NPOの事業承継における創設者シンドローム

抄録

The founder’s syndrome is a disease in which the characteristics and behaviors of the founder, which were effective in creating the organization, work negatively in some phases of the organization’s development. This study examines the founder’s syndrome in Japanese NPOs at the time of business succession.

Until now, the founder syndrome has never been considered or examined in Japan in any context, and the applicability of the concept in the Japanese context has never been questioned.

The purpose of this study is twofold. （1）Does the phenomenon of founder’s syndrome exist in the context of business succession in Japanese NPOs? （2）If so, under what conditions can it be alleviated?

We conducted a questionnaire survey of NPOs throughout Japan that had experienced business succession and analyzed the relationship between residual founder influence and business succession outcomes. Multiple regression analysis of the founder’s influence on organizational outcomes after business succession revealed that the founder’s syndrome phenomenon occurs in the context of Japanese NPOs at the time of business succession. The fact that the founder’s residual influence causes a pathology called founder’s syndrome in the event of business succession suggests that it is necessary to examine how the founder’s time of departure and transfer of authority should be.

Furthermore, the results of the survey indicate that the increasing division of labor in the organization is a mitigating factor of the founder’s syndrome. The division of labor has been found to alleviate the founder’s syndrome, when the organizational structure is established and management discretion is weakened.