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with a small and important number of very
large businesses remaining owned and controlled
by private families that generate half
of all existing and newly created jobs. Goffee
(1996) reflects on the lack of research literature
on family business, stating that there is a
bias towards the study of large organizations
as well as an assumption that within these
ownership is widely dispersed: ‘Even where it
is acknowledged that ownership (and control)
– once the share structure has been analysed –
remains largely concentrated within a single
private family, such information is rarely
applied to explanations of managerial or
organisational behaviour.’
Goffee says there is a need to investigate
further the way in which owners of family
businesses pursue strategies, which allow for
growth and which help them to retain control,
an issue relevant in CorpCom management
and in governance. Goffee introduces the
Schein Culture Communication Framework, a
model that allows founders to get their own
approaches and assumptions embedded
within the actions, thoughts and feelings of
others in their business. According to Schein
(1985) (in Goffee, 1996), the process involves
both conscious and deliberate action in addition
to that which is unconscious and unintended.
Goffee says there is more to passing
on a family business and ensuring continuity
than delegation and suggests that the success
of this process will ‘be shared by the
(largely unexplored) ability of the founder to
create and communicate a workable culture:
one which assists members on coping with
environmental realities’. The Schein Culture
Communication Framework describes five
‘primary mechanisms’ for embedding and
reinforcing culture:
1 What leaders pay attention to, measure
and control;
2 leader reactions to critical incidents and
organizational crises;
3 deliberate role modelling, teaching and
coaching by leaders;
4 criteria for allocation of rewards and
status;
5 criteria for recruitment, selection, promotion,
retirement and excommunication.
In addition Schein’s culture communication
framework has five secondary mechanisms:
1 The organizations’ design and culture;
2 organizational systems and procedures;
3 design of physical space, facades and
buildings:
4 stories, legends, myths and parables
about important events and people;
5 formal statements of organizational philosophy,
creeds and charters.
Based on a detailed historical review of family
businesses in Great Britain their strengths and
weaknesses in terms of economic development
are discussed and comparison is made
between the performance of independent
unquoted family and non-family companies
in the United Kingdom. Payne (1984) in
Westhead and Cowley (1997) concluded that
‘the large public company, which retains
elements of family control may retard economic
growth; whereas, on balance, the small
family business possibly promotes economic
growth’.
Daily and Dollinger (1992) in (Westhead
and Cowling, 1997) argue that owners of
family firms are more likely to outperform
management controlled non-family firms, and
Demsetz (1983) (in Westhead and Cowling,
1997) justifies and supports this view when
he says this is so because owners of family
firms are more likely to maximize firm value,
enabling them to personally realize any gains.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors