In search of succession planning in school organizations : a comparative case study of school leadership in the Philippines and Indonesia

Abstract

Succession planning is an overlooked aspect of educational leadership in Southeast Asia. This study explored and compared the succession planning practices of private schools in the Philippines and Indonesia, where abrupt leadership turnovers and the dire shortage of principals show a lack of structured approaches such as succession planning. Yet, aspiring principals are thrust into the roles without adequate leadership preparation or support, which leads to high leadership turnover rates and ongoing principal shortages across both countries. This study employed qualitative methods: semi-structured interviews and document analysis to triangulate the data. Disappointingly, little is known from the scant empirical literature hitherto about succession planning in education, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia. The researcher gathered the data from four school principals (two per country) and analyzed them thematically with Quirkos software. Findings reveal that a private school in the Philippines generally adopted proactive and structured succession planning, and it is guided by competency-based models that manifest leadership readiness, institutional alignment and talent development. Meanwhile, a private school in Indonesia showed reactive and informal approaches, often relying on seniority, individual initiative and concepts such as kaderisasi without formal frameworks, as this school views leadership as a matter of practice. This study, thus, inferred that a Philippine school strategically integrated succession planning into its governance, while an Indonesian school necessitated an urgent policy and institutional support. It also showed the importance of proactively embedding succession planning within educational governance that guarantees sustainability, continuity and preparedness in school leadership. This thesis contributes to the limited Southeast Asian literature on educational leadership, specifically succession planning, and propound practical implications to policymakers, school leaders and education stakeholders in under-resourced contexts.