The dilemma of leadership succession in academic libraries in Ghana

Abstract

In a significant number of academic libraries in Ghana, incumbent Head Librarians stay on longer for a postretirement contract, because there appears to be a lack of qualified candidates to take over leadership roles. The apparent gap in leadership succession may be a consequence of a lack of management’s desire to grow their leaders as well as a dearth of self-motivation on the part of the staff. As part of the solutions to filling seeming gaps in leadership continuity, organizations grow their leaders internally through mentoring, coaching and training, experience and management support for staff professional/career development. Succession planning identifies prospective staff with the desire to take up future leadership roles. There are arguments for and against succession planning in academic libraries as a means of selecting and appointing university Librarians. The current study explores succession planning strategies as means of choosing prospective leaders in academic libraries in Ghana. The study adopted a case study research approach. University Librarians of ten (10) public university libraries were purposely selected for the study. A structured interview was employed to collect the data that form the basis of the analysis. The study revealed that succession planning is lacking in academic libraries in Ghana. Appointment to the University Librarian role is based on general university selection criteria for all academic staff of the university, including academic library staff. Though some respondents agree that succession planning is a good strategy to grow staff internally to take over future leadership roles, others assert that staff progression in academic libraries must be based on scholarly publication and long service, as prescribed by the University appointment and promotion policy. The study concludes that leadership continuity in academic libraries in Ghana is not necessarily dependent on any wellthought-out succession plan implementation. As a result of the staff’s inability to meet university promotion and appointment requirements for academic staff, many university libraries lack that critical mass of potential candidates for the role of university librarian.