Conflicting Hierarchies In Family Firms - Part 3

Friday 10 August, 2001

by George Tanewski

The restructuring of identity seems to be a pervasive pattern in a large proportion of younger sons or daughters in family firms, particularly when undergoing a process of succession.

As discussed in Part 1 and Part 2 in this article series, the daughter or younger son faces a major perceived dilemma. He or she must either move psychologically above his or her lower-status role position in the family hierarchy or their CEO status suffers. It becomes a time either of major transition or of failure. It also involves bringing the incongruent hierarchies into line with each other by gaining new prestige and respect, primarily from the family. That in turn means a shift of behaviour and perceptions on the part of the individual, family members, and often outsiders as well. These evolving struggles fit easily into the eight phases of the human life cycle. Each phase features a major developmental crisis and tentative resolution into basic strengths and action capabilities. In combination, the developmental phases give us a useful way of thinking about the human life cycle.

Human Life Cycle

The life cycle begins for the infant with the conflict between trust and mistrust as the infant enters a totally new world. This first crisis evolves into a beginning resolution and strength of hope and a sense of future. The second phase concerns the early childhood crisis that pits autonomy against shame and doubt. Its resolution sets the stage for our patterns of self-control. The third phase involves moving into play age and a crisis of initiative and guilt. The fundamental strength gained during this period is a sense of purpose from which an individual moves on to the school age crisis of industry versus inferiority. The resolution here involves the strength of competence.

But no early crisis is forever resolved. Later critical events in adolescence and adulthood lead us into recurring doubts. We reopen issues that we seem to have resolved and seek new resolutions. Old values and strengths come into question and become new turning points, particularly during and after times of major stress. These are the times when our sense of identity is retested. Given the tensions caused by their incongruent positions, daughter and younger son CEOs try as adults to renegotiate earlier resolutions with parents and siblings. If they do not, they fall back onto the lower rungs of the family hierarchy.

The transition is not easy, and although family business data are soft surrounding this issue, there are some clear patterns. As noted in Part 1 and Part 2 of this article series, younger sons typically find that their chief adversaries are older brothers unless the older brothers were immobilized early in life by the father’s dominance. Both siblings and fathers pose major problems for daughters. Mothers seem to be facilitating for the younger son and are a potential obstacle for the daughter unless the mother herself has had an active career.

Conclusion

All the basic strengths tentatively put to rest during earlier phases of the life cycle are shaken and retested during transition struggles with parents. Even as an adult, a daughter or younger son CEO finds old resolutions of love, identity, competence, initiative, autonomy and trust all challenged. These resolutions get most publicly tested daily business and family interactions. As the CEO demonstrates successful competence, other members of the family hierarchy feel increasingly threatened. In effect, the daughter or younger son is struggling with growing up anew.

This article has been extracted and modified from Barnes, L.B. (1994). Incongruent hierarchies: Daughter and younger sons as company CEOs. In Beckhard, R. (ed.) "The Best of Family Business Review: A Celebration". Boston: Family Firm Institute. 


Source:ceoonline.com