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The Impact of Business Owners' Conflict Management THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS OWNERS' CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES ON SUCCESSION PLANNING IN FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSES by JAMES PAGE MARSHALL, B.A., M.S. A DISSERTATION IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Chairperson of th^ Committee Accepted Dean of the Graduate School December, 2001 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project could not have been completed without the support and encouragement of many individuals. A special thanks goes to Liz Wieling, not only for serving as my project chair, but for being a great mentor, co-researcher, and friend throughout my course of study. Her constant and consistent words of encouragement along the way have been much appreciated. Thanks to Alan Reifman for sharing his vast knowledge of research methodology and stmctural equation modeling. Thanks to Richard Wampler for his suggestions, his mentorship, and his friendship. Thanks to Ritch Sorenson for his willingness to allow me to use his data set and for the time he spent discussing ideas and theorizing about this project with me. I would like to express thanks and appreciation to my colleagues and cohort within the Marriage and Family Therapy program. They have befriended me, taught me, and pushed me to become a better therapist and person. I have been edified through my association with each of them. I am grateful to my parents, Fulton W. and Vemetta P. Marshall, for their unwavering support throughout all my years of life and many years of college. Without their love and support I would not have had the freedom or the courage to pursue my dreams. The greatest debt of gratitude of all is owed to my wife Kathie, and our three beautiful daughters: Kate, Jordan, and Kammie. They have loved me and supported me in untold ways as I have worked to complete this project and this degree. They have willingly sacrificed their time, comfort, and means on my behalf. This accomplishment is not mine alone, but ours. I never could have done it without them. Ill TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT vi LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 n. LITERATURE REVIEW 4 Succession Planning in Family Businesses 4 Leadership and Succession 9 Conflict and Succession 11 Family Business Conflict is Unique 14 Owners' Age and Generations of Business Operation 15 Succession and Systems Theory 17 Succession and Conflict Theory 19 m. METHOD 29 Sample 29 Measures 31 Procedures 35 rV. RESULTS 41 Goodness-of-Fit 41 IV Structural Model 42 Conflict Management and Importance of Succession Hypotheses 42 Leadership and Importance of Succession Hypotheses 43 Owners' Age Hypotheses 43 Generations of Business Operation Hypotheses 43 Concurrent Correlations 44 V. DISCUSSION 48 Conflict, Leadership, and the Importance of Succession Planning 48 The Influence of Owners' Age 51 Additional Findings on Age 52 The Influence of Generations of Business Operation 52 Limitations 55 Consulting and Succession Planning 57 Clinical Implications 58 REFERENCES 60 APPENDIX: FAMILY BUSINESS SURVEY 65 ABSTRACT Family-owned businesses are a large part of the American economy. Unfortunately, the majority of all family businesses fail before reaching the second or third generation. Although many possible explanations exist as to why so few family firms are unable to perpetuate themselves into future generations, succession planning has emerged as a key area of interest and a potential stumbling block for business owners, consultants, and researchers to pay attention to. Succession difficulties are often related to relationship problems, such as family conflict and leadership issues, rather than business problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between family business owners' leadership and conflict management styles, their perceptions of the importance of succession planning and actually planning for succession, and the demographic variables of the business owners' age and the number of generations the business has been in operation. These relationships were studied using a national data set of (TV = 205) family business owners. A stmctural equation model was employed with leadership styles, conflict management styles, and the importance of succession planning as the primary constmcts of interest. The results indicate that the overall fit of the model to the data was very good and that all the indicators of latent constmcts had strong factor loadings. Significant relationships were found between a business owners' age and a controlling conflict management style, and between the number of generations the business had been in operation and flexible conflict management styles, cooperative leadership styles, and the perceived importance of succession planning on the part of the VI owner. It was also found that business owners who are flexible in their conflict management style are more likely to plan for succession than controlling conflict managers. In addition, business owners who employ either a cooperative or an autocratic leadership style plan for succession and perceive succession planning as being important, but they may do so for different reasons. The results are discussed in terms of implications for those therapists, counselors, and consultants who would work with and advise family business owners on how to improve their chances for success in the succession process. Vll LIST OF TABLES 3.1 Data Regarding Owners'and Their Businesses 38 4.1 Ranges, Means, Standard Deviations, Skew, and Standardized Factor Loadings of Indicator Variables for Each Latent Construct 45 4.2 Concurrent Correlations Estimated in the Model 46 Vlll LIST OF FIGURES 3.1 Original Succession Planning Stmctural Equation Model 40 4.1 Significant Predictive Relationships in Final Stmctural Model 47 IX CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Family-owned businesses are a larger part of the American economy than people often imagine. Research conducted by the Family Firm Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts has revealed that over 80% of all businesses in North America are family- owned ("Some facts on family-owned firms," 1998). Family businesses account for 78% of all new jobs that are created, 60% of employment nation-wide, and 50% of the Gross National Product in the United States ("Some facts on family-owned firms," 1998). Family businesses also comprise nearly 35% of Fortune 500 companies. Unfortunately, nearly 70% of all family businesses fail before reaching the second generation and 88% fail before reaching the third generation ("Some facts on family- owned firms," 1998). A paltry 3% of family businesses make it to the fourth generation or beyond ("Some facts on family-owned firms," 1998). Groshong (1998) pointed out that the third generation usually represents the end of family ownership either through poor management or because the business is sold. Although many possible explanations exist as to why so few family firms are unable to perpetuate themselves into future generations, succession planning has emerged as a key area of interest and a potential stumbling block for business owners, consultants, and researchers to pay attention to. Hume's (1999) research indicated that succession difficulties represent one of the main reasons businesses fail. iHe also indicated that those difficulties are usually related to relationship problems, such as family conflict and leadership issues, rather than business problems. Syme's (1999) research also supported the notion that relationship issues seem to be of critical importance in successful business transitions. One of the author's assumptions is that conflict is an inevitable, and oftentimes prominent, part of many family businesses. Some of these conflicts have found their way into mainstream media because of the overtly destmctive affects they have had on both the family and the business. In addition to the well-publicized strife of some family- owned businesses, there are undoubtedly many other family businesses that experience, and must deal with, conflict that may never be apparent to people outside the family or the business. These family businesses have found ways to manage and cope with conflict within their organizations. Although conflict management is believed to be an important process within the business management literature, it is surprising that relatively little empirical resezu-ch has been conducted on the impact of conflict management within family-owned businesses, particularly with regards to succession planning. Sorenson's (2000) research shows that a business owner's leadership style plays an influential role in business and family outcomes as well as employee satisfaction and commitment, h is believed that the leadership style that the business founder employs will also play a critical role in successful succession planning. It has been argued that one of the primary functions of businesses is to maximize productivity. This responsibility for productivity and smooth functioning rests primarily upon the leadership of the business. It is their job to identify and fix problems of productivity within the business. Planning for the future of the company in terms of vision and leadership is just one of the areas in which current and future productivity need to be evaluated. In the case of family-owned businesses, however, the issue of leaders maximizing productivity is more difficult than it may be for non-family-owned businesses. That is because the leaders of family-owned
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