Conflicting Generations: A New Theory of Family Business Rivalry

Abstract

Anthropologist Rene Girard's theory of triangular desire and modeling makes a major contribution to the theory of family business rivalry, especially when understood within the context of Ivan Lansberg's theory of succession planning and mentoring. In Girard's theory, human desire is always dependent on the desire of an envied model. The dependent nature of desire inevitably leads to the double bind conflict between parent-child and employer-employee, making succession planning particularly troublesome. Lansberg's theory of mentoring provides a practical solution to this timeless conflict. Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world and learns first by imitation. Aristotle What you have inherited, you must earn to possess. Goethe