How Faith Affects the Leadership of U. S. Family Firm Owners

Abstract

How does faith matter in today's business world? Family businesses are the dominant organizational form globally. Yet, religion in family firms has been under-researched for many years, with only limited articles published in the past two decades. While our study focused on the Christian faith, we recognize the contributions of other religions to family businesses. The significant influence of faith needs to be better understood by Christians and others alike to promote harmonious relationships within and between faith groups. In a qualitative study, we examine the utilization of faith-led values among the owners of 15 U.S. multigenerational family firms, using a grounded theory approach and the theoretical lens of family systems theory. We analyzed the reported perceptions of 33 family firm owner-manager and family-manager respondents, focusing on the impact of faith on relationships with stakeholders, including, but not limited to family members, employees, and customers. These perceptions were based on the respondents' faith, their practice of prayer at work, prayer for the business, and the acknowledgment of God's power. Therefore, we propose that a faith system is central for such family firm leaders in addition to the family, business, and ownership systems. We depict the faith system as the hub of a wheel with spokes representing the family, business, and ownership systems driving the family firm. We summarize our findings with six propositions.