The Performance Consequences of Top Management Successions
通过计算机模拟模型，研究了高层管理继任在不同组织与环境条件下对决策准确性的影响，发现行业环境、组织结构、继任类型和组织年龄等权变因素决定了继任是否及如何影响绩效。
As an exploratory step toward integrating differing views in the field of top management succession, this study takes an open system’s perspective and examines the effect of top management succession on organizational performance, in particular decision-makingaccuracy, under conditions where various organizational and environmental factors can interact. Through a formal computer simulation model that captures the basic behaviors of human decision making and the fundamental characteristics of organizational and environmental settings, the results show that whether top management successions may affect organizational performance, and if so, how organizational performance may be affected, depends on such contextual variables as industry environment, organizational structure, succession type, and organizational age. This study has also demonstrated the importance of moving toward a more systematic and precise contingency approach and the power of computer modeling in understanding the multilevel process of top management succession in complex and dynamic organizations.