Interactions between family members of different generations often unleash powerful tensions in family firms. Intergenerational tensions can be particularly prominent during intra-family succession as a result of the different temporal orientations of senior and junior generation family members. However, scant systematic attention has thus far been paid to understanding the temporality of intergenerational tensions in family firms. Through an embedded case study, we explore the mediation process that helps family firms manage intergenerational tensions by way of temporal work. Our investigation of an advisory firm and its clients led us to identify generational brokerage as the intersubjective process through which temporal work enables generations toward the joint understanding of temporal orientations. Our theoretical insights have significant implications for developing a temporal view of succession and add novel important knowledge to research on mediation and time. Indeed, we show that generational brokerage is a dialectic construct with organizing properties able to blend disparate research streams by going beyond a unidirectional forward-flowing logic of time in examining organizational processes.

几代人之间的家族成员之间的互动通常会在家族企业中释放出强大的张力。由于高年级和低年级家庭成员的时间取向不同，在家庭内部继承期间，代际间的紧张关系尤为突出。但是，迄今为止，对于了解家族企业中代际关系紧张的暂时性，缺乏系统的关注。通过嵌入式案例研究，我们探索了调解过程，该过程可帮助家族企业通过临时工作来管理代际紧张关系。我们对一家咨询公司及其客户的调查导致我们确定了代经纪人作为主体间的过程，时空工作通过它使世代朝着对时间取向的共同理解。我们的理论见解对发展时序继承观点具有重要意义，并为调解和时间研究增添了重要的新知识。实际上，我们证明了代际经纪是具有组织特性的辩证构造，能够超越时间的单向向前逻辑来检查组织过程，从而融合不同的研究流。