Negative Acts Within Family Firms

Various types of behaviors that can be deviant, dysfunctional, and damaging are reviewed, focusing on behaviors that are perpetrated by individuals and groups within the context of the family and the family firm. A brief discussion of assorted concept definitions and major theories used in the research of dysfunctional behaviors in family firms is followed by a review of specific behaviors that a perpetrator targets against individuals, the family, and the family firm. These negative acts include counterproductive work behavior, bullying, theft, withholding information, aggression, resistance to change, bias against non-family members, gender discrimination, and firm-level conflict. Although the heterogeneity of the behaviors in this category appears evident in terms of types and potential targets, the chapter discusses why there is relatively little research of these behaviors compared to other dysfunctional phenomena studied in the context of family firms.