Succession Planning in the Iranian Health System: A Case Study of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education

BACKGROUND: Succession planning promotes the culture of private ownership, staff loyalty to the organization and develops organizational commitment, and increases organizational stability. The study was conducted to examine the status of succession planning in the Iranian health system in order to highlight the key concepts, provide new insight, and attract the attention of senior managers of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education to the importance of succession planning in achieving organizational goals. METHODS: In a qualitative study with a framework analysis approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample selected using purposive and snowball sampling procedure. The MAXQDA-10 was used to apply the codes and manage the data. The codes were extracted using inductive and deductive methods. RESULTS: Fourteen themes and six main subthemes were identified, including planning, organizational culture, system approach, competency model, career path, and senior managers. Our findings indicate a lack of succession planning in the Iranian health system. CONCLUSION: lack of succession planning could lead to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in health services provision. Implementation of succession planning could maximize human resources utilization.