The Family Climate Scales—Development of a New Measure for Use in Family Business Research

The article reports on the development of the Family Climate Scales (FCS) questionnaire. The FCS is a multilevel, self-report, whole-family index of aspects of family culture and process for use in nonclinical settings with families where the children may be adults. It was designed to be particularl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Family business review 2007-09, Vol.20 (3), p.229-246
Main Authors: Björnberg, Åsa, Nicholson, Nigel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptability
Adaptation
Families & family life
Family owned businesses
Polls & surveys
Quantitative psychology
Questionnaires
Studies
System theory
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Summary:The article reports on the development of the Family Climate Scales (FCS) questionnaire. The FCS is a multilevel, self-report, whole-family index of aspects of family culture and process for use in nonclinical settings with families where the children may be adults. It was designed to be particularly but not exclusively applicable in the context of family business. The FCS measures on six scales: Open Communication, Adaptability, Intergenerational Authority, Intergenerational Attention to Needs, Emotional Cohesion, and Cognitive Cohesion. Results indicate very high levels of internal consistency. Subscale intercorrelations are also high, with the exception of the Intergenerational Authority subscale. Analyses using structural equation modeling confirmed the hypothesized six-factor structure of family climate. No significant differences in family climate were found between business/nonbusiness families in the sample. Other relationships in the data set lend support to the validity and usefulness of the measure. Implications for family business theory/research and practitioners are discussed.
ISSN:0894-4865
1741-6248
DOI:10.1111/j.1741-6248.2007.00098.x