Abstract

The inability of organizations to have a well-articulated Leadership Succession plan and culture has led
to disruptions in operations and leadership transition crisis. Limited literature is available on the
relationship between leadership succession planning and employees career development in NNPC raising
debate whether the link is tenable with the corporation. In the NNPC, there is no deliberate and structured
plan for leadership succession. So, this study examined the effect of leadership succession planning on
employees’ career development in NNPC. The Social Cognitive Career Theory and Common-Sense
Theory were used to support this research. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The
population of the research consisted of 9,024 top level, middle level and lower level management
(Supervisors) staff of the NNPC who has spent more than 5years in the organization and have up to 5
years before retirement age of 60 years and sample size of 1,960 was derived using Slovin formula and
purposive sampling procedure. Structured questionnaire with a six-point modified Likert- Scale was
administered with a 74.6% response rate (926) copies of the questionnaires came correctly and were used
for the study. The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive and
inferential statistics. The results revealed that there is lack of leadership succession planning and
practices in NNPC. The also revealed that there is no established career path for every employee and
professional groups in NNPC. The study concludes that Leadership Succession practice have no
significant effect on Employee Career Development in NNPC. The study recommends that Federal
Government should empower the NNPC to put in place proper Leadership Succession planning especially
in HR itself. This can be achieved when the corporation embeds a formal employee career development
policy and procedure. Also, NNPC should continuously be strategizing and moving with the global trend
in HR practices and to learn about future possibilities. The NNPC management and staff should align
themselves with strategies to survive in the changing global business reality