The members of the family firm believe in following implied statements rather than the expressed statements. Even though, this might involve the workers trying to find out what was actually meant of a statement and it might increase coordination costs, it allows a lot of room for flexibility. The employees can make changes in decisions without being too much accountable for them. This type of extended communication has great consequences on competition as the friendly dealings and communication between the owners and the workers lead to better mutual understanding and aspirations which facilitates the learning process of the members of the family firms.
I observed and experienced that coded information can be easily transmitted to people through short trainings as the codes and symbols are clearly defined and can be memorized. Tacit knowledge is assumptions or information that a group of people know generally. This type of knowledge is difficult to identify and transfer. My experience shows that, as the workers work in a close-knitted network, tacit knowledge can be transferred over a period of time due to high interaction. Apart from that, these Chinese firms find it easier to transfer tacit knowledge than other firms as they do not have a similar internal communication network. This difference makes the Chinese firms more competitive.
The other feature of Chinese firms, as mentioned before is their ability to reduce their coordination costs which is facilitated because of the bond of trust between the family members or the employees of these firms. Accordingly I observed that individuals need to be familiar with each other before leading to the development of trust or distrust. When trust in a network is established, problems due to uncertainty can be avoided to some extent. That is why, these firms depend more on family members as the source of important resources such as capital and human resource.
The family network can also be relied upon to work efficiently in the absence of any regulatory association or establishment because it creates its own norms and regulations. Another characteristic of the Chinese business firms is that the workers or the family members have higher access to information about each other which facilitates a higher effective performance and personality appraisal. They are more likely to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and can also easily impose their own decisions upon those whose goals are not aligned with that of the firm. I have seen that these factors can sometimes reduce cost as they are faster and more effective than the formal modes of communication and are more apt.
I have further experienced that organizational efficiency is achieved when family members are employed in the business because it tends to reduce the coordination, transaction and administrative costs. These businesses were not very big in size so they were easily controlled or monitored. Most importantly, the patriarchal style of leadership motivated the members as they got the needed guidance and objectives were made clear to them. One of the strengths of Chinese firms that I observed was that an influential business notion of an employee may keep them away from non-conformity of the rules of the organization. Therefore, if the business owner uses the informal channel of communication to his advantage and transfers tacit knowledge to other members, the employees can extend cooperation and work collectivity for the advancement of the organization.
Also, if the entrepreneur tackles the modes of communication well and adopts a problem-solving attitude towards the employees, the workers will be then less prone to follow their own individualistic goals and will learn to think collectively in terms of the organization as a whole. The formation of a family firm depends on the attitude and leadership style of the entrepreneurs who when use their charismatic powers, serve to be a motivational figure for the workers of the firm. This type of leadership style motivates the workers to be dedicated and diligent so that they begin to pursue the goals of the organization.
Practically, the family firm has shown to reduce its transaction costs in three different ways. One way is when the family members have a clear ideal about the organization's goals so that they can focus on it. If the important people in an organization are programmed to strive for family wealth and that is the foundation for most of the decisions made, then it is not hard to coordinate the performance of the other employees in the firm. Secondly,...
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