Section Threevalidation of this hypothesis. Establishing such an empirical
relationship is very difficult because of the many potential
indirect effects of human resource planning and the time
required for its effects to be manifested in profitability.
Nonetheless, recent empirical research has found a positive
relationship between succession planning for chief executive
officers’ and company profitability.^5
Unfortunately, it is typically difficult to quantify value
added in human resource management. The results of some
human resource programs and policies undoubtedly have major
impacts on morale and motivation, although they are not easily
translated into dollars and cents. However, many human
resource programs probably do not add value and do not
conform to the investment perspective advocated in this text.
Fortunately, some progress has been made in the area of
measurement with such techniques as utility analysis.^6