Family firms represent over 70% of all firms, making their governance vital to societal prosperity. However, mental health conditions can undermine owners’ ability to fulfil their duties and make effective decisions. Professor Peter Jaskiewicz, Elizabeth Tetzlaff (Telfer PhD ‘24) and their team are shedding light on this understudied problem.
Findings are in from the not-yet-public Global Family Enterprise Mental Health Survey, conducted by the Family Enterprise Legacy Institute (FELI), International Institute for Management Development and Family Business Network. They show that common mental health conditions such as mood, anxiety and substance use disorders are widespread among family business owners. Respondents view them as a concern for strategic decision-making and family-firm continuity. But when these concerns are justified, or how business families and family businesses should mitigate potential risks, remains unknown. Filling this knowledge gap appears all the more important since 6 out of 10 family firms will need to transfer ownership within the next decade.
This is why Jaskiewicz, Tetzlaff and the team have received an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for the project “How Family Owners’ Mental Disorders Shape Family Firms.”
Tackling the research gap
The team is taking a multidisciplinary, multi-method approach to close the gap. First, they’ll develop and test a theory on how common disorders in owners influence family firms. Then, they’ll identify best practices to mitigate harms for organizations. Finally, they’ll evaluate the effectiveness of their proposed best practices.
The project will advance a conversation to fight stigma. This will give family owner groups new evidence to determine when affected owners can assume specific roles, like board membership, and a toolkit of best practices to mitigate harms, such as failed ownership transitions.
The three stages of the project:
Stage 1: Use population registry data from one country to theorize and test how common mental disorders in owners directly shape family firm characteristics, strategies and outcomes.
Stage 2: Compare multiple cases across Canadian family firms to identify best practices for the family and the firm to mitigate organizational issues uncovered in Stage 1.
Stage 3: Survey a large, diverse pool of respondents in Canada at multiple times to evaluate the effectiveness of the practices identified in Stage 2.
Impact
This research will take our knowledge from broad claims to validated organizational practices. It will help reframe owners’ mental health conditions as a manageable concern, not a liability or target of stigma. And it will bridge multiple topics, such as family business, strategy, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, organizational behaviour, family science and mental health. In short, Jaskiewicz, Tetzlaff and their team will help family firms understand how to mitigate business implications of owners’ mental health conditions, setting companies up for longevity and success.
Peter Jasciewicz is a Full Professor at the Telfer School of Management and director of the Family Enterprise Legacy Institute (FELI).
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