There is no doubt that generational handover is the main challenge for family businesses, not only because it is a process that reflects the clash between new and conservative visions, but also because it generates communication barriers between family members who operate and manage the company, hindering the natural flow and growth of their activities.
Because family ties are at the core of the management of a family business, operational and managerial problems often become entangled in a maelstrom where family frictions can no longer be distinguished from the administrative problems of the company. per se, inevitably leading to internal conflicts.
Although dysfunctionalities in the family business do not necessarily have to turn into a conflict in the full sense of the word, the fact is that the exchange of leadership from one generation to another is a scenario that will always be very delicate for both the family and the company, so that if crises are not addressed with extreme caution and finesse, it is very likely that the generational leap will end up being the precursor to the cessation of its operations.
What alternatives does a family business have to remedy its internal problems due to the bellicose communication that may exist between its operators and directors? Although the family protocol is usually the first option to bring order to the disorder of a family business due to generational exchange, unfortunately, many of these programs fail to consider in their body a figure that, for this humble opinion, is the best tool that a family business can have to ventilate all its domestic trances: mediation.
Mediation is an alternative method of conflict resolution that consists of a "voluntary, informal, confidential and inclusive procedure, through which an impartial and neutral third party intervenes to help the parties in conflict to work cooperatively, trying to achieve a mutually satisfactory agreement" (Hernández Tirado, 2011, p. 15), i.e., it is the intervention of a person qualified as a mediator who allows the parties involved in a conflict to participate together to find a solution that best suits them. 15), i.e., it is the intervention of a person qualified as a mediator who allows the parties involved in a conflict to participate together to find the solution that best suits them, without the mediator imposing any kind of decision on their part.
But why is mediation the best internal conflict resolution mechanism that a family business can use when faced with the generational transition? Because commonly, the internal problems of a family business are nothing more than the translation of personal grievances among the members of the operating family, which means that the predicament that family businesses go through often has its genesis in a more emotional than objective environment.
By virtue of the fact that mediation seeks the solution of the conflict through cooperation and joint work of the parties involved, with the development of this method of alternative justice in the family business, it is not strange that the disputing parties manage to visualize the problem from the perspective of their counterpart, bringing as a consequence that the conflict can be broken down from its most intimate origin.
Due to the sensitivity of human nature, it is reasonable to conclude that conflicts between family members are mainly built on an emotional basis, which can cloud the perception of the real facts shaping the conflict and prevent an objective and clear solution. This is precisely the reason why mediation is the best method for a family business to resolve an internal conflict arising from the inevitable generational handover, because by bringing the conflicting members to understand the emotional core of the problem, they can empathize and understand that the solution cannot be imposed unilaterally, but requires the cooperation of each of them.
That is to say, mediation is a tool that vocalizes the problem of a family business not only in a context sustained by contradictory facts and arguments among the members of the family operators and directors as it happens in a traditional jurisdictional instance, it also focuses on understanding that the conflict is, in addition, a primarily family issue due to different generational considerations.
In the family business, mediation helps the operating and managing family parties in the sense that the emotional profile of each of them is visualized, but under an atmosphere where they cooperate simultaneously, making communication be reborn in a light of understanding and empathy despite the different ideas that each generational profile brings with it (Herrera Bernal, 2021).
However, no matter how many benefits mediation can bring to the family business to counteract the frictions caused by the generational change, we must not fall into the error that this method of dispute resolution is a "magic formula" that automatically solves a managerial or operative conflict in the internal life of the company, on the contrary, the mediation process must be carried out under the understanding of the individual circumstances of each family business, so it is extremely crucial that the mediator in charge of conducting this alternative justice mechanism is clear that a company of this kind is a unit and at the same time a group of different segments.
In this sense, if a family business intends to include mediation as a response system to generational contingencies in the thickness of its family protocol, it must first understand that its composition is a module divided into three sectors, that is, in the company, in the property and in the family (Amat Salas, 1997), so that in this way, mediation can be executed under the complete panorama of the family business but at the same time, considering each area in particular. In other words, mediation cannot solve the natural conflict of a generational leap if the family business is not approached as an integration of different panoramas, because otherwise, the agreement that puts an end to the conflict risks leaving a loose end in the business, even though the family members, managers and operators may consider that the problem has been remedied.
As a final comment, mediation is by far a tool that cannot be missing in the trenches of a family business, not only because it is an excellent reinforcement to the family protocol to calm communication conflicts among family members holding operational and managerial positions, but also because it is a great option to counteract the main enemy of these companies, that is, the generational leap.
References.
Amat Salas, J. M. (1997). The continuity of the family business. Journal of the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, (45), 2-5. https://aeca.es/publicaciones2/revistas-2/revista-aeca/indice-anteriores/
Hernández Tirado, H. (2011). Nature of the mediation agreement. 2nd ed. Comisión de derechos humanos del Estado de México. https://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx/es/bjv/detalleLibro/4909-naturaleza-del-convenio-de-mediacion
Herrera Bernal, L.H. (2021). Business mediation and generational succession in family businesses. Revista de Mediación, 4 (1), 1- 9. https://www.imotiva.es/revista-de-mediacion/articulos/mediacion-empresarial-y-la-sucesion-generacional-en-empresas-familiares/
