Conflicts among family members in a family business can lead to significant existential crises, affecting both the business and the family dynamic. Unresolved disputes hinder effective communication and threaten the survival of the enterprise. The book emphasizes the need for external intervention to navigate these conflicts, highlighting the surprising lack of focus on conflict prevention in family businesses. It explores the intricate relationship between family dynamics and business success, advocating for proactive strategies to foster healthier interactions and ensure longevity.
Understanding the Nature of Conflict Escalation and how to Limit it
Conflicts have accompanied mankind since time immemorial, and for almost as long people have been trying to limit and deal with them - whether as those affected by them or as professionals with more or less success. For once a system of conflict has developed, once negative expectation structures and with them negative self-evident truths and inherent laws have developed, it becomes increasingly difficult for those involved to escape them: The complexity of our social world, in which it is not easy for communication to find its way, remains unseen. A violated sense of justice, misunderstandings and unfortunate attempts to correct them alternate. One begins to attribute the causes of the conflict to the "person" ("It's you! It's your fault!") and to attribute negative motives to the conflict partner ("You're only doing this because ...!"), who in turn does the same - just like a carousel that slowly gets going. A number of well-studied but little-known psychological processes occur within us when we are in conflict. Outrage at the other person grows, usually unfortunately on both sides. Slowly, the "carousel of outrage and indignation" begins to spin - faster and faster, until...The book places the various psychological mechanisms in the context of a systemic understanding of conflict and explains ways to slow down the carousel.
The book delves into the complexities of decision-making in family businesses, emphasizing the challenge of harmonizing family dynamics with business operations across generations. Drawing on a unique research project involving family managers from long-established German family businesses, it highlights a collaborative effort to explore governance structures and address twelve critical questions that impact their success. The authors stress that there are no definitive answers; instead, the focus is on guiding families to discover their own solutions while recognizing the distinct roles of family and business.
Focusing on the dynamics of dynastic business families, this book explores the unique challenges faced by families with over 50 members involved in ownership. Through a three-year research project involving seven German families, it identifies six critical management areas. The study reveals a shift from traditional family structures to network-like configurations and highlights changing inheritance practices leading to larger shareholder groups. It offers a framework aimed at guiding the increasing complexity of managing these business families.
Systemic thinking has opened up further areas of specialization from one-on-one and couples therapy to clinical supervision and organizational development. Systemic intervention sees a problem as an incident involving a number of different, interacting individuals. In this sense, conflict, problems and occurrences are viewed and treated within the social context. This comprehensive introduction contains many examples and detailed suggestions for a practical approach to directed conversation.
