The
Bias Against Family-Owned Businesses
by:
R. Phillip Colon, Ph.D. & Jerry I. Kleiman, Ph.D.[1]
Recent statistics show
that ninety per cent or more of the businesses in the
For business families, the
family-owned business is an interwoven theme in their lives, and most
naturally, in their discussions in the family therapist's office. The
family-owned business is pervasive in its impact on the families involved,
affecting both the quality of relationships in the nuclear and extended family
and the family's standard of living. In any family, there is an interface
between the working parent and the workplace. In the family where the working
parent is involved in a multi-generational family-owned business, or where the
spouses are in business together, there are greater points of interface between
the family system and the business system. Consequently, there are more issues,
there are more areas of influence between the two systems, and there is greater
potential for conflict. Conversely, where the two systems can interface in
relative harmony, there is the potential for growth in both the family and the
business.
Too often the clinicians lack of understanding of and respect for these
interfaces leads to an under-appreciation of the forces at play and of their
potential to positively impact on both the family and business. A survey of
psychotherapists was conducted by the authors. Psychotherapists of various
disciplines (Ph.D.s and C.S.W.s) were provided with
two clinical vignettes that differed only in the fact that in one vignette, the
father was involved in a stressful family-owned business; in the other, the
father was involved in a stressful non-family owned business. A third vignette
depicted a well functioning family, with no identifiable conflicts, and with
the father involved in a family-owned business.
The results showed that in
the first two vignettes, the majority of respondents attributed the business to
be a major contributor to the problems at home, but only when the parent was
involved in a family-owned business. Autonomy and individuation issues were
identified as existing mainly for those involved in a family-owned business.
When given the third scenario where there were no problems identified,
respondents still subscribed problems of autonomy and individuation just by the
casual mention of the parent's involvement in a family-owned business.
This bias, the view that
many of the issues confronting the family and working parent in a family-owned
business are inherently pathological, can have a negative effect in the
treatment of the family. The clinician's bias may influence and even encourage
the working parent to leave the family-owned business rather than attempt to
work out the issues at hand. Successful development of the parent involved in
the family-owned business may mean attempting to resolve boundary issues,
learning to negotiate across boundaries, and learning how to deal with issues
of autonomy, competency, rivalry between family members and other issues of
contention. The family-owned business is often made the scapegoat for
developmental lags in these areas.
A parallel can be drawn
between working with ethnic groups and working with business families.
Differences in cultural experience and norms between a clinician and an ethnic
group can lead a family therapist to pathologize what
in the ethnic culture is normal. Similarly, clinicians who lack an
understanding and appreciation of the culture of the family-owned business risk
the danger of pathologizing what is normal. Without
the proper understanding of the family-owned business culture, the clinician
may be at odds with interpersonal dynamics that are not appreciated and may
miss the opportunity to help the client-family.
Certainly, there are times
where the interface between the family and the family-owned business lead to
issues that are not resolvable, and where the working
parent must give consideration to dissolving or leaving the family-owned
business. Nevertheless, it behooves the family therapist to respect the
potential for optimal personal and business growth that the interface between
family and business allows.
Our research suggests that
clinicians tend to be biased about an individual's involvement in family-owned
businesses and that there is a need for clinicians to develop a greater
awareness of the culture of the family-owned business. As there are more areas
of interface between the working parent, workplace and the family when there is
involvement in a family-owned business, there is a greater chance of family
conflict and more of a tendency on the part of the clinician to view
participation in the family-owned business a priori as the cause of the
conflict. We found that clinicians tended to view people involved in a
family-owned business as less relationally evolved than those that are not.
There is a need for awareness and openness on the part of the professional in
recognizing that the family and business can positively interface with and
enhance family life. As clinicians, we need to confront our bias that
involvement in a family-owned business is inherently pathological.
References
1. Astrachan, Joseph and Carey, Melissa (1994). Family Businesses In The
2. Lank, Alden G. (1994).
The State of
Reprinted from "The
Family Psychologist," Spring, 1995
[1] Drs. Kleiman and