‘Cross-cultural Dynamics of Family Businesses from a Diversity Perspective’ Guest Editors

traditional organisation of work and family life in industrialised countries has underplayed the interface of family and work. Functionalist family ideology which underpinned industrialisation was based on the male norms of isolation of work and family. However, family businesses, and the nexus of family and work have recently become topics of significant preoccupation in academic literature, owing largely to changes in the demographic composition of workforces and the demands that these changes place on reorganisation of all constituencies of life. Extant studies on family businesses have pinpointed the importance of the family unit in different ways. Arguably, the family unit as the source of belonging and trust can allow the organisation to function collectively for the common good. Equally, the family can serve as an arena of exploitation, in which certain members are ‘othered ’ or exploited. Such exploitation and inequality may cut across the fault lines of gender, ethnicity, class, disability, age, among other social categories. In order to draw attention to the increased significance of family in the context of work and business across a range of cultural contexts, we call for papers which can help us better understand the complexity and intersectionalities of diversity i