Women and Succession Planning in SMEs

A Summary This report is based on findings from a survey of the SME employees and managers based in the Leeds City Region. A survey was conducted asking questions specifically on succession planning, which is a largely unexplored area of research in the SME literature. The questions were focused on asking survey participants to identify character traits that one needs to have to become a successor in any SME. The findings showed that participants did not perceive either gender, race or class as relevant for succession planning and outlined instead personal characteristics. The existing research has shown the weaknesses of homogenous hiring but in the study, 41.3% of respondents believe cultural fit is the most important factor in succession, this is a considerable weakness for gender equality and diversity as firms continue to preserve their culture. Equally, existing research emphasises the importance of ‘soft skills’ for a successful succession whilst this study highlighted a lack of knowledge in this as a desirable trait, as empathy received the lowest level of importance when considered a trait for successors to have. The abductive analysis showed that women tend to assess gender as more influential in succession than men, however, views are divided on the extent of influence of this characteristic. The majority of women did rate gender highly on the scale of influence (17 women total), most with either 4 or 5. Equally, women were inclined to recognise class as influential albeit to a meaningfully lower extent than gender and those who recognised class seem to often be from working class origin. Race seems to be least recognised except for, not surprisingly, BAME women who rated race either higher or equally influential as gender, but BAME women did not rate class as influential, this characteristic was more recognised by men than women generally and then more by white women than BAME women. Only one man in the sample recognised gender as a relevant characteristic for succession, thus pointing towards a conclusion that men do not recognise women’s inequality in large numbers.