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Family Business on the Couch

Family Business on the Couch A Psychological Perspective

Author: Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries; Randel S. Carlock with Elizabeth Florent-Treacy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470516713
Published In: September 2007
Format: Hardback , 324 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Contents
Author

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The challenge faced by family businesses and their stakeholders, is to recognise the issues that they face, understand how to develop strategies to address them and more importantly, to create narratives, or family stories that explain the emotional dimension of the issues to the family. The most intractable family business issues are not the business problems the organisation faces, but the emotional issues that compound them. Applying psychodynamic concepts will help to explain behaviour and will enable the family to prepare for life cycle transitions and other issues that may arise.

Here is a new understanding and a broader perspective on the human dynamics of family firms with two complementary frameworks, psychodynamic and family systematic, to help make sense of family-run organisations. Although this book includes a conceptual section, it is first and foremost a practical book about the real world issues faced by business families.

The book begins by demonstrating that many years of achievement through generations can be destroyed by the next, if the family fails to address the psychological issues they face. By exploring cases from famous and less well known family businesses across the world, the authors discuss entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial family and the lifecycles of the individual and the organisation. They go on to show how companies going through change and transition can avoid the pitfalls that endanger both family and company. The authors then apply tools that will help family businesses in transition and offer their analyses and conclusions.

Readers should draw their own conclusions from careful examination of the cases, identifying the problems or dilemmas faced and the options for improved business performance and family relationships. They should ask what they might have done in the given situation and what new insight into individual or family behaviour each case offers. The goal is to avoid a bitter ending.

Reviews

“…explores the reasons why some family businesses are dysfunctional – and how to cure them.” (The Guardian, Saturday 15th September 2007)

"fascinating new book" (The Independent, Tuesday 9th October 2007)

"a unique insight into the subject." (Guardian Unlimited guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13th December)

"You'll find this book well worth reading" (Edge, February 2008)

"...an insight into addressing key family buisness issues." (Gulf Buisness, February 2008)

Preface

Acknowledgements

PART I: QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

Introduction

Endnote

1 A Psychological Perspective on Business Families

Psychodynamic and family systemic perspectives

Key ideas from the psychodynamic approach

The role of transference and countertransference

The family systemic perspective

A therapeutic alliance

A summing-up

Endnotes

2 The Challenges of Love and Work

Conflicting goals in the family business

The tree-circles model

How conflict can develop

Endnotes

3 Family Business Practices: Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses

The interface of business and family practices

Assessing the health of a family business

Endnotes

PART II: REFLECTION AND LEARNING

4 The Life Cycle as an Organizing Construct

The multiple life cycles of the family business

Key models of human psychological development

The family life cycle

Carter and McGoldrick’s family-based life cycle model

Applying the life cycle in family businesses

Endnotes

5 Narcissism, Envy, and Myths in Family Firms

Personality types

Managerial implications of dysfunctional narcissism

The importance of individuation

The family firm as transitional object

The power of envy

Games families play: the role of family myths

The impact of family myths on the family business

Summary

Endnotes

6 The Entrepreneur: Alone at the Top

Common personality characteristics of founder-entrepreneurs

Larry Ellison and Oracle

Deciphering the inner theater of the entrepreneur

Common defensive structures in founder-entrepreneurs

Maintaining the balance

Endnotes

7 Leadership Transition: Replacing a Parent as CEO

Options for tackling the succession problem

The inheritance

Psychological pressures on new leaders

Staying on course

Endnotes

8 A Systemic View of the Business Family

A two-way relationship

The evolution of systems theory

The development of family-systems theory

The family-systems proposition

Family scripts and rules

Family scripts in the family business

A practical example of family systems thinking

Endnotes

9 Diagnosing Family Entanglements

The family genogram

The Circumplex Model of marriage and family systems

Differentiation of self from family of origin

Two family stories

Endnotes

PART III: INTEGRATION AND ACTION

10 Addressing Transitions and Change

Lewin’s ideas on change

The Kets de Vries model of individual change

Major themes in the individual journey toward change

The process of change within organizations

The change process in families

Family focus or organization focus?

Endnotes

11 The Vicissitudes of Family Business

The Steinbergs: A study in self-destruction

The immigrant dream

His mother’s son

The entrepreneur’s vision

Sam as a family business leader

The entrepreneur’s dilemma: Passing the baton

The next generation

Irving Ludmer: Play it again, Sam

A family systems perspective on the Steinbergs

The effects of Sam Steinberg’s inner world on the family business

The inner theater of Sam’s daughters

What if?

Endnotes

12 Putting Family Business Intervention into Practice

The Family Action Research Process

The succession conundrum

The role of the outside adviser

Advice to families seeking help

The benefits pf a psychodynamic systems perspective

Final words

Endnotes

Appendix 1: Developing a Business Family Genogram

Creating the genogram

Therapeutic applications of the genogram

Using the genogram to identify family scripts and themes

How genograms improve communication

Endnotes

Appendix 2: The Clinical Rating Scales and the Circumplex Model

How the CRS work

Endnotes

Index

MANFRED F.R. KETS DE VRIES brings a unique perspective to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. He is a clinical professor of leadership development and holds the Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt Chair of Leadership Development at INSEAD, France & Singapore. He is also the Director of INSEAD’s Global Leadership Center. He has held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, and the Harvard Business School, and he has lectured at management institutions around the world. He is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Economist have rated Manfred Kets de Vries among the world’s top fifty thinkers on management and among the world’s most influential people in human resource management.

He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 24 books and over 250 scientific papers as chapters in books and as articles. His books and articles have been translated into more than 25 languages. He was also the first non-American recipient of the International Leadership Award for “his contributions to the classroom and the board room.”

Kets de Vries is a consultant on organizational design/transformation and strategic human resource management to leading US, Canadian, European, African, Australian and Asian companies. As an educator and consultant he has worked in more than forty countries.

DR. RANDEL S. CARLOCK is the first Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor in Entrepreneurial Leadership, the founding Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise and a founding board member of the Global Leadership Centre at INSEAD. Previously he was the first Opus Professor of Family Enterprise and founder of the family business center at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN (USA). Carlock has an MA in education and training (1976), an MBA in strategic management (1983), and a Ph.D. (1991), all from the University of Minnesota. His doctoral dissertation explored the role of organization development in managing high growth entrepreneurial firms. He has also completed a post graduate certification in family and marriage therapy at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, University of London (1998) and a certificate in psychodynamic counseling at Birkbeck College, University of London (1999). He was awarded a Certificate in Family Business Advising with Fellow Status (2001) by The Family Firm Institute, Boston, MA (USA).

He is the author of several books, articles, book chapters, videos and case studies. He has over 25 years of experience serving as an executive with a global family business and as CEO and chairman of his own NASDAQ listed corporation. He currently advises global business families and corporations around the world specializing in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

ELIZABETH FLORENT-TREACY, Research Project Manager at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, She works in the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre, and the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise. She has conducted research in the following areas: global leadership; global organizations; corporate culture in European and global organizations; American, French and Russian business practices; family business issues (governance, succession, strategy); entrepreneurial leadership; cross-cultural management; women and global leadership; cultural aspects of mergers and acquisitions; transformational leadership; expatriate executives and families; and the psychodynamics of leadership. She holds degrees in Sociology (BA) and Organization Development (MA).

Elizabeth has written authored or co-authored 4 books, 21 articles, working papers and book chapters and 18 case studies on leadership and family business topics.