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| Opportunities & Exposures: Industry |
Towering Patriarchs
Allison W. Pearson and Michael D. Ensley
10/01/2005
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In contrast, the management teams with greater
familial distance appeared to lack strong central leadership. These
dispersed-family teams, consisting of cousins, siblings and stepsiblings,
include members raised in their own unique nuclear families. Although related,
they have their own agendas, ideas and issues. When kinship distance increases
and family members become more dispersed, core family values and strong ties
associated with a more closely knit social group may become diluted. These
multiple identities and agendas diminish and confuse the focus and direction of
the family business and cause greater stress, conflict and infighting among
family members.
“WE ARE
especially careful
. . . . We don’t want our family wrecked by
our business disputes.” |
Family members and employees of family firms confirmed our
findings. Employees of a distally related family construction firm admitted to
“not knowing who to align with this week” when trying to make business
decisions, as feuding cousins attempted to gain control of the company once run
by the family patriarch. The dilemma facing employees, in this case, highlights
the competition and confusion that results from the leadership vacuum that may
exist in the absence of clear direction from the powerful-patriarch model of
family business.
Alternately, one offspring from a parent-controlled firm, a
senior vice president, explained, “Dad listens carefully, questions and
considers most of our ideas. He even adopts a few of them. But we know he
ultimately makes the final decision.” The company leadership was thus clearly
established, as were the norms of involvement in business decision making by
family members.
The parent-led teams’ ability to manage destructive conflict
more effectively was also evident. One parent-owner of a Midwestern freight
company described the motivation behind the family’s interactions: “We are
especially careful with conflict. After all, we spend birthdays, holidays,
dinners and family reunions together. We don’t want our family wrecked by our
business disputes.”
 | Allison Pearson is a professor at Mississippi State. Michael Ensley is an
associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. |
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