The family and the business

The aim of this paper was to explore the attitudes of owner-managers to the conflicting pressures of family and business. Five hundred and thirty-four owner-managers responded to a questionnaire that asked about their attitud es to a range of issues including, for example, succession and equity, chil dren's involvement in the business, and the extent to which family should e xpect income from the business. There was common agreement on some issues s uch as the fact that children should be allowed to choose whether to join t he business, and that family and business affairs should be kept separate. Beyond this, there were disagreements with three clear groups, or clusters, of attitudes emerging. We called these the Family-Business Jugglers, Famil y Rules, and Family Out groups. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.