Conflict in Family Business: Common Metaphors and Suggestions for Intervention

Abstract

The interdependence between family and business systems in family business can create conflicts unknown to families without involvement in a business. Using a phenomenological approach based on extensive research and consulting experiences with families in business, we describe three of the most common conflicts that can result from the mutual impact of business and family systems. We provide ways to diagnose problem areas and offer intervention suggestions to produce change in the family business system.

Family Firm Goals and their Effects on Strategy, Family and Organization Behavior: A Review and Research Agenda

“…; Dyer ; Lee and Rogoff ; Pieper et al . ; Riordan and Riordan ), and conflict can be seen as an element of the goal feedback loop in family businesses. Conflict often manifests itself when family business members perceive compensation inequity, goals come in conflict with each other based on family members’ preferences, or when goals upset the balance between family and business (Danes et al .…”

Tracing the Roots of Constructive Conflict Management in Family Firms

“…;Danes et al (1999);Kidwell et al (2012);Pieper et al (2013);Chirico et al (2012) Conflict managementCollaborative styles contribute to the achievement of family and business goals.Haberman and Danes(2007); Sorenson (1999); Spriggs et al (2012); Hedberg and Danes (2012); Jayantilal, Jorge, and Palacios (2016) Cooperation between family members promotes better intergenerational succession and innovation. Entrepreneurial couples, where partners maintain collaborative power interactions, are likely to adopt a productive business decision-making team.…”

Impact of work-family interface on family involvement in business: a review

“…Yet researchers, practitioners, and therapists lack a good understanding of the significant impact these businesses and ventures have on the families who own and operate them, an area of research that implicitly addresses this phenomenon is the literature on the work-family interface (Pieper et al, 2013). The contribution of the study is to demonstrate how work-family interface is included in family business studies.…”

“…Jennings, Breitkreuz, and James (2013) in their article of When Family Members Are Also Business Owners: Is Entrepreneurship Good for Families?, presented agenda for future research and under that they showed the directions for studies of work family integration by showing that there is considerable space for family scholars to contribute to the collective understanding of whether and how business ownership facilitates or detracts from work family integration. In the same year, Pieper, Astrachan, and Manners (2013) complemented work-family literature in family business field by incorporating conflicts caused by leadership or ownership roles that are not currently addressed in the literature, but may contribute to a more expanded understanding of the work-family interface. Furthermore Barnett et al (2009) consistent with the work-family interface literature and the family embeddedness perspective, acknowledge the importance of workfamily issues in both family and nonfamily firms.…”