Effective Organizational Culture of Family Firms –the Perspective of Future Successors: a Qualitative Study

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Klaudia Martynowska

Abstract

Family is the source of trust, loyalty and sense of belonging based on relations which are also the core of business. While running a business by family seems a logical thing to do, a double role played by family members may impede company’s functioning. The present paper aims at exploring the meaning making of the employees who are future successors with regards to organizational culture characteristics associated with effective business performance of family firms. 32 future successors took part in the study. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings comprised following categories: trust, sense of “we,” entrepreneurial upbringing, and immediacy in communication which may comprise a model explicating complex organizational culture of family businesses. The results provided extensive future research directions into the field of family business.

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