Active Non-Employee Owners: Informal Impact on Family-Owned SMEs

Abstract

Families are an integral part of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Often family members are heavily involved with the operations of an SME, yet hold no formal role or title in the organization. The owner and CEO’s spouse, children, or other relatives could hold disproportionate influence over decisions without any formal responsibilities. These active non-employee owners could have an impact on the organization culture or influence over employees. This paper looks at active non-employee owners’ in SMEs and the emotional impact they have on non-family employees in hopes to explore in future research their organizational impact.