The content and functions of the roles people play in the context of family business need, over time, to take on new characteristics.

Retiring Unproductive Roles

Roles People Play: The Collectors, and the Retainers

By David A Kipper, Ph. D.

summary:

Why is it that some people are skillful in renewing their interests, changing their activities, and creating new challenges for themselves whereas others appear to be engaged in doing the same activities, tend to be repetitious and uninspiring? The answer, in part, is that the former learned to retire roles whereas the latter accumulate them. The former are ready to relinquish roles, whereas the latter feel that they must retain them, unaltered. Role collectors may find themselves in a difficult predicament. In the context of family business, their tendency is to hold on to their old roles thus controlling the pace of the growth of others.

It was the psychiatrist Dr. J. L. Moreno who pointed out, decades ago, that one of the most important characteristics of all roles is that they are transient phenomena; they do not last forever. Every role has a "life cycle" comprised of a beginning phase, a peak period, and a phase of dissolution. Every role reaches a point of uselessness that leads to its demise. This characteristic tends to become obscure, out of our awareness because we tend to continually refer to certain roles by their name rather than by their function. A classic example of this is the role of being 'a parent'. By name, this role lasts from the moment the child is born until the parent dies. So, it is correct to maintain that people occupy this role throughout their entire adult lives. However, this assertion obfuscates the fact that although the role continues to retain its title, its content and function change periodically as the child grows and the parent ages. The behavior and attitude of a father or a mother towards a three-year toddler is completely different from fatherhood and motherhood when the child is six years old, a teenager, or a 28-year adult. While the name of the role may remain unaltered, its content and function changes markedly to the extent that at each age level it actually becomes a different role.

One would expect that each time the content of the role changes, the old behavior is being replaced, disappears or at least remains inactive. Resistance to relinquish or retire roles that outlived their purpose tends to "load the deck". It increases the probability that any newly acquired role may become marred by unnecessary residual behavior that represents a carry-over from the old, now dysfunctional, role.

The first signs that one develops a tendency to accumulate roles without relinquishing old ones are expressed in complaints of either lacking 'sufficient time to do everything' (i. e., stress or psychosomatic symptoms) or frustration due to constant collisions with others (i.e., anger directed towards other family shareholders and/or the designated successor).

In principle, there are two types of role accumulators: one is the collector who keeps adding on new roles without weeding out the unproductive old ones. The other is the retainer, who holds on to the old roles oblivious to changes in reality. This role accumulator does not necessarily add on new roles but, on the other hand, is very reluctant to retire old ones. Both types of role accumulators are very sensitive to the issue of their control of what goes on in the business and how the money is allocated. In the family business area they manage their fears of becoming irrelevant or pushed aside in one of two ways. Either they become expansive or intrusive. Being expansive is marked by the tendency to increase their area of responsibilities, a typical strategy to ward-off potential (control) takeover by others. Being intrusive is characterized by demanding loyalty and reporting to them, often circumventing the official reporting system as described in the organization chart.

Like the role of the parent, which changes in content and function as the child becomes an adult, the content and functions of the roles people play in the context of family business need, over time, to take on new characteristics. Like the role of the parent, such a change does not necessarily mean a loss in importance. Rather, it implies a shift in the content area in which proper respect and importance is expressed. However, such a shift must be accompanied by relinquishing the old, dysfunctional one. Otherwise one becomes a role collector or a role retainer.

How does one analyze the scope and relevance of one's role repertoire in business and family ties rationally, without being emotional or defensive about it? One useful technique of approaching this task is the Role Diagram. Role Diagram requires that people list the main roles they play in the business and in their family life. There are two parts to the Role Diagram: An actual diagram, and an ideal one.

In the actual diagram, each role that appears on the list — which may be quite long — is given a title, a description of its content, its function, and an assessment of one's competence in performing the role. The list is then rearranged several times to reflect importance, involvement, and potential conflicts with other roles on the same list or with roles of others.

The analysis of the ideal diagram repeats the same process, except that this time it is based on the list of roles one would like his/her role repertoire to look like. The comparison of the two role diagrams not only reveals whether or not one is a role accumulator, it also reveals which role(s) appears to cause a particular emotional resistance.

Finally, as one ponders about one's own tendency to acquire and retire roles, it is useful to distinguish between formal and personal roles. Formal roles are those groups of activities that are defined by a profession, culture, or society. In business they are the function that every president or CEO (at least in the same industry) will fulfill. Personal roles are those that are defined by one's own personality, and unique interaction in situations that are not always clearly prescribed by society. They always involve the interaction between at least two people. Between these two kinds of roles, the formal ones are the least resistant, though by no means easy, to retire. One of the unique features of the family business situation is that formal and personal roles tend to overlap or clash.

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