A qualitative study on stewardship relations in family businesses

It is a common view in the literature that behavior and relationship patterns in family businesses, which is a unique context, should be studied in more detail. Relationships between family members, or between family members and non-family employees can be explained by various phenomena and provide a unique context for agency relationships. Stewardship theory continues to be developed for its potential to explain the relationships between family and employees, especially in small and medium-sized businesses. The aim of this study is to explain the basic dynamics of the stewardship relationship in family businesses and the contextual conditions that produce these dynamics. In the research process, the phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research methods, was adopted. The data collection phase was carried out with semi-structured interviews and was supported by observation notes. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 39 participitants, including 18 family members of the manager, 17 veteran employees who have been working in the business for at least two generations, and 4 witnesses who had the opportunity to observe the relationship from the outside. By analyzing the data with content analysis, main and sub-themes that explain the dynamics of the stewardship relationship between family members of managers and veteran employees have been reached. While the results are consistent with previous research on the stewardship relationship in the literature, the findings also strongly point to a steward profile specific to family businesses in Turkey. In addition, it is understood that the context of family businesses offers a very promising research area for the research of organizational phenomena and theoretical discussions at macro and micro levels.