Boss and Parent, Employee and Child: Work-Family Roles and Deviant Behavior in the Family Firm

• Published in: Family relations 2013-07, Vol.62 (3), p.457-471
• Main Authors: Cooper, Joseph T., Kidwell, Roland E., Eddleston, Kimberly A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Behavior; Boundaries; Burnout; Children; Definitions; Deviance; Deviant Behavior; Economic sociology; EFFECTS OF BUSINESS OWNERSHIP ON FAMILY DYNAMICS; Employees; Families & family life; Family Businesses; Family Environment; Family owned businesses; Family relations; Family Relationship; family relationships; Family Role; Family Roles; family stress and conflict; Family Work Relationship; family-work issues; Integrated development; Job Requirements; Occupational Roles; Parents; Production. Distribution. Advertising; R&D; Research & development; Researchers; Role Conflict; Role expectations; Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations; Social Capital; Sociology; Sociology of economy and development; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Sociology of work; Sociology of work and sociology of organizations; Statistical Data; Stress; Succession planning; System theory; Work Environment; Work organization. Working relations
• ISSN: 0197-6664; 1741-3729; 0197-6664
• DOI: 10.1111/fare.12012

The work-family literature examines the degree to which work and family roles can be segmented or integrated by an individual In the family firm, the requirement that work and family roles be integrated creates tension for family employees, particularly those who prefer higher degrees of segmentation between the roles. Integrating family firm with family relations research, this article explores potential difficulties experienced by family employees in making transitions from their family role to work role and the potential for family employees to engage in deviant behavior due to unresolved conflict and ambiguity from work-family role integration. These difficulties, we argue, are in part due to problems in separating role expectations when they come from indistinct sources; that is, when the boss and father, for example, are the same person. We explain how the tensions between work and family can create a cycle of deviance in the family and family firm domains.