Succession Planning and Sustainability of Family-Owned Healthcare Businesses

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between succession planning and the sustainability of family-owned healthcare businesses. Family-owned healthcare businesses often face challenges due to changes in management that threaten their continuity and long-term operations, primarily because of inadequate succession planning practices. This research adopted an exploratory desk-based approach and reviewed succession planning through four key dimensions: mentorship programmes, identifying critical roles, assessing employee potential, and employee development plans. Relevant empirical literatures on published articles, journals and studies on succession planning and sustainability in the past 20 years were selected, based on key themes that align with the research objectives. A total of 40 journals were judgmentally sampled for this study. The data generated from the secondary sources were analysed and presented using content evaluation considering the thematic and narrative analysis to bring out nuanced opinions and viewpoints as well as interpretations. The research reveals that success planning enhances the sustainability of an enterprise through stability of its leadership, restores the trust on the enterprise, and ensures continuation of health care services. The other significant aspect of this analysis is that the preparation and training programs are important aspects towards creating the future leaders. The following are the important recommendations for family-owned health care enterprises: First, establishing mentoring program will ensure a good transition of knowledge. Secondly, it will be important to identify the real leadership positions. Thirdly, regular assessments of the potentials of employees should be carried out using the standardized approach. Finally, it will be important to plan the career path of each employee.