European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (EJWOP)
Special Issue: Behavioral Issues in Family Businesses
Call for Papers
Submission deadline: August 31st, 2012
Guest Editors
Marylène Gagné, Concordia University, Canada
Pramodita Sharma, University of Vermont, USA
Family enterprises i.e., firms in which members of a family exert significant influence through controlling ownership and/or management, are the most common and pervasive forms of business organization throughout the world (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, 1999, Journal of Finance). While most of the small and medium firms are family controlled, founding family members are active in some of the largest firms in the world such as Bombardier Inc., Cargill, Carrefour, Dennis family corporation, Ford, IKEA, Michelin, News Corporation, Power Corporation, S. C. Johnson, Smorgon Steel, and Wal-Mart. In the S&P 500 firms, family enterprises have been found to out-perform their non-family counterparts (Andersen & Reeb, 2003, Journal of Finance).
Two distinct sub-systems of family and business co-exist in family enterprises, sometimes peacefully, and sometimes not so peacefully. The differences between the family and business systems are fundamental in nature, and as such, influence behavior within these organizations. For example, the intermingling of family and business, as well as management and ownership, tends to make leadership transition a particularly complicated matter in these enterprises. Given the prevalence and unique dynamics of these firms, the potential benefit of strategically managing the behavioral issues in family enterprises is significant.
However, it is only recently that scholars have started to investigate the role of organizational behavior in family business (e.g., Brun de Pontet, Wrosch & Gagné, Family Business Review, 2008; Kellermanns, Floyd, Pearson, & Spencer, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2008; Eddleston & Kellermanns, Journal of Business Venturing, 2007; Sharma & Irving, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 2005). There remain many untapped and important opportunities to explore linkages between family, family firms and organizational behavior issues.
Submissions to this special issue could cover, but are not restricted to the following topics:
- Conflict management in family businesses: resolution tactics, negotiation, decision-making processes, and communication.
- The application of exchange theories in family busineses: Blau's theory, Perceived organizational support, Trust Theory, and organizational justice theory.
- Psychological factors involved in the resistance to change or to prepare the succession by business founders: includes founder personality, mentoring successors, and selecting the successor.
- Family business structure: including group dynamics, cross-cultural management, and how structure affects employee attitudes, motivation and behavior.
- The contribution of family systems and/or households to our understanding of family business management: including the impact of sibling rivalry.
- Ageing and developmental issues in family business succession.
- Motivational issues (including but not limited to goal setting and goal management) for founders and successors of family firms.
- Organizational commitment and organizational identity issues in family businesses.
- Stress and well-being issues of family business members.
- Leadership issues in family businesses: including gender issues.
- Issues of power in family enterprises.
Submission Method
Manuscripts should be submitted by Friday August 31st, 2012
All manuscripts should be submitted through the EJWOP Scholar One manuscript submission site selecting 'Behavioral Issues in Family Businesses' as the manuscript type. Authors should adhere to the EJWOP instructions for authors when preparing their manuscripts. All submitted manuscripts are subject to a double blind academic review process. They will be evaluated based on their contribution to the topic and the regular EJWOP review criteria. For further information, or if you have any questions about suitability of your work, please contact the editors: