Family Business Governance, Human Resources and Immigrants’ Integration - Master Course Module 3
Leader: Cracow University of Economics, Jan Brzozowski
207 pages long module handbook (with national specifications, reflective questions, case studies and recommended reading) – 3 Sections, 13 Units
E-learning module material (with interactive elements, short films, self-assessment questions, glossary and additional materials)
ISBN 978-615-5607-55-4

The Module of Family Business Governance, Human Resources, Immigrant’s Integration links three interrelated topics: family business governance, human resources management and immigrant integration. All of these issues are vital in understand the evolution of the family firms and constitute key factors for the process of family business development.

Learning objectives:

• LO1: Students will be able to evaluate the role of the family in the governance of the minority entrepreneurship.
• LO2: Students will be able to critically evaluate the main challenges for decision-making in the family firms.
• LO3: Students will be able to critically apply governance and HR practices to enable organization to address a business issue in a diverse and dynamic context.
• LO4: Students will be able to understand the specificity of human resource management within family firms and other SMEs.
• LO5: Students will be able to effectively use HRM tools and methods.
• LO6: Students will be able to articulate socioeconomic differences between immigrant, ethnic and minority entrepreneurship.

The first part of this module deals with the governance in family firms from SMEs sector. It stresses the particular nature of the governance within the family businesses, aiming at a more precise delimitation of tasks and responsibilities within the company’s structure. Finally, the unit considers the managerial challenges lying ahead: in this regard, the most troubled issue is the gradual professionalization of managerial practices within family firms, and their impact on the firm’s survival and further development. This part of the module consists of the following topics:

1. The Boarder Aspects of Governance
2. Conceptual Modules of Governance
3. General Governance Theory
4. The Managerial Elite and the Family Firm.

The issue of family firm sustainability is crucial when it comes to the management challenges, especially in the case of human resources. This topic is developed within the second part of this module. Most of the family firms belong to the SMEs sector, therefore the right balance of skills, personalities and experiences of the current staff is vital for the business survival and further development. Maintaining and attracting best employees is a particularly delicate question in such enterprises, as on average family firms cannot offer the higher salaries, as the largest companies. Thus, family firms should look for competitive advantages such as friendly working environment, and possibilities for individualized professional development. Moreover, as the small units are dominated by some informal behavioural practices, managers responsible for HR should pay a special attention to diversity and discriminating issues. This topic is connected to the most ambitious goal of HR managers in company firms: how to build and develop a corporate culture? Which values should be included, added and dropped due to the course of the family firm’s development? The study provides a summary of the specificities of family-owned SME’s HRM practices:

1. Competition for talent,
2. Performance appraisal and reward management in family firms,
3. Training and development in SME-s and in family businesses,
4. Corporate and organizational culture in family firms.

Starting from the immigrant’s integration (third part of this module), it is important to understand that modern European societies become multicultural and heterogeneous in terms of their ethnic composition. Consequently, most of the family firms either have to deal with the multi-ethnic workforce, or is created, sustained and developed by immigrants. The future managers of such enterprises, but also professional consultants and counsellors, and the officers of public administration that implement policies directed towards entrepreneurs should therefore be aware of the challenges, but also opportunities that such firms encounter. This part of the module discusses the following topics:

1. Immigrant, diaspora, ethnic and minority entrepreneurs: who they are and what they do?,
2. Immigrant entrepreneurship: structural constraints and opportunities,
3. Factors affecting the performance of immigrant entrepreneurs,
4. Towards the holistic model of immigrant entrepreneurship integration,
5. Ethnic and minorities entrepreneurship development: the role of family.

The e-learning outcomes of the FAME programme have been implemented on the Budapest Business School Moodle platform: https://moodle.uni-bge.hu/course/view.php?id=8817
Access to the e-learning materials can be asked from Budapest Business School – please contact László Varga (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), administrative coordinator of the FAME project.