"The Moral Economy" Of The Family Business

The management of family business always relates to the kinship brought by the word “family”.The traditional is characterized by so-call acquaintance relationship.The bonding between family has great influence towards the society of Zhuang ethnic.Although the influence will be weakened slightly with the delevopment of local economy and society,the economic organization formed because of the kinship still has huge power even when facing the market economy.Factory S located in Wuming,Guangxi,the homeland of Zhuang ethnic.The owners and the workers all belong to Zhuang ethnic.The family of owners play an important role in every production division.In this family business,people are not only bonded by consanguinity,marriage and hometown,the “kinship” is built by people who working together.The perception and logic grown by the kinship have wide effect on the production mode of the factory.Kinship brings people rights and obligations.The bounding and expansion of family build up a unity in order to confront the complicated and changeable market environment.James C.Scott's “The Moral Economy of the peasant” suggests that people are not always pursuing benefit maximization in economic activities.People with different culture in different era has their own “moral principal”,and people of Factory S are not exceptions.On one hand,the factory owners and the workers put “kinship” first in economic activities.Economic “benefit” was not always the primary importance.On the orther hand,the owners offered a pressure-free working environment in exchange for the loyalty and industry of workers.The “inequity” of the division on work,is the extension of “mutual assistance” of family production mode.Different from the capitalist enterprises,the owners and workers of factory S has followed “the principal of morality and justice” based on the kinship,which build up the “mutual assistance” industrial relationship.Togather,they tried to matained the “family” production mode.The owners and workers all followed the moralty of “equality of sacrifice”,“being grateful”,and “being even-handed”.As the owners of family business,they followed the enterprise living rules of “kinship first”.Sometimes,their economic decisions seemed to be unreasonable for they did not aim at benefit maximization.However,they were reasonal choices that made for accommodating the market environment.The “family” factory was built up to pursuing another relationship which was fimer than industrial relationship.The concentration and employment of kinship was a living stratergy for the family business in the unpredictable marketplace.