Attitude toward Conflict and Family Business Succession

Conflict is central in family business. Family business consists of family membersworking together, using family and business logics. Efforts are done to mitigate theimpact of role conflicts. Nevertheless, conflict remains the top reason for discontinuity.Findings suggested that participants with positive attitude toward conflict take morerelaxed approach toward succession, with larger next generation talent pool. Thisgroup is egalitarian in strategic decision making and characteristically optimistic.Participants with negative attitude have a smaller talent pool for succession, since theyreserve leadership for the select few. They are more cautious, requiring successors toimplement their visions beforehand, and are less optimistic. This study contributes tothe body of knowledge and family business practitioners. Firstly, this paper introducesthe use of attitude toward conflict to predict behaviour during succession. Secondly,this paper inspires leaders to assess their attitudes, and if required to change theirattitudes, so that they can plan their succession accordingly.