Married and Making a Living: Couples who Own Small Franchise BusinessesOur economy is characterized by a changing labor market in which large companies are forced by competition to downsize by laying off employees whose skills are specialized and where alternatives are either less attractive or nonexistent. Small family businesses, which have increased in numbers during the last decade, are one means to address such an employment problem. Changing careers as a result of corporate downsizing is a traumatic experience, but sharing time and responsibilities with a spouse in a family-owned business without preparation multiplies that stress.This book describes the organization of roles and work tasks typical in a group of married couples who own and manage small franchise businesses. These work relationships demonstrate high levels of togetherness and adaptability, but family research has shown that these characteristics are often problematic in marital relationships. Notable problems for these couples include covert and overt conflict as well as a fusion of work roles: Too much flexibility leads to unclear and inconsistent work assignments, and impulsive decision-making. The book outlines several techniques for educating and coaching business spouses. |
Contents
Family Systems in Business | 25 |
A Copreneurial Setting | 59 |
Inquiry with Couples In Business | 85 |
Copreneurial Relationships | 101 |
Enriching Copreneurial Relationships | 131 |
153 | |
Common terms and phrases
activities American appears balance Barnett and Barnett Bateson behavior BMCs Bowen Business Management Consultants business owners CIB survey cohesion and flexibility conflict context convention copreneurial business copreneurial couples copreneurial relationships Couples in Business deindustrialization differentiation emotional employees employment Enmeshed FACES II inventory family business family functioning family members family relationships family systems theory family therapist focus group franchisor Frequencies for Levels hierarchy husbands and wives Iatmul ideas individual interaction interviews Lederer and Jackson Likert scale linked tasks marital relationships marriage and family married couples Minuchin Olson organization participation Ponthieu and Caudill problems questions responsibility result role Rosenblatt Rosenblatt et al Schneider Segalen separate shared Sir Speedy couples Sir Speedy franchise Sir Speedy Inc Sir Speedy owners Sir Speedy Printing Small Business Administration social specific Spouse Joint Spradley structure suggests Table therapy values wife women