Owner-Manager Preference, Management Development and the Growing Family Business: A Preliminary Investigation

Contrary to the assertion that the entrepreneur is instrumental in small business growth, theprocess of growth cannot be construed as automatic. Accordingly there is a need to examine therelationships between the personal characteristics, experience, knowledge, skills and motivationsof the entrepreneur in determining the strategic direction of subsequent performance of the smallfirm. Interactions between business operations and family dynamics are important, includingevolution of the business in terms of management development and growth. Personal aspirationscan have a significant effect upon the systems, controls and management processes implementedin the family firm. The use of a single case study examining the development of a small familyfirm in South Wales has been utilised to illustrate how personal aspirations of the familydetermine the managerial capacity of the firm. The paper suggests that an extension to thedichotomy between growth-oriented or less growth-oriented businesses should be considered inwhich growth is ultimately superseded by the need for economic security. In thesecircumstances, it is argued that management development is constrained to the extent thatmanagement processes are simply introduced to ensure that the vision and aspirations of thefamily are continually secured. Moreover, this paper proposes that evidence of a firm’sdisengagement from the process of growth could be ascertained from the management practicesadopted by the owner-management team.[...]