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2012 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

9. Power and Learning in the Dynamics of Family Business Development

Authors : Richard T. Harrison, Claire M. Leitch

Published in: Understanding Family Businesses

Publisher: Springer New York

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Abstract

Within the field of entrepreneurial learning research, there is growing recognition of the need to consider the influence of power on the learning process itself (Harrison and Leitch 2008). However, there has been little attempt to develop these issues in the family business context specifically. While family business studies have examined various elements of conflict, role confusion and organisational performance (Poutziouris et al. 2006; Berkel 2007), they have neither set this in the context of the analysis of learning processes and outcomes nor related these discussions back to the wider debates on the role of power in organisations. In this chapter, we contribute to the small number of studies which do examine these issues (Nienelä 2004): the dynamics of the family business present a rich opportunity to examine such topics, combining as it does the process of business development in general with the specific overlay of family issues, both within the family members and between family members and non-family executives in a venture.

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Title: Power and Learning in the Dynamics of Family Business Development
Authors: Richard T. Harrison
Claire M. Leitch
Publisher: Springer New York
Book: Understanding Family Businesses
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-0910-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4614-0911-3

Copyright Year: 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0911-3_9