Affaires de famille

Abstract

Family Businesses Domestic sales organizations (DSOs), which are strongly developed in the United States, generally achieve a high level of economic efficiency, using methods that are often contrary to the traditional bureaucratic logic. This article analyses the organization of these very special businesses. Inspired by charismatic leaders, they recruit salespersons (often female "presenters") who are attracted by the idea of making money but also convinced that retailing is a way of achieving a superior lifestyle, which combines political values with religious beliefs, and of enabling them to participate in a community brought together around the same world view. DSOs manage to set up networks of salespersons motivated by entrepreneurial ideals and a will to succeed, while avoiding competitiveness between them. This is achieved by means of a mode of recruitment and organization which simultaneously is based on networks of sponsorship, uses existing family connections, and sets up relationships among salespersons by integrating them into metaphorical families.