LEADERSHIP PRACTICES IN FAMILY BUSINESSES: A PHENOMENOGRAPHIC VIEW

ABSTRACT

The study seeks to understand how top managers understand and practice the leadership style in family businesses, in which an interpretive methodology, phenomenography, is applied, guided by semi-structured interviews with 15 top managers. The phenomenographic analysis aims to identify two groups of predominant styles: i) conciliatory, dynamic leadership; and ii) regulated, static leadership. In particular, in the first group, there is a concatenation of three leadership styles: referent, specialist and participatory, which have similarities with each other, reverberating an affective and collective organizational environment, which impacts on the leadership style adopted by the organization. Meanwhile, autocratic leadership is represented in isolation in the second group, given the organizational aspects, echoing a methodical and hierarchical environment, elucidating static leadership practices. However, it is understood that there is variability in the leadership style of family businesses, and this advanced style of family involvement, in which the values and organizational conduct exposed by the founders relate the behavior characteristics of leaders with their subordinates. The theoretical contributions reveal the conceptual advance for the leadership style literature, with regard to the definition of leadership style from the perspective of top managers, shedding light on the heterogeneity found in family businesses through leadership style.

Keywords:
Leadership style; Family businesses; Phenomenography