Not logged in.

Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title How family CEOs affect employees’ feelings and behaviors: A study on positive emotions
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Nadine Kammerlander
  • Jochen Menges
  • Dennis Herhausen
  • Petra Kipfelsberger
  • Heike Bruch
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Long Range Planning
Publisher Elsevier
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0024-6301
Volume 56
Number 5
Page Range 102209
Date 2023
Abstract Text Research suggests that firms with family CEOs differ from other types of businesses, yet surprisingly little is known about how employees in these firms feel and behave compared to those working in other firms. We draw from family science and management research to suggest that family CEOs, because of their emotion-evoking double role as family members and business leaders, are, on average, more likely to infuse employees with positive emotions, such as enthusiasm and excitement, than hired professional CEOs. We suggest that these emotions spread through firms by way of emotional contagion during interactions with employees, thereby setting the organizational affective tone. In turn, we hypothesize that in firms with family CEOs the voluntary turnover rate is lower. In considering structural features as boundary conditions, we propose that family CEOs have stronger effects in smaller and centralized firms, and weaker effects in formalized firms. Multilevel data from 41,200 employees and 2,246 direct reports of CEOs from 497 firms with and without family CEOs provide support for our model. This research suggests that firms managed by family CEOs, despite often being criticized as nepotistic relics of the past, tend to offer pleasant work environments.
Free access at DOI
Related URLs
Digital Object Identifier 10.1016/j.lrp.2022.102209
Other Identification Number merlin-id:22965
PDF File Download from ZORA
Export BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)