SUCCESSION PLANNING PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the succession planning practices of Ethiopian Airlines. As a result, the researcher tries to assess how succession planning carried out in the company, to what extent is Ethiopian Airlines succession plan aligned with the strategic plan of the company, how is succession plan of the company implemented successfully and how committed is ET‟s top management to support the implementation of the succession plan. This research is both quantitative and qualitative while the second dominating. It is a descriptive research which attempted to describe whether the succession planning in ET is effective through assessing the practice. The succession plan includes only three layers of managerial positions; Department Heads (Senior Management Teams) i.e. directors (#28), Section Heads i.e. managers (#58), and recently incorporated First Line Supervisors i.e. supervisors and foreman (#89), as its population (#175). The researcher uses Israel (2012) published table of sample determination; accordingly a sample of 122 respondents was participated using stratified random sampling technique. The researcher used both primary and secondary data from multiple sources; questionnaire designed using five degree Likert-type scale and also interview conducted with concerned staffs that have direct involvement on the succession planning. The data from questionnaire analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20. The overall practice of Succession Planning in ET has been analyzed to have a slight moderate evaluation according to respondents of the questionnaire and evaluation on strategic alignment of Succession Planning indicates a very weak agreement among respondents. It implies that succession planning does not significantly affect company‟s strategic plan.