Family Business Dynamics Session 10 Notes

Bus 185 Family Business Dynamics

Session 10: Defining Families - Dynamic Evolutionary/Developmental Approach

  • The family is a crucial socio-economic institution (Alesina & Giuliano, 2007).

Definition of Family

  • Traditional Definition: Married partners with children in one household.
  • Modern society has shifted, redefining marriage and acknowledging non-married situations.
  • Focus is on function, not form:
    • A family is a unit sharing common tasks and developing patterns to accomplish them.

Types of Family

  • Adoptive: One or more adopted children.
  • Bi- or Multi-Racial: Parents with different racial identities.
  • Trans-Racial Adoptive: Adoptive child of a different race than the parents.
  • Blended: Members from previous families.
  • Divorced/Separated: Parents live apart.
  • Co-Custody: Equal custody of children.
  • Extended: Grandparents or aunts/uncles play a major role in upbringing.
  • Foster: One or more children temporarily placed in the home.
  • GLBT: Anything other than a traditional male-female union.
  • Immigrant: Parents immigrated, children might be born in the new country.
  • Migrant: Moves to follow work.
  • Nuclear: Married man and woman with their biological children. About 24% of the US population (Census, 2005).
  • Single-Parent: One parent responsible for raising a child alone. About 26%.

Family Statistics (Census, 2007)

  • 67.8% of children lived with married parents.
  • 2.9% with two unmarried parents.
  • 25.8% with one parent.
  • 3.5% with no parents present.
  • In 1940, only 17% of women worked; in 2006, over 60% did.
  • 25% of marriages end by the 7th year; 50% before the 20th year.
  • The home is the single most violent place in US society (Census, 2008).

US Families & Work (Office of the President, 2014)

  • Women are increasingly breadwinners (40%).
  • Fathers are increasingly family caregivers (70% of mothers in the workforce – SHD double in last 25 years).
  • Women make up nearly 50% of the workforce.
  • Women are among the most skilled.
  • Women continue to earn less than men (78%); the largest gaps are among women with the most education.
  • Most children live in a house where all adults work.
  • Eldercare is a growing responsibility.

Complex Family System

  • Shared sense of history.
    • Success factor: Long-term orientation (Ensley, 2006).
  • Share emotional ties.
    • Success factor: Interlocking Directorates (Lester & Canella, 2006).
  • Devise strategies for meeting the needs of individual family members and the group as a whole.
    • Success Factor: Social Responsibility (Dyer & Whetten, 2006).
  • Balance wholeness and interdependence with individualism.

The Family as a System: Structure

  • Rules: Govern patterns of interaction (overt or covert).
    • Meta-rules: How things get done.
    • Norms dictating appropriate vs. inappropriate behavior.
    • Dividing up chores and responsibilities.
      • Example: Oldest is responsible for getting siblings ready for school; kids interact with the oldest in the morning as though she were the parent, but interact at night as siblings, with Mom as the parent.
  • Composition:
    • Persons who make up the family.
    • Roles placed on members.
    • Expectations.
    • Perceptions.
    • Distinct individual identities.
  • Wholeness: Individuals combine to make unitary whole.
    • Example: Mom – newly divorced, working; Daughter - 14 yrs, 9th grade; Daughter – 9 yrs, 4th grade; Son – 7 yrs, 1st grade.

Subsystems

Families use multiple subsystems to create effective strategies for executing family tasks:

  • Marital: Teaches about intimacy & models (gendered) partner relationships.
  • Parental: Nurtures, guides, socializes, and controls.
  • Sibling: Teaches negotiation, cooperation, competition & personal disclosure.

Interactional Patterns

  • Multigenerational development:
    • How contemporary families change.
    • Nature of demands of a new family.
  • How families cope with stress.
  • How families manage transitions.
  • Functional vs. Dysfunctional families:
    • Functional families may have dysfunctional interactions.
    • Dysfunctional families may have components of functionality.

Family Systems Must…

  • Have a clear identity for the family as a whole, AND for each individual member.
  • Have clearly defined boundaries between internal and external worlds, AND between individual members in the family.
  • Manage the emotional demands of life, AND of family life.
  • Manage the family household (chores).

Patterns

  • Routine habitual patterns of interaction that evolve as the family develops, giving us our distinctiveness.
  • They determine how our lives unfold by influencing:
    • The patterns of nurturance and support we experience within our families.
    • The values and attitudes that we come to embrace.
    • The developmental legacy that affects how we approach and sustain intimate relationships over our lifetime.

Tasks

  • First-Order Tasks
    • Identity tasks (VABES).
    • Boundary tasks (communication & interaction between internal/external & system/subsystems).
    • Maintenance Tasks (physical & emotional).
  • Second-Order Tasks
    • Adapting & Managing Stress: morphostasis (stability) vs. morphogenesis (change).
      • Fail to adapt = closed or rigid system.
      • Adapt when not needed = chaotic, random & disorganized.

Family Homework (Bring to the next fishbowl)

  • Identify members of the family and determine how they contribute to family wholeness, AND what you most value about their uniqueness.
  • Identify a few family values, and explain how they were taught to family members.
  • Identify a few higher-order family rules.
  • What role do you play in first-order tasks for your family?
  • What role do you play in second-order tasks?