Why Employees quit Work in Family Firms : Antecedents and Consequences Intra-Family Conflict

Strobl, Andreas and Campopiano, Giovanna and Friesl, Martin (2021) Why Employees quit Work in Family Firms : Antecedents and Consequences Intra-Family Conflict. In: BAM2021 Conference :. British Academy of Management, Lancaster. ISBN 9780995641341

Abstract

This paper investigates employee satisfaction and turnover intentions in family firms by focussing on intra-family conflict as a salient antecedent. Drawing on family business and organisational behaviour literature, the paper sheds further light on drivers of intra-family conflict and their impact on employee level outcomes. Relying on dyadic survey data the study shows that socioemotional wealth related goals and employees’ respect for the predecessor family generation influence the level of intra-family conflict, which in turn affects employee satisfaction and turnover intention. While strong employee respect for the predecessor family generation increases intra-family conflict, results reveal diverging influences of goals related to socioemotional wealth continuity (decreases conflict) and prominence (increases conflict). Further, the study shows that employee satisfaction acts as a mediator between intra-family conflict and employee turnover intentions. Thus, the results offer novel insights to research on conflicts in family business with important implications for conflict management in family firms.