Emotions in Family Firms

Abstract

Emotion dimensions pervade the full spectrum of human behavior and interaction, and the organizational arena is no exception. In recognition of this, research on emotions in organizational settings has been developing fast with an upsurge of academic interest in the subject (Hartel et al., 2011). Despite the increase over the last decade in the knowledge base about the role of emotions in work settings, little attention has been given to the family business context. This is especially surprising given the family business’ specific characteristics and intertwinement of the two systems of the family and the firm (Astrachan and Jaskiewicz, 2008) giving room for a lot of emotions. Or, as Fletcher (2000: 164) argues, ‘the interpersonal linkages, emotional bondings and affectionate ties that characterize all firms are possibly more complex and embedded in family firms’. In this chapter, we introduce the emotional organization view of family business, providing deeper insight into the role of emotions in family firms and pointing to an increasing number of studies that show that emotions play an important role in the running of a business.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 38 citations exist upstream.