Conflicts in family businesses arise when one or more members of the organization feel that there are imbalances, inequities or preferences that affect them.
After a period of acceptance based on the need or desire to preserve good relationships, disagreements with the situations that affect it begin to manifest.
Generally, those who express their displeasure are those who consider themselves disadvantaged, due to the distribution of tasks, responsibilities, remuneration, hourly load, etc.
When they can no longer bear the uncomfortable situation, they pose the problem to the social nucleus, with different luck: the proposal may be understood and accepted and resolved with agreement and consensus or, on the contrary, it may not be taken into account or disqualified as inconsistent.
In the latter case, the conflict worsens sharply and becomes a relational problem that damages the operation of the company and reaches the family.
The situation is also complicated when, who feels damaged, does not communicate it and is burdened in time until, one day, the problem hatches in a bad way.
If the conflict continues in time without solution, family relationships and the operation of the company begin to be at risk.
It is essential to plan a round of meetings to specifically address these issues until they are resolved. Conflicts in family businesses originate in the organization and are manifested in the relationship between people.
It is convenient to approach the meetings analyzing the organization from the abstract without taking into account the people and, when designing the type of organization that the company requires, the organization chart, the jobs necessary for operation, clear functions, specific objectives and results. Expected in each case, just there, it corresponds to resolve the location of the members of the family society and of the employees in the jobs.
In appointing people to different positions, their knowledge, skills, preferences and personal views on life must be taken into account.
This last point is of great importance since each member of the family society also has a family of their own with ways and means of approaching life and personal objectives that may not coincide with those of the rest of the family society.
There are those who prefer that the company maintain its level of activity so that the members withdraw the remunerations that allow it to maintain the standard of living without major complications, and others who want the company to grow with continuous improvement, with greater profits, with objectives of market leadership, even if it requires more work and personal commitment.
In these meetings, it is convenient to use negotiation methods that avoid confrontations and work so that all the members, or the majority, are winners and that the working environment and the conformity of the partners are improved.
This, which is easy to say, is not always achieved with the consensus of the participants, and ends by defining that the most convenient thing is for some of the members to take paths on their own, detached from the original society, being healthier to keep the family and also the company.
The objective of these conflict resolution meetings should be that each of the members of the family business can carry out his life in accordance with his expectations and ways of living it, that the company develops in a good work climate with positive results. and, if possible, together.
If these conflicts are ignored or resolved with authoritarian decisions, surely the family relations and the results of the company will be negative.
One of the conflicts that family businesses encounter is the one we call “ The Almighty ”.
The founder or the oldest of the company usually thinks that the experience they have achieved throughout history cannot be transferred to the following generations and that this experience is essential by itself to guide the destinies of the organization.
The experience is of great value when problems that have previously manifested themselves or similar are presented, for which trial and error analyzes were carried out and the results of the actions applied are known, but when new situations arise for which there is no history. in the company, knowledge becomes relevant to make better decisions.
In a world that changes at the speed of light, the value of knowledge, the broad mind and the systematic application of management tools guarantee the success of running the company.
However, those who had the audacity to start a company from scratch, who had the insight to keep it active during times of turbulence and economic instability, are creditors to the recognition and respect of the members of the organization.
The recurring saying that "The first generation founds and makes the company great, the second generation uses benefits and the third generation founds it" is not based on the inability of the heirs to manage, but is generally due to the fact that the transfer of experience, the transition between generations and the training to which successors must be subjected, is not carried out in the most appropriate way.
Abraham Maslow, a psychologist who dedicated himself to the study of human behavior in companies, defined a pyramid of basic needs in which, the upper one was defined in the first instance as " Self-realization ", and finally he redefined it as "Self-transcendence" which means going further of himself.
It is very important that the founders internalize this need for self-transcendence and note that the achievement of this need is obtained when the founders manage to train and train successors so that they can run the company with the same or greater efficiency than what was being done. until the present.
This transfer must be done with a lot of patience and progressively, even allowing some minor errors to be made since, on occasions, you learn more from mistakes than from successes.
