Non-Family Employee's Identification with Family: The Moderating Effect of Culture in Family Firms

Abstract

Through their distinct cultures, families that own firms have a unique ability to convey a sense of affiliation and belonging to their non-family employees. Such identification can impact non-family employees in a variety of ways. It can lead to increased levels of loyalty, trust and performance; but it can also have potential negative effects, such as feelings of entitlement or even fraudulent behavior. The purpose of this exploratory research is to determine how non-family employees develop strong identities with the owning family, and under which conditions their identification leads to positive or negative outcomes. In this respect, the role of family business culture as a potential moderator of this relationship will be of particular interest. Social identity theory and agency theory will serve as conceptual foundations for this study. A mixed methods approach will be used to investigate the research question. In a first step, semi-structured personal interviews with family business owners and their employees will be conducted. In a second step, a quantitative survey based on the results from the qualitative analysis and review of the literature will be administered to a random sample of small and medium enterprises in the United States.