groups will be coded and categorized to identify tags and units of data, and then indexed. As new themes are not discovered in the coded data, Memling will continue to summarize the existing ones. For the sake of organization, categorization, and trend detection, NVivo will be employed for the qualitative analysis.
Validity and Reliability
The research will also ensure validity and reliability. The concepts of triangulation will help enhance the validity and reliability of conclusions drawn from the data by mixing qualitative and quantitative data and mixed methodologies (Ward & Rasch, 2019). By combining data from multiple sources, or “triangulating,” researchers can compensate for the limitations of any single approach. To support triangulation, the study will employ “quantizing” and “qualifying” to convert qualitative data into quantitative data.
Sampling Strategy
This research will utilize a sample population from Zenith Bank in Nigeria, specifically the employees and management staff. The sampling size will entail 100 employees and 10 senior management staff to attain an 80% response rate. A simple random sampling technique will be used to get accurate data.
Ethical Issues
The research will adhere to the set standard and ethical requirements. UCL’s Code of Conduct for Research, the ACCA’s Code of Ethics, and all applicable laws and regulations, including the Data Protection Act of 1998, will be followed (Ziso et al., 2017). This study involves opinions and data that may be considered personal, as they pertain to the future of the labor market. Potentially negative effects on people or communities might result from this. Interviews carry the risk of disclosing confidential business information. Due to this, issues of respect, sensitivity, privacy, and secrecy will be communicated to the report’s target audience.
To get participants’ permission to gather primary data, a brief written explanation of the study’s aims, methods, expected time commitment, potential outcomes, ethical standards, and risks will be provided. All participants’ information will be securely stored to ensure their confidentiality, and the researcher will have sole ownership of the data. The researcher will adhere to the principles of conducting ethical research, and any relevant challenges will be addressed accordingly. If the results of this study are ever released, no individual whose identity could be compromised in any way will be named.
References
Ahmad, A. R., Ming, T. Z., & Sapry, H. R. M. (2020). Effective strategy for succession planning in higher education institutions. Journal of Education and E-Learning Research, 7(2), 203-208.
Ahmad, T. (2020). Universities preparing students for future challenges of family business enterprises. World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management, and Sustainable Development, 16(2), 57-69.
Alexander, J. T., & Steidl, A. (2012). Gender and the “laws of migration”: A reconsideration of nineteenth-century patterns. Social Science History, 36(2), 223-241.
Atwood, C. (2020). Succession planning basics (2nd ed.). American Society for Training and Development.
Buckman, J., Jones, P., & Buame, S. (2019). Passing on the baton: A succession planning framework for family-owned businesses in Ghana. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 12(2), 259-278. Web.
Do Paço, A., Fernandes, C., Nave, E., Alves, H., Ferreira, J. J., & Raposo, M. (2021). Succession planning and strategies in a family business: A multiple case study. International Journal of Entrepreneurship, 25, 1-12.
Ford, J., Ford, L., & Polin, B. (2021). Leadership in the implementation of change: Functions, sources, and requisite variety. Journal of Change Management, 21(1), 87-119.
Guise, J. (2016). Succession planning. Web.
Howard, G. (2020). The migration accelerator: Labor mobility, housing, and demand. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 12(4), 147-79.
Hürlimann, C. (2019). Research philosophy and ethics. Valuation of Renewable Energy Investments, 111–126. Web.
Jaques, E. (2017). Requisite organization: A total system for effective managerial organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. Routledge.
Mahtta, R., Mahendra, A., & Seto, K. C. (2019). Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+. Environmental Research Letters, 14(12), 124077. Web.
Mihi Ramírez, A. L., Arteaga Ortiz, J., & Ojeda González, S. (2019). The international movements of capital and labor: A study of Foreign Direct Investment and migration flows. Web.
Petrova, K. (2021). Natural hazards, internal migration and protests in Bangladesh. Journal of Peace Research, 58(1), 33-49.
Ritchie, M. (2020). Succession planning for successful leadership: Why we need to talk about succession planning! Management in Education, 34(1), 33-37.
Ward, S., & Rasch, A. (Eds.). (2019). Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain. Bloomsbury Academic.
Ziso, E., Ziso, & Roughley. (2017). Post-state-centric analysis of China-Africa relations. Palgrave Macmillan.
Žukauskas, P. (2018). Management culture and corporate social responsibility. Intechopen.