The most appropriate technique for transferring knowledge is the “constructivist”, which means creating the conditions so that whoever has to learn the driving tools can build their position and elaborate their particular method in the best way.
Another technique is the " behaviorist " one that what it does is lead the initiate in such a way to show him the way that the one who is transferring the knowledge supposes that it is the most convenient.
The most convenient way to transfer knowledge is to teach the successor how to analyze situations and how to carry out problem analysis and decision-making, not forgetting to recommend that he evaluate the risks of each alternative solution.
Just as in the beginning of the venture the objective was to make the company great and strengthen it to ensure its continuity, in the transfer stage of management the objective should be to make successors great and strengthen them so that they can maintain growth and solidity in their management as professional entrepreneurs.
When we need to incorporate personnel, we define the profile of the position, we make the selection, we incorporate it and we train it for the function that it must fulfill. Periodically we do a performance evaluation and, if it fails to meet the objectives, it is trained and finally, if it fails to improve, it is relocated to another position more appropriate to its profile or it is removed from the company.
Now, when it comes to an acting relative, are these procedures followed? The answer is usually "no". Performance deviations are admitted, conversations are held informally, they support him with other people more suitable for the position, or worse, the performance of the entire company is leveled down, losing efficiency and competitiveness.
Conflicts in family businesses are, fundamentally, of organizational causes and the effects are manifested in the relational and, in these cases, it is when they most touch the family relationship.
Regarding relational dysfunctions, we must treat them promptly on each company and each person, because each situation is unique and unrepeatable, so it is necessary to know very well the implications of the case and the possible alternative solutions before acting.
A conflict that is reiterated on many occasions is what we call “La Tía Cata”, since this example, in particular, meets all the characteristics of the case.
Aunt Cata was a widow in her fifties, very outgoing, extremely active, who lived alone and was used to doing what she wanted, always, and was very happy with her way of living.
He would enter the work meetings, speak loudly and interrupt with trivial matters and would not leave, he had to be suggested to do another task, outside the meeting, to leave the place.
He answered the phone with a “hello” or with “hello, Cata”, without respecting the instructions that the telephone operators had as to how to answer a call. She received information and passed it on to whoever came up with it or who was nearby at the time. Anyway, everyone knows what we are talking about.
The situation was accepted because Cata was great and every time something is said to him it gets bad, but as expected, if this situation is not resolved, in the long or short they bring major problems. And so it happened.
In a meeting with Italian businessmen who, with little time available, went to the company to do business, Cata took half of the interview, because as he speaks Italian, he took care of exercising on that occasion and distracted time commenting on the results of more from a trip around the peninsula.
The meeting with the Italians did not end as expected because the image of the company was not the best, disorder, lack of professionalism, inopportune interference, in short, everything that those who want to talk about business do not like.
Long faces, comments among the others involved who were naturally warned by Cata and bedridden her for a week of depression. But once the subject was over, she returned to work with the same or more force.
During a tax inspection, the entire company was looking for the tax payment vouchers that did not appear, and after a reasonable time, the inspectors decided a warning and the payment of a fine for formal problems that, due to the amount and background, were not pleasant..
Days after the inspection, Cata handed the family member in charge of the accounting administration a series of "papers" that he had in his wallet for a long time, among them, the tax payment vouchers that all the staff looked for without finding them and reason for the warning. and the fine.
This is how my love came, said one of the relatives, perhaps the most efficient in the company, or her or me. And the company entered into a crisis that, almost, ends with the company and the family.
This type of problem occurs when it is not perfectly separated: the family, the property of the company, the board of directors, the officials and the organizational structure.
If these estates cannot be visualized separately, with the meaning that each one of them has and its scope of concern and clear influence, it is very possible that they maintain a business-family relationship in continuous conflict and in increasing tension.
As, obviously, it is not easy to achieve this separation of areas and functions, it is convenient that they hold meetings specifically on these issues, in which they discuss these issues, define them, agree on them and can advance the operation of the company.
It is important, in cases such as the one reported, to define and communicate where the company is headed and what its objectives are, design an organization chart and the chronological management network, clearly define the jobs with their functions and tasks and, if possible, set the objectives of each position, disseminate them and stick to the program as rigorously as possible.
