IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/entthe/v30y2006i6p837-854.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are We Family and Are We Treated as Family? Nonfamily Employees’ Perceptions of Justice in the Family Firm

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Barnett
  • Franz W. Kellermanns

Abstract

The importance of justice perceptions in fostering positive job attitudes and value–creating behaviors in organizations is well established in the literature. Despite this, only a handful of studies have addressed justice in family firms, and none have presented a theoretical model illustrating how nonfamily employees’ justice perceptions may be influenced by family involvement in family firms. Here, we suggest that the level of family influence impacts the justice perceptions of nonfamily employees primarily through its effect on the human resource (HR) practices within family firms. Specifically, we propose that low levels of family influence tend to have little impact on the fairness of HR practices, that moderate levels of family influence tend to have positive effects on the fairness of HR practices, and that high levels of family influence tend to have negative effects on the fairness of HR decision processes and outcomes. Accordingly, we present and provide a conceptual support for a model that outlines the proposed relationships among family influence, family firms’ HR practices, and the justice perceptions of nonfamily employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Barnett & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2006. "Are We Family and Are We Treated as Family? Nonfamily Employees’ Perceptions of Justice in the Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(6), pages 837-854, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:30:y:2006:i:6:p:837-854
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00155.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00155.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00155.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aldrich, Howard E. & Cliff, Jennifer E., 2003. "The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 573-596, September.
    2. Chrisman, James J. & Chua, Jess H. & Litz, Reginald, 2003. "A unified systems perspective of family firm performance: an extension and integration," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 467-472, July.
    3. Jess H. Chua & James J. Chrisman & Pramodita Sharma, 1999. "Defining the Family Business by Behavior," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(4), pages 19-39, July.
    4. W. Gibb Dyer Jr., 2003. "The Family: The Missing Variable in Organizational Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 401-416, October.
    5. Mitchell, Ronald K. & Morse, Eric A. & Sharma, Pramodita, 2003. "The transacting cognitions of nonfamily employees in the family businesses setting," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 533-551, July.
    6. Franz W. Kellermanns & Kimberly A. Eddleston, 2004. "Feuding Families: When Conflict Does a Family Firm Good," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(3), pages 209-228, May.
    7. William S. Schulze & Michael H. Lubatkin & Richard N. Dino & Ann K. Buchholtz, 2001. "Agency Relationships in Family Firms: Theory and Evidence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 99-116, April.
    8. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Pramodita Sharma, 2005. "Trends and Directions in the Development of a Strategic Management Theory of the Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(5), pages 555-575, September.
    9. Guido Corbetta & Carlo Salvato, 2004. "Self–Serving or Self–Actualizing? Models of Man and Agency Costs in Different Types of Family Firms: A Commentary on “Comparing the Agency Costs of Family and Non–family Firms: Conceptual Issu," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(4), pages 355-362, July.
    10. Hyo-Soo Lee, 2001. "Paternalistic Human Resource Practices: Their Emergence and Characteristics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 841-869, December.
    11. W. Gibb Dyer Jr. & Wendy Handler, 1994. "Entrepreneurship and Family Business: Exploring the Connections," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(1), pages 71-83, October.
    12. Habbershon, Timothy G. & Williams, Mary & MacMillan, Ian C., 2003. "A unified systems perspective of family firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 451-465, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Pramodita Sharma, 2005. "Trends and Directions in the Development of a Strategic Management Theory of the Family Firm," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(5), pages 555-575, September.
    2. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Franz Kellermanns, 2009. "Priorities, Resource Stocks, and Performance in Family and Nonfamily Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 739-760, May.
    3. Rajan, Bharath & Salunkhe, Uday & Kumar, V., 2023. "Understanding customer engagement in family firms: A conceptual framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. D’Allura, Giorgia Maria, 2019. "The leading role of the top management team in understanding family firms: Past research and future directions," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 87-104.
    5. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Allison W. Pearson & Tim Barnett, 2012. "Family Involvement, Family Influence, and Family–Centered Non–Economic Goals in Small Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(2), pages 267-293, March.
    6. Astrachan, Joseph H., 2010. "Strategy in family business: Toward a multidimensional research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 6-14, March.
    7. Basco, Rodrigo, 2013. "The family's effect on family firm performance: A model testing the demographic and essence approaches," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 42-66.
    8. Sieger, Philipp & Bernhard, Fabian & Frey, Urs, 2011. "Affective commitment and job satisfaction among non-family employees: Investigating the roles of justice perceptions and psychological ownership," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 78-89, June.
    9. Melanie Richards, 2023. "When do Non-financial Goals Benefit Stakeholders? Theorizing on Care and Power in Family Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(2), pages 333-351, May.
    10. Memili, Esra & Chrisman, James J. & Chua, Jess H. & Chang, Erick P.C. & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2011. "The determinants of family firms' subcontracting: A transaction cost perspective," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 26-33, March.
    11. Ismael Barros-Contreras & Héctor Pérez-Fernández & Natalia Martín-Cruz & Juan Hernangómez B., 2023. "Can we make family social capital flourish? The moderating role of generational involvement," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 655-673, September.
    12. James J. Chrisman & Esra Memili & Kaustav Misra, 2014. "Nonfamily Managers, Family Firms, and the Winner's Curse: The Influence of Noneconomic Goals and Bounded Rationality," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(5), pages 1-25, September.
    13. Mazzi, Chiara, 2011. "Family business and financial performance: Current state of knowledge and future research challenges," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 166-181.
    14. J. Robert Mitchell & Timothy A. Hart & Sorin Valcea & David M. Townsend, 2009. "Becoming the Boss: Discretion and Postsuccession Success in Family Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(6), pages 1201-1218, November.
    15. Matthew W. Rutherford & Donald F. Kuratko & Daniel T. Holt, 2008. "Examining the Link between “Familiness†and Performance: Can the F–PEC Untangle the Family Business Theory Jungle?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 32(6), pages 1089-1109, November.
    16. Zellweger, Thomas M. & Eddleston, Kimberly A. & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2010. "Exploring the concept of familiness: Introducing family firm identity," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 54-63, March.
    17. Najoua Dali & Sana Harbi, 2016. "The Effect of Risk Perception and Cognitive Biases on the Evaluation of Opportunity in Family and Non-Family Entrepreneurs: The Case of Tunisian Entrepreneurs," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 281-312, September.
    18. Jean-Luc Arregle & Francesco Chirico & Liena Kano & Sumit K. Kundu & Antonio Majocchi & William S. Schulze, 2021. "Family firm internationalization: Past research and an agenda for the future," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(6), pages 1159-1198, August.
    19. Franz Kellermanns & Kimberly Eddleston & Ravi Sarathy & Fran Murphy, 2012. "Innovativeness in family firms: a family influence perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 85-101, January.
    20. Dawson, Alexandra, 2011. "Private equity investment decisions in family firms: The role of human resources and agency costs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 189-199, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:30:y:2006:i:6:p:837-854. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.