Obstacles to the Educational Leadership Succession Planning in Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Approach.

Background: Succession Planning (SP) is a human capital strategy for the continuity and promotion of the organization to a higher level and greater productivity. Universities of medical science have not been spared from these transformations; recently, they have faced various management development challenges. Identifying and eliminating these barriers is necessary for academic SP organization. To explain the obstacles to SP in the universities of medical sciences in Tehran, Iran. Methods: The present study has been designed as qualitative conventional content analysis research. Participants were purposively selected from experts and professionals with managerial and leadership positions, stakeholders, key informants of leadership SP in universities of medical sciences, high, senior, and middle managers in medical science education, and exemplary successful managers in the SP from August 2021 to December 2022. Data collection was done through 16 semi-structured, in-depth interviews using Maximum Variation Sampling. The validity and reliability of the data were obtained using Lincoln and Guba's criteria. Barriers to SP of educational leaders in universities of medical sciences were extracted. Results: Three main categories, 14 subcategories, and 75 final codes were discovered. The main categories were trans-organizational, organizational, and personal obstacles. Trans-organizational factors included a policy of selecting top academic leaders, inadequate support of top managers, and exogenous political and economic obstacles. Organizational factors included human resource (HR) management obstacles, challenging positions, a missing link of documentation of rich leadership experiences, relative incompatibility of organizational culture with the SP, resistance to change, lack of financial resources, and insufficient focus on talent management. Personal factors included the lack of new management competencies, self-centeredness, insufficient motivation, and an inefficient attitude. Conclusion: The succession process requires flat structures, decentralization, delegation, and mutual trust. It is necessary to review the policies for appointing chancellors of universities and other levels of management of hospitals and public health centers, and to redefine them based on talent management. Therefore, conducting studies on this issue is suggested to obtain definite results.