This study investigated executive succession and strategic choice factors in public organizations. The goal was to classify and describe these factors from actual executive succession events using the Wechsler-Rainey Framework for the Study of Transition Events. The executive succession factors examined were precipitating forces (succession antecedents), successor characteristics (observable) and successor theory of the situation as reported in a questionnaire and from interviews. The subsequent organizational actions taken (strategic choices) by the successor were also examined by questionnaire and interviews. / The subjects for this study were 36 successors appointed to governor and governor-cabinet state level agencies in Florida between 1979-87. Data were collected from the successor and other key players using questionnaires and structured interviews composed of four major sections associated with the research framework: (1) Antecedent information; (2) Successor characteristic data; (3) Theory of the situation; and (4) Strategic choice. The questionnaire data were assigned numerical values for classification. Content analysis and inter-rater reliability were used to measure agreement on the interview data, the basis of the event descriptions. / Six propositions were evaluated and found consistent with the literature associated with this study. The proposition findings generally supported the following: (1) Succession antecedents influenced the selection of successor insiders or outsiders. (2) Succession antecedents were associated with the successor theory of the situation. (3) Successor origin impacted the successor theory of the situation. (4) Successor origin was related to the amount of change initiated. (5) The successors' theory of the situation and the amount of change initiated were generally consistent. (6) The amount of change initiated by public sector successors tended to be low based on environmental, structural, and procedural constraints in the public sector. / The complete findings supported the research framework as a tool for understanding actual succession events and served as a foundation for recommendations of future succession event analysis and theory building. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0733. / Major Professor: Barton Wechsler. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77102 |
| Contributors | Henderson, Lisa Howell., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 329 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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