Designing a Model of Succession Management with an Approach of the Grounded Theory

There is no consensus comprehensive theoretical framework available in the literature on succession; hence the present study aims to design a model of succession management in Iran petrochemical industry. this study was conducted based on the grounded theory methodology. the population include managers and supervisors of shahid tondgooyan petrochemical company. the sample consist of 16 individuals are selected using snowball sampling and theoretical sampling. the research data were collected using group and semi-structured interviews. Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) three-stage coding process is apply for analyzing data. The findings indicated that the modern succession structure had a central function in the design of the integrated succession model. the causal conditions, at three levels of individual, organizational and managerial structures, through mediation of the modern succession structure, influenced the succession system accomplishment strategies. these strategies were: policy making, candidate evaluation, candidate development, and assessment effectiveness. in this relation, confounding conditions at three micro, organizational and macro levels, as well as the contextual conditions in three areas of the organizational visions, context of vision realization and organizational policies affect these strategies. as a result, the implications of these strategies and the influencing process are emerged at the micro (individual), middle (department), and macro (organization) levels.