These actions are essential but they are not sufficient on their own, results are not achieved by applying them as if they were Decrees or Laws to be followed, it is necessary to implement an implementation and training program so that the expected results are achieved.
The application of this program for a time allowed “La Tía Cata” to understand the convenience of registering functionally in an organized structure and ended up being a useful person for the organization.
As a consequence of this re-organization, all the members of the company made it clear what was expected of each one of them, what their responsibilities and objectives were and, finally, a friendly work environment and better management results were achieved.
Family businesses are born and develop in a very similar way to each other, and many situations are common to several of them, configuring a behavioral matrix that, the continuous treatment of these problems, allows them to be classified within the behavioral variables.
We confirm that conflicts in family businesses originate from organizational causes and translate into relational problems.
There are two cases that are repeated with some frequency in SMEs, which we call "The Invisible Man" and "The Super Man" with different ways of manifesting but with similar results.
The Invisible Man is generally the founder or a person who had power in the company and retains a certain image of experience and knowledge, without occupying a defined position or dealing with any particular sector.
He wanders around the company giving instructions or suggestions that are orders, to come from this person, and they do not always coincide with the instructions and procedures indicated by the person in charge of the sector, generating, in many cases, disorientation in the employees and disorder in planning.
There is nothing worse for an employee than not knowing who to answer and not knowing what procedure to follow when there are two different instructions. In an organization people want to have a leader or driver and only one.
Although the Invisible Man has no hierarchical responsibility, he is respected and taken into account for his history in the company or for his family relationship.
When the staff does not comply with the instructions of the manager of the sector, because someone changed or questioned them, the person in charge of having changed them never appears or, at least, does not recognize their intervention, hence the title of "Invisible Man".
This situation concludes that both the personnel and, as well as those in charge of the sectors, end up not worrying more about the situation and accepting that things turn out as they do, meeting or not meeting work programs, quality standards, management times, etc. resulting in hidden costs for the company, organizational disorder, demotivation and loss of hierarchical relationships.
When this situation is detected, the Invisible Man is proposed to occupy a certain position and take over some defined function, to which he replies that he is actually about to retire and no longer wants to deal with anything in particular., continuing in practice with its interference in all matters.
In conclusion, the sense of coherent organization, agreed objectives and the existence of a strategic plan that leads the ship to good port are lost.
Another typical case is that of "Super Man" with a different behavior than the previous one but with the same consequences.
It results from a member of the board, the family or the organizational structure, who feels that if the decisions do not go through him or his opinion, they do not serve or are of doubtful result.
This belief is accompanied by criticism of everything that is done or decided without their intervention, indisposing those who act or intend to act with a certain independence of judgment and with the responsibility inherent in their job position.
There are two typical reactions to the behavior of the Super Man, the continuous confrontation with the consequent deterioration of the relationship, or the path of least effort concluding that, if he is the one who makes all the decisions, then do it and take responsibility for the results, and the rest wash their hands and finish without even commenting on management.
This situation is aggravated when the Super Man becomes the cone of the funnel, does not make decisions in time and form and delays all initiatives and sometimes even functional decisions, finally leaving them to become urgent decisions without sufficient analysis. and risk assessment.
These two situations, continuous confrontation and letting go, are highly negative for the company since in the first case, from continuous confrontation, a work environment is created that makes the environment very dense and does not generate teamwork, and in the second case, of the least effort, a work team is not achieved either and the contributions that could be brought by the members of the organization are lost, damaging the involvement and motivation of people.
As can be seen, in each of these cases it is manifested that the feeling of power and authority does not want to be delegated. In one way or another, people who behave in this way need to feel that they are essential actors within the organization, without realizing that their conduct hinders the organized and planned operation of the company.
As stated in the beginning, the causes lie in organizational definitions that people have to submit and, for this, it is necessary to define where you want to go, as an objective, and how you want to travel the path that yields the best result., agreeing between the members of the board.
