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Succession management systems seek to identify high potentials (either formally or informally) and offer career development opportunities in order to prepare talented employees for future leadership roles. Business experts have touted the importance of succession management systems as a way to help organizations attract, develop and retain talented employees (e.g., Athey, 2004; Morton, 2004; Wright, 2006); yet these claims have rarely been studied with any empirical rigour to date. As such, using both cross-sectional and predictive designs, the current research seeks to bridge this gap by drawing on a framework explored by Meyer and Smith (2000) to delineate how succession management systems impact employees and organizations alike. Study 1 investigates the relationship between high potential status and types of career development opportunities offered, as well as attempts to link these opportunities to commitment through various psychological mediators (i.e., perceived organizational support and procedural justice). Study 2 extends this framework to investigate how other employee attitudes (e.g., withdrawal cognitions) and behaviours (e.g., job search, turnover) are impacted by succession management systems, as well as differences in opportunities offered to high potentials and non-high potentials over time. Findings suggest that by giving employees various types of career development opportunities, employees are more likely to feel that their organization is taking an interest in their careers and values their contributions, which predicts employee commitment and desire to stay in the organization. Moreover, if the ultimate goal of succession management is to develop and retain top talent, solely identifying and labelling some employees high potentials will not be enough to create a strong attachment to the organization: high potential status must be substantiated by providing these employees with career development opportunities. Given that retention of talent has been suggested to be critical for organizations (e.g., Morel-Curran, 2008), especially within the current context of imminent baby boomer retirement, this research provides support to claims that organizations must integrate their talent management with retention strategies (e.g., Emerson, 2008) and describes implications for organizations setting up these practices as well as future research directions. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
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