تعهد سازمانی در SMEهای خانوادگی و تاثیر آن در عملکرد محتوا Organizational commitment in family SMEs and its influence on contextual performance

1. Introduction As part of the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), family firms form a particular case, as they account for the great majority of firms worldwide and are widely recognized for their important performance in the global economy (Erdem and Erdem, 2011), namely, concerning their great number, turnover, employment created and economic effects (Pérez-Cabañero et al., 2012). In the current climate, these firms find themselves in a context of transformations, where constant change has caused major impacts on the working environment and relationships between individuals and organizations (Franco and Haase, 2012). In seeking greater efficiency, small and medium-sized family enterprises (FSMEs) have implemented organizational processes and different modernizing strategies, but these efforts become limited if such firms do not have committed employees motivated toward objectives. Vergara (2000) highlights the importance of building a relationship of commitment and the firm should be in harmony with the changes in its surrounding environment, and with its employees’ performance. This study focuses on the specific context of FSMEs, where FSMEs can be viewed through the theoretical lens of teams (Pearson et al., 2014). Schjoedt et al. (2013, p. 3) emphasized the fundamental importance of teams in family firms, where teams have identifiable features such as “interdependent skill sets, common goals, shared commitment and mutual accountability”. The family, as a team, can exert influence on the firm, simply by their shared concerns, desires and values, communicated to decision-makers, often referred to as the non-economic goals of the family (Chrisman et al., 2012). The family acts as a team in its normal day-to-day functioning, entirely removed from the workplace, yet the behaviors, norms and communication likely transfer over to the functioning of the firm, either implicitly or explicitly (Arregle et al., 2007). These family team factors affect the social processes that can be transferred from the family to the firm.