Said this way it is easy but, in practice, it is not easy and it is necessary to use management and negotiation mechanisms that ensure compliance with the strategic and tactical plans of the company.
When a family business initiates a work of conflict resolution in the organization, it manifests that what happens in this company is different, without knowing that the problems in family SMEs are so similar that they could even work together if faced with a wide range of focus.
In reality, what happens, and it is good to recognize it, is that in each company the same problems are manifested differently, because those who live and express them are people, different from each other, which concludes that the same problems appear differently.
It is important to analyze the case of “My Brother-in-Law” because it is repeatedly observed with relatives or employees who are friends of the owners or directors of the companies.
In the SMEs that, since its foundation, have been covering their jobs with family or friends who were unemployed or dissatisfied with the job they had, the relationship between owners or directors of the firm and employees is very close. Sometimes they are usually neighbors with whom they meet in the shops in the area or on the street, or friends from other times.
This familiarity that exists among the members of SMEs is positive in some cases and not so much in others.
The company in question manufactured high-value products and had achieved a very good position in the market; It had high turnover and good profits and, at the time we were dealing with, it had made delivery commitments and had a sustained demand that, unfortunately, it could not meet.
The owner regretted this situation because he saw the possibility of continuing to win the market slip away increasing profitability and, on the other hand, he was concerned because its limitations made possible the appearance of new competitors encouraged by unmet demand.
In this situation, the owner made the determination to start a reorganization of the company, which was carried out, in the first stage, globally with all the members of the organization together, achieving good results in the integration of an efficient team. of work.
Subsequently, progress was made in studying the individual performance of people in each job, and it was there that the causes of the low production of equipment were detected.
The factory manager was a person with a lot of will, involved with the company and formally motivated in his work but, unfortunately, without the necessary knowledge to fill the positions.
The only method that he implemented to optimize times and speed up production was to be on top of each of the operators, pressuring them to perform the tasks faster, without training them or giving them instructions that would make the objective possible.
When this problem was observed, an attempt was made to train the factory manager to plan production, and he was given all the information necessary to run the factory professionally.
It was suggested that a Gantt diagram be drawn up to control the processes, the completion times of each stage of the work began to be taken and it was observed that, in various tasks, the different work teams had a time difference that exceeded 50% between each other to perform the same task. Only in the subset soldier were teams found that solved it in eight hours and others in twelve hours, the same job.
The owner observed that by solving this problem, he could produce enough to make the committed deliveries in a timely manner, and take part of the demand that was being rejected.
The companies work more and more on the organization as a whole instead of doing it on the people in particular and, fundamentally, they take care of the training of their personnel to form efficient work teams.
When it was observed that the factory manager did not advance in any change of attitude to make the performance of the personnel in charge more efficient, he spoke with the owner to inform him that, if there was no action on this person, nothing would change, beyond of what was achieved with the rest of the heads of sectors and, the inefficiency in the management of the factory, became the cone of the funnel that slowed down the progress of the company and discouraged the rest of the bosses, who had improved in their performances.
Collateral damage was manifested with the sales manager who was kept on site without going out to fulfill their functions, not even institutional sales, so as not to increase the problem of late deliveries. This error was communicated to the owner of the company because if there was a drop in demand, as happened with the world crisis, they would not have a presence in the market that would allow them to overcome the situation.
In this scenario, the owner of the company was very concerned, because he warned the reality of what was happening and knew that in addition to the loss of opportunity, he was bearing hidden costs of great magnitude, but he is "My Brother-in-Law", and he comes to home to visit me with my nephews what can I do ?.
The case is made up of two frequent reasons, the family or relational, and in parallel, a share of fear of change and refusal to have to commit additional effort to solve the problem is added. Change is interpreted as a risk instead of taking it as a challenge for continuous improvement.
Various alternatives were considered to resolve the situation, from coaching with the factory manager, to the possibility of relocating him to another sector, without hurting susceptibilities, and taking a professional who would occupy the position efficiently. But no proposal was accepted because of the risk of generating a family problem.
The conclusion was that the reorganization work and the end of the story were interrupted and the consequences are left to the imagination of the readers.
