A Conceptual Model of Succession Management at Medical Universities: Experience of Iranian Higher Education Based on Grounded Theory

Background: The higher education system needs to succession management based on academic environments and its professional dynamics. Objectives: The present study aimed to modeling succession management at medical universities based on grounded theory. Methods: Through reviewing the related texts, articles and 12 semi-structured interviews with faculty members of medical universities in three stages of open, axial and selective coding, the data were analyzed. Results: The results were indicative of twelve general categories as follows: main phenomenon (meritocracy, management skills and strategic management), causal conditions (organizational structure, human resources management, beliefs of senior manager and rules); strategies (career path development, knowledge-based management, productivity management, financial resources management, organizational stability and academic independence); underlying conditions (complexity, research orientation, interactions within the educational groups, the crisis of shortage of capable directors, native provincial management, appointment of directors from within universities, detecting talents, policy-making councils, non-competitive rewards, key positions, organizational misconduct, political atmosphere, and pressures to the university); interventional conditions (organizational culture and environment, managerial experience, physical fitness and knowledge capacity) and consequences (improving satisfaction, ethics management, using academic models, dynamic universities, increasing organizational motivation and the existence of counseling culture). Conclusions: This study suggested a succession management model in medical sciences universities. According to the findings, special differences such as meritocracy, environmental complexity, managers’ scientific and professional maturity, the centrality of science in production, the political sensitivities of the community and the use of proprietary scientific models of succession management in universities can be found between the establishment of succession management in higher education compared to other organizations.