The Study On The Conflicts Between Family Members In Chinese Family Enterprises

Chinese family enterprises arose in last70’s and80’s, and it is an important part of ournational economy now. It is facing the downturn of the global economy, the transformation andupgrade of Chinese economy, the renewal in the enterprises. Then the conflicts in the familyenterprises are aggravating. In order to prevent and reduce the conflict problems among the familymembers effectively and feasibly, this paper analyses the mechanism of conflict’s formation amongthe family members in Chinese family enterprises, then seeks solution strategies in order to achievefamily harmony, enterprise development and social stability.This paper starts from the double systems characteristic of the family enterprise, thencombining the western economy theory and real conflict case, we considering that it should admitthe existence of natural person’s "Personal rationality" and "Egoism". So, besides the doublesystems, the paper adds a personal dimension, thereby constructs the tri-circle model of"Personal-Family-Enterprise" as the paper’s theory foundation. Afterwards, combining with roletheory, it obtains the result that family members in family enterprises have multiple roles. Andaccording to the analysis of role theory and conflict theory, it finds that the root cause of familymembers’ conflicts lies in their multiple role conflicts, then comes out as multiple interest conflicts.During the empirical research afterwards, it firstly obtains research data according to thequestionnaire survey and the interview, then uses the statistical method such as descriptive statisticsanalysis, nonparametric test and correlation analysis to analyses the interaction relationship amongrole characteristic factor, interest bias factor and conflict factor of family members. Thus itconcludes main research conclusions of this paper and put forwards the corresponding suggestionsfor preventing and managing conflicts as follows:(1) In the general case, family members are the doctrine of the mean activists. They will keepbalance of the tri-circle interests of individual, family and enterprise. But different family membershave different interest bias and a same family member also has different interest bias in differentsituations. So we should coordinate tri-circle interests among family members to prevent conflictsaccording to the specific situation.(2) Conflicts exists generally among family members in modern family enterprise, the vastmajority of family members think most of them are constructive. We should not ignore destructiveconflicts and their disadvantageous effects, but should prevent and reduce the destructive conflictsin the family enterprises.(3) The core family members are prone to clash with enterprise interests. While with thereduction of Chinese family size, in the cases the enterprise owners only have one child that it need to break through the consanguinity limitation of core family members, bring in outside talents toalleviate or dissolve enterprise interest conflicts about management and inheritance between corefamily members.(4) The other family members who located in outer circle of family relation circles payattention to personal interests mostly, and it is one of the main reasons that the conflicts in familyenterprises focus between enterprise owners and other family members, enterprise owners’ childrenand other family members. So we should pay attention to the management of other familymembers.(5) Most conflicts are constructive among family members with highly educated, and theirprocessing mode will be more active, rational, scientific and effective in conflict. So either fromenterprise or family, it should improve the education level of the family members.(6) On the one hand, the family culture with altruism is beneficial to solve the conflictsbetween family members. On the other hand, rigid family management system needs reform forhindering the family enterprises’ development. Therefore, considerate comprehensively, familyenterprises need to establish a new culture which is compatible with family culture and modernenterprise system.