Are family-run companies more honest places to work in than big corporations?
My gut feel is no, family run companies are more likely to have dishonesty than in big corporations, depending on how you define honesty. There’s internal loyalty to providing honest information to the leaders of the organization, which is probably stronger in a family-run company. Then there’s external information to customers, vendors, the government, the community. Family-run companies are more likely to view outsiders as not being part of what is owed the family. I think that family-run are more internally consistent than in big corporations. If the head of the family has certain attitudes about what is acceptable behavior, be it underhanded, nepotism, religious standards, whatever, that is more likely to pervade the organization than in an organization that is not family-run. The family will have areas of focus or interest, so what happens outside the area of interest, is wide open.
