A-Relational-Dialectic-Approach-to-Understanding-Parent-Child-Daily-Conflict-Management-in-Small-Philippine-Family-Businesses
Geniston, E. A. (2018). A Relational Dialectic Approach to Understanding Parent-Child Daily Conflict Management in Small Philippine Family Businesses. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
Abstract What happens when family members also have a professional relationship with each other? This thesis examined, through Baxter and Montgomery’s (1996) Relational Dialectics Theory, how parents and their children navigate the competing and complementary expectations and norms of family and business relationships as they work with each other in their small family business. Parents and their children from 10 family businesses located across Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Zambales, Laguna, and Davao del Sur were interviewed. Parents and children drew from familial and professional constructs as they interacted with each other, creating a working relationship that is more nuanced than a simple merging of the two systems. Results showed how communication is the medium of parents and children as they negotiate the multiple dialectical tensions in their relationship. Certainty-uncertainty surfaced as the most prominent and unsettling conflict parents and children go through. What keeps their relationship bonded are themes of trust, utang na loob, and permanence of their parent-child relationship.