Emotional work-family boundaries in the context of family business

In a family firm, individual family members’ emotions are important for the cohesion and the emotional climate of the family which may in the end affect the family firm performance. Therefore we argue that the role of emotions is important for family business- However, work and family have long been considered to be the main life spheres of individuals and it has been normative to keep work and family apart. As a consequence, these two life domains are often characterized by different emotion rules. The central point of such rules is that “being emotional” i.e. showing emotions is “appropriate” and “natural” in the private sphere whereas it is depicted as “inappropriate” or even “irrational” in the public in our case the business sphere. People are expected to behave emotionally different at home and at work by creating, developing and maintaining emotion boundaries between the firm and the family spheres However, in the context of a family business, work and family are spatially & temporally often impossible to separate. Additionally, the line between family relationships and business relationships is also thin. As a whole, in such in the context of a family business where work and family are de facto interwoven, emotion boundaries may be blurred. This creates challenges for family members such as: How do family members’ emotions interact in the two spheres? How are they managed? Why are emotions managed in specific ways and not others? And what are the implications for individuals, the family and the family business of such emotion management? To addressed these questions we introduce the concept of boundaries and how family members draw emotion boundaries in the context of family businesses in relation to time, space and genuine relationships. Depending on how emotions are managed by the individual family member, this can lead to emotional harmony or disharmony at the individual and/or group level. The purpose of this paper is to explain how family members create, develop and maintain emotion boundaries in the context of their family business where family and work are spatially and temporally intertwined and where genuine relations are at play. Further, we intend to explore consequences for family members, the family and the family business. This paper is based on a narrative from different members of a family business and how do they construct emotional boundaries and why do they do so. This paper concludes with a model about the role or emotional boundaries in the context of family business