Family business as a specific environment for intergenerational learning
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | While internationally, family businesses control nearly 80% of GDP created by business subjects, the corresponding share is less than 25% in the Czech Republic, due to the disruption in the private business tradition due to the former communist regime. The number of family businesses is nevertheless growing. Despite this, family businesses in the Czech Republic have not been paid enough attention in education and andragogy research. Family business is a typical example of a workplace dependent on learning and intergenerational transfer. In agreement with Strážovská (2002), we regard as a family business a business whose owner regards it to be this, intends to pass it on to a close relative in the future, and – last but not least – the third requirement is that the business employs at least another one member of the family participating in its everyday management. The idea of shaping and passing on the business to the next generations is typical of family businesses more than any other type of businesses. Research in the situation of family businesses in the Czech Republic confirms this, showing that two out of three family businesses intend to pass on the business tradition, which fact shapes career development of individual members of these families quite significantly (comp. Schein 2010; Koubek 2015). Career as an ongoing process of individual development through gradual acquisition of knowledge, experience and responsibility in specific areas seems to be shaped considerably by intergenerational learning in Czech family businesses. On the other hand, half of the businesses have not started to pass these on yet. It is also true that respondents from family businesses predicted the process to take relatively long. (Situace rodinných firem [How well off are family businesses]). In the qualitative research survey we performed we focused on the process of intergenerational learning in the specific family business environment. |
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