Workforce Flexibility

This article has the research objective of determining whether the changes that are taking place in labor relations derived from technological innovation and automation necessarily lead to greater labor flexibility in family businesses and to analyze whether the structure of these companies, with management teams with family ties, allows them to adapt more quickly to fluctuations that occur in the production process and improve their results. 92.4% of Spanish businesses are family-owned, representing more than 1.1 million companies, according to a report on family businesses in Spain prepared by the Family Business Institute in collaboration with the IEF Chairs Network and SAFER (2005). These businesses generate 70% of private employment (approximately 10.2 million jobs) and 57.2% of the country's private Gross Value Added (GVA). A business strategy based on the development of flexible policies such as teleworking or hourly work may be one of the reasons why family businesses are consolidated and more profitable than non-family businesses, both economically and financially.