Non–family Managers in Family Small and medium firms

Abstract

The aim of this article is to delveinto the relationship between non-family managers and owners in family-ownedSMEs. It is a subject of increasing interest in both the academic and business world. This paper focuses on understanding, through qualitative research, the reason why a family business decides to incorporate a non-family manager, which recruitment and selection processes are followed, the kind of activities developed by these managers, and the type of relationship mantained with the family. The fieldwork was carriedout in ten Argentinian and Italian family-ownedSMEs, through semi-structured interviews to managers and/or directors of such companies. According to the main results, there is a wide variety of causes for hiring non-family managers, and they are asked to do several tasks of different kinds. In addition, it has been found that the recruitment and selection processes are quite informal, with an active participation of the familymember entrepreneur. Finally, the results show a strict employment relationship between the parties.

Keywords

• empresas familiares • gerente no familiar • administración