Tracing the Roots of Constructive Conflict Management in Family Firms

Abstract

The overlap between family and business systems creates a particular bundle of resources, which is a specific familiness that may determine how family firms positively or negatively manage their conflicts. In this article, we review the current research on conflict management and family firms and suggest theoretical propositions about the influence of familiness in constructive conflict management in family firms. We propose that specific levels of structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions of familiness configure a specific arrangement of resources that we conceptualized as collaborative familiness, which enhances constructive conflict. We discuss the main implications of this conceptualization in terms of its theoretical contributions, further research, and practice.

Introductory article for NCMR's Special Issue: Negotiation and Conflict Management in Entrepreneurial Ventures and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

“…The study of Alvarado et al (2019) is consistent with recent reviews of the literature in conflict management and family business (Caputo, Marzi, Pellegrini, & Rialti, 2018b), which shows how family conflicts and work-family balance issues received a lot of attention in literature. Yet, studies in conflict management still seem to miss a thorough investigation of conflict in family businesses.…”

“…Yet, studies in conflict management still seem to miss a thorough investigation of conflict in family businesses. Alvarado et al (2019) contribute to this call for future studies in helping scholars to unpack the dynamics of conflicts in family businesses.…”

“…The successful article included in the special issue, by Alvarado, Armadans and Parada (2019), titled "Tracing the roots of Constructive Conflict Management in family firms," reviews the current research on conflict management and family firms and suggests theoretical propositions about the influence of familiness in constructive conflict management in family firms. Alvarado et al (2019) base their study on how the overlap between family and business systems creates a particular bundle of resources. They explain how these specific resources, that is, the familiness, may determine how family firms positively or negatively manage their conflicts.…”

“…They explain how these specific resources, that is, the familiness, may determine how family firms positively or negatively manage their conflicts. Alvarado et al (2019) propose that specific levels of structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions of familiness configure a specific arrangement of resources, conceptualized as collaborative familiness, which enhances constructive conflict.…”

Unraveling the Role of Shared Vision and Trust in Constructive Conflict Management of Family Firms. An Empirical Study From a Mixed Methods Approach

“…Given that conflict is a relational process which emerges in a context “with a sense of history, a normative trajectory, and changing circumstances” (Coleman and Kugler, 2014 , p. 963), the exploration of a unique context, such as family firms opens attractive doors to new research in the field of conflict management, given their uniqueness emanating from the overlap of two social systems (the family and the business) (Lansberg, 1983 ) and the overlapping roles of family members in different decision making domains. Precisely, scholars highlight the need to support with empirical evidence the primary roots of constructive conflict in this context (e.g., Alvarado-Alvarez et al, 2020 ). Specific contexts as family firms would shape organizational processes like conflict management in a different way (Ployhart and Hale, 2014 ).…”