Team building in small businesses owned by women

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to see how women who run their own businesses create and hold together teams within their companies.Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted and interviews were carried out with four female owners of small‐businesses. Interviews were also conducted with their employees and their customers. The field research resulted in a categorization of the four businesses we studied.FindingsOnly one of the companies succeeded in creating a genuine team, the category that we call the “friends”. It took them a long time to achieve, which is rarely mentioned in literature on this topic. Creating mutual concepts is a complicated process. The other categories are called “circle of acquaintances”, the “family” and the “colleagues”. The circle of acquaintances had not succeeded in creating a team amid the turbulence they work within, while the family is not prepared to take the time that is needed to create a team. A process has been started for the staff in the colleagues category aimed at creating a team once they have understood the importance of good internal relations.Practical implicationsIn practice it takes time to build team‐based working methods in small businesses. Employees require training but many small business owners don't think they have time for it.Originality/valueThe more collective methods that characterize the friends category are not normally the subject of research into small businesses where focus is usually on the owner of the company. The working methods at this company were more collective than usual and this is not commonly seen in research into this area.