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This chapter explores how stress may manifest among non-family member employees, family member employees, and family firm founders in family firms during the startup phases of the organization. Understanding how stress arises in family firm startups has received limited attention to date. Notably absent in the research is the understanding of how stress arises in non-family member employees, which is important to understand as non-family member employees often outnumber family member employees. As stress increases for the non-family member employee due to issues such as role ambiguity and conflict, negative outcomes resultant from this stress may increase the chances of the employee exhibiting withdrawal behaviors. It is suggested these outcomes increase the stress of the family firm entrepreneur and family members by increasing interrole and interpersonal conflicts and negatively impacting decision-making. These effects on the family members may adversely impact the family firm’s chances of performing well, thus decreasing its chances for survival. Recommendations for future research are also made.

The heterogeneity of Family Firms (FFs) requires ‘traditional’ business practices such as Talent Management (TM) to be properly adapted before implementation. FFs are defined by the intention to retain family ownership and control across generations. This invites specific development and education of future business leaders. However, traditional TM practices become irrelevant in FF context and need to be refined. This chapter focuses on the role of different generations in FF results especially in international markets and considers how different generations influence TM in FFs.