Coping Strategies for Work-family Conflict

Abstract

Family businesses including copreneurships have a high failure rate. Copreneurs experience work–family conflict (WFC), which can have a negative effect on business sustainability. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that copreneurs used in managing WFC to achieve business sustainability for longer than 10 years. Three copreneurs from 3 copreneurial businesses located in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, who have employed effective strategies to cope with WFC to achieve business sustainability longer than 10 years, participated in the study. The WFC model for business/marriage partners (copreneurs) and the reciprocal coping model served as the conceptual framework that grounded the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company documents, and a reflective journal. The data were analyzed using the framework of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and making conclusions. Emerging themes included strategy themes of personal coping, family-friendly organizational supports, and integrated coping. The implications for positive social change include the potential to help copreneurs use strategies identified to manage WFC to improve business sustainability, which may contribute to wealth creation and poverty reduction in the local economy.