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Family business leadership transition: How an adaptation of executive coaching may help

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Charmine EJ Härtel ,
Gil Bozer  and
Leon Levin
Charmine EJ Härtel
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Monash University, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Gil Bozer
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Monash University, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Leon Levin
Affiliation:
Department of Marketing, Monash University, Melbourne VIC, Australia
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Abstract

Within the traditional business organizational climate in which an executive coach operates, the identity of ‘the coached’ (coachee) can be quite clearly differentiated from the business identity. This is not the case within the world of family business, where the incumbent family business leader, the successor, the business and the family culture, are interwoven. This unique feature of family business means that, for executive coaching to be effective within the family business environment, a radically different approach to that used in traditional business environments must be adopted – namely, the consideration of what generally are thought of as noneconomic variables. This article represents a first attempt to effectively address the key and unique variables executive coaches need to know to work within the family business environment.

Keywords

family businessfamily firmsexecutive coachingsuccession managementsuccession planningsuccession failuresuccession decisionsfamily enterprisesfamily-controlled firmsleadership
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 378 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

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