Assessing Succession Planning in Public Institutions: A Mixed-Methods Study of Immigration and Citizenship Services

Purpose: This study examines how succession planning shapes institutional performance at the Immigration and Citizenship Services Headquarters in Malawi, a public agency whose security-sensitive work depends on scarce specialist skills. 
Research Methodology: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. Survey data from 168 officers were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling, and the patterns were then explained through 16 interviews and two focus group discussions analyzed thematically. 
Results: Leadership development (β=0.27), the formal policy framework (β=0.21), talent identification (β=0.18) and knowledge transfer (β=0.15) improved performance directly. Top management support worked only through employee commitment, while political and administrative interference weakened the policy-performance link, cutting its slope from 0.35 to 0.07. Interviews traced these patterns to appointment-based succession, discretionary transfers, informal mentoring and knowledge loss at retirement. 
Conclusions: Succession planning pays off when it is codified, protected from interference and carried through structured mentoring and knowledge systems. 
Limitations: The cross-sectional, single-case design and perceptual performance measures restrict causal claims and statistical generalization. 
Contributions: The study offers the first disaggregated, mixed-methods evidence on succession planning in a Sub-Saharan immigration agency, modeling commitment as the mechanism and interference as the boundary condition.