September 2010 Research Seminar
The Center is proud to announce the success of the September 2010 Research Seminar. Morgan Miles and David Shepherd presented their research on Burnout in Entrepreneurship and Family Firms. Gaia Marchisio, another member of the research team, was unfortunately unable to attend. The team’s research focused on understanding the occurrence of burnout in family firms, which may be unique due to the presence and influence of the family. There were several faculty members and Ph. D. students in attendance.
Morgan and David began by explaining the phenomenon of burnout. The Maslach stream of research identified three aspects of burnout, exhaustion, inefficacy, and depersonalization. Research on entrepreneurs and burnout identified several antecedents, such as personal, environment, and work/role stress. The two then described the outcomes of burnout, reduced satisfaction and lower organizational commitment to name a few.
The exploratory side of their research tested three propositions, which were that role conflict, frustration, and pressure were all positively related to burnout in family owned businesses. The team used a survey as their method of choice and discovered that only one of their propositions was supported, role pressure and burnout were positively related.
As a close to their presentation, the team explained that burnout in family firms may be unique since owning a business may be more than a job. The business affects the entire lives of the family.
We thank Morgan, David, Gaia, and all of the faculty and Ph. D. students who attended.
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