Generational brokerage: An intersubjective perspective on managing temporal orientations in family firm succession

Vittoria Magrelli,Josip Kotlar,Alfredo De Massis,Emanuela Rondi

doi:10.1177/1476127020976972

Vittoria Magrelli, Josip Kotlar + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127020976972

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Abstract

Interactions between family members of different generations often unleash powerful tensions in family firms. Intergenerational tensions can be particularly prominent during intra-family succession as a result of the different temporal orientations of senior and junior generation family members. However, scant systematic attention has thus far been paid to understanding the temporality of intergenerational tensions in family firms. Through an embedded case study, we explore the mediation process that helps family firms manage intergenerational tensions by way of temporal work. Our investigation of an advisory firm and its clients led us to identify generational brokerage as the intersubjective process through which temporal work enables generations toward the joint understanding of temporal orientations. Our theoretical insights have significant implications for developing a temporal view of succession and add novel important knowledge to research on mediation and time. Indeed, we show that generational brokerage is a dialectic construct with organizing properties able to blend disparate research streams by going beyond a unidirectional forward-flowing logic of time in examining organizational processes.

Highlights

Generations are defined as cohorts of individuals who coalesce into self-conscious groups based on date of birth and/or social proximity to historical events (Mannheim, 1952 [1928])
The notion of temporal work, that is, a set of practices which involves “negotiating and resolving tensions among different understandings of what has happened in the past, what is at stake in the present, and what might emerge in the future” (Kaplan and Orlikowski, 2013: 965), has been placed in the spotlight of recent calls to study how family firms deal with intergenerational tensions (Salvato et al, 2019; Suddaby and Jaskiewicz, 2020)
To understand the mediation process in dealing with intergenerational tensions, we developed an embedded case study (Yin, 2003) examining a family business advisory firm and four of its family firm clients involved in the succession process

Summary

Introduction

Generations are defined as cohorts of individuals who coalesce into self-conscious groups based on date of birth and/or social proximity to historical events (Mannheim, 1952 [1928]). Interactions between family members from different generations can unleash powerful tensions. Sociological research suggests that intergenerational tensions have a temporal foundation (Joshi et al, 2011), as the relative emphasis that generations place on the past, present or future, namely their temporal orientation, has a major bearing on their cognitive processes, perceptions, behaviors, and decision-making (Ancona et al, 2001). The notion of temporal work, that is, a set of practices which involves “negotiating and resolving tensions among different understandings of what has happened in the past, what is at stake in the present, and what might emerge in the future” (Kaplan and Orlikowski, 2013: 965), has been placed in the spotlight of recent calls to study how family firms deal with intergenerational tensions (Salvato et al, 2019; Suddaby and Jaskiewicz, 2020)

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