Boss and Parent, Employee and Child: Work‐Family Roles and Deviant Behavior in the Family Firm

Abstract

The work‐family literature examines the degree to which work and family roles can be segmented or integrated by an individual. In the family firm, the requirement that work and family roles be integrated creates tension for family employees, particularly those who prefer higher degrees of segmentation between the roles. Integrating family firm with family relations research, this article explores potential difficulties experienced by family employees in making transitions from their family role to work role and the potential for family employees to engage in deviant behavior due to unresolved conflict and ambiguity from work‐family role integration. These difficulties, we argue, are in part due to problems in separating role expectations when they come from indistinct sources; that is, when the boss and father, for example, are the same person. We explain how the tensions between work and family can create a cycle of deviance in the family and family firm domains.

Bound by Laws, or by Values? A Multi‐Level and Cross‐National Approach to Understanding the Protection of Minority Owners in Family Firms

“…We define functional family dynamics as motivated behaviors and interactions among family members that assist the organization in being successful on both a financial and nonfinancial basis in the long run. Conversely, dysfunctional family dynamics are those motivated behaviors and interactions among family members that hinder long‐term financial and nonfinancial performance (cf., Cooper, Kidwell, & Eddleston, ; Eddleston & Kellermanns, ). Functional family dynamics consist of behaviors and interactions that can result in strong family harmony norms, perceptions of justice, role clarity, and constructive task and process conflict in the firm.…”

Coordination Tasks and Negotiation Modes of Linked Lives in Entrepreneurial Families

“…Interestingly, family scholars have primarily been attentive to entrepreneurial families in rural areas (e.g., Salamon & Markan, ), particular historical contexts (e.g., Ruggles, ), or immigrant families (e.g., Şenyürekli & Detzner, ). They have identified tensions in interpersonal relationships in couples (Danes & Lee, ), challenges in integrating in‐laws (Marotz‐Baden & Mattheis, ), role conflicts between parents and children (Cooper, Kidwell, & Eddleston, ), and justice issues between siblings (Taylor & Norris, ).…”

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

“…They described work-family conflict as work-to-home negative spill-over and home-to-work negative spill-over and used it to measure the individual boundaries. Moreover, another work on work-family conflict was done by Cooper, Kidwell, and Eddleston (2013) in which they presented a model integrating family firm with family relations research. They explored potential difficulties experienced by family employees in making transitions from their family role to work role and the potential for family employees to engage in deviant behaviour due to unresolved conflict and ambiguity from work-family role integration.…”