Succession planning in the third sector in New Zealand

Succession planning is a significant problem for third sector organisations (TSOs), that is, organisations that are neither wholly public nor private sector organisations. While there is some academic research published in the wider area of succession planning, little has been published on succession planning in TSOs. What is known is that TSOs are often built by and around a founder who at some stage will need to be replaced. Drawing on both the succession planning literature and the literature on TSOs, we propose initial ideas to form a framework in which to examine the views concerning succession planning of people who are involved in the governance and management of a typical TSO in New Zealand. Interviews were used to confirm the ideas proposed in the literature and from there we have begun to develop a set of recommendations on succession planning for TSO practitioners.