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Conversion Processes in Leadership Succession: A Case Study

Management Department of the Wharton School, 2000 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

This article explores organization members' experience of leadership succession. According to a model of change as a process of loss and substitution, leadership transition is a conversion process that succeeds when followers transfer their allegiance from the predecessor-and that person's view of reality-to the successor. During a study of a development corporation project to establish worker owned food stores, a change in directors occurred. Based on observations and interviews with the two directors, corporation board members, trainees, and lenders, the author found that those who remained with the project underwent a paradigm shift and repudiated the former director's views and policies. The findings illustrate the mechanisms of segregation, reputidation, annihilation, and rewriting history associated with the conversion process. The author concludes with implications of the findings for planned succession efforts.

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 25, No. 1, 65-77 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886389251005


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