Date of Conferral

10-6-2025

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Jorge Gaytan

Abstract

A lack of succession planning to retain critical knowledge from retiring employees poses significant risks to organizational revenue and long-term survival. Organizational leaders are particularly concerned about succession planning because failure to capture employee knowledge threatens organizational performance and survival. Grounded in the 7-step model for succession planning theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry project was to identify and explore effective succession planning strategies that some organizational leaders use to retain knowledge from retiring employees to avoid a negative impact on organizational revenue and survival. The participants included eight senior human resource managers from different organizations in the U.S. state of Virginia with successful experiences using such strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and publicly available organizational documents. Three themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (a) strategies for structured succession planning, (b) strategies to address employee resistance to knowledge transfer, and (c) strategies to obtain executive buy-in and stakeholder engagement. A key recommendation is for organizational leaders to implement standard operating procedures that formalize succession planning and knowledge-sharing expectations by providing support in the form of visible endorsements and resource allocation. The implications for positive social change include the potential for organizational leaders to increase organizational revenue, contributing to community welfare through economic stability; increased tax contributions; and reinvestment in social infrastructure, such as schools, parks, and public services.

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