A qualitative exploration of the development of psychological capital in the family business

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dc.check.chapterOfThesisN/Aen
dc.check.date2035-09-30
dc.contributor.advisorMurphy, Linda
dc.contributor.advisorO'Brien, Elaine
dc.contributor.authorDuggan, Catherine
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Council
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-20T08:59:17Z
dc.date.available2025-05-20T08:59:17Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.description.abstractThe long-term sustainability of the family business is crucial to the global economy due to its economic and social impact. Characterised by unique resources such as familial ties and shared values, family businesses integrate family and business systems, creating a cohesive yet diverse workforce with differing expectations, goals and perspectives. Psychological Capital is a positive psychological developmental state comprising hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. Strategically developing psychological capital (hereafter PsyCap) in family business employees can enhance innovation, adaptability, and problem-solving capabilities. This approach fosters a competitive advantage for the family business through positive behaviours and attitudes. This thesis empirically explores the development of PsyCap in the previously unexplored, family business context. Extant research on PsyCap development focuses on PsyCap development through formal training interventions, particularly in non-family business contexts. This approach, however, does not provide an understanding of the idiosyncratic developmental mechanisms of its four key components: hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. This study examines PsyCap at the four-factor level, exploring its dimensions to uncover the empirical mechanisms shaping PsyCap development in the family business. This research extends existing PsyCap theory by demonstrating that PyCap is shaped by unique governance structures, leadership dynamics, and cultural influences inherent in family businesses. This perspective challenges the dominant view that PsyCap primarily develops through structured interventions, highlighting the significance of embedded, relational, and experiential mechanisms. This study also reveals that PsyCap development is contextually situated and shaped over time. Consequently, this research enhances the contextual understanding of PsyCap development and extends its theoretical relevance into the family business context. While research on PsyCap in family businesses has predominantly concentrated on organisational outcomes, understanding the mechanisms underlying PsyCap development in this context remains largely unexplored and lacks empirical investigation. Extant PsyCap knowledge may not apply to family businesses due to their unique dynamics, long-term perspective, emotional investment, intergenerational challenges, and typically less formalised governance structures. Specifically, this thesis seeks to understand if and how PsyCap develops differently in family and non-family employees. Without a clear understanding of this process, family businesses may overlook the unique dynamics that influence PsyCap development, potentially leading to less effective human capital strategies. Through a qualitative multiple case study design, semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from fifty-four (54) family and non-family employees of nine third-generation and beyond Irish family businesses, exemplars of long-term survival. This exploratory perspective has not been considered in the broader PsyCap literature and has received little attention in the family business context. Exploring PsyCap development within family businesses through an interpretative lens contributes to the PsyCap and family business literatures by identifying context-specific factors and refining our understanding of PsyCap development. This thesis advances our understanding of PsyCap development in family businesses by evidencing the empirical mechanisms of PsyCap development through a comparative analysis of the differing mechanisms in family and non-family employees. Findings reveal that familial factors, such as family ties, affective involvement and informal governance mechanisms, influence PsyCap development in family employees. In contrast, findings also demonstrate that organisational factors, such as shared values, inclusive culture and recognition and rewards, influence the development of PsyCap in non-family employees. These novel insights and theoretical interpretations contribute to the family business and PsyCap literature by focusing on the mechanisms of PsyCap development in family businesses. On a practical level, these insights are essential for tailoring strategies to meet the distinct requirements of family and non-family employees, providing a strategic advantage for family businesses. Keywords: psychological capital, family business, mechanisms, four-factor analysisen
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationDuggan, C. 2024. A qualitative exploration of the development of psychological capital in the family business. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage413
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/17531
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.relation.projectIrish Research Council (Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme, grant number GOIPG 2019/3596)
dc.rights© 2024, Catherine Duggan.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectPsychological capital
dc.subjectFamily business
dc.subjectMechanisms
dc.subjectFour-factor analysis
dc.subjectQualitative
dc.titleA qualitative exploration of the development of psychological capital in the family business
dc.title.alternativenoneen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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