In the fertile fields of understanding and dealing with family business conflicts, this book both breaks new ground and enjoyably reacquaints the reader with previously covered territory. Well-regarded family business scholar Kenneth Kaye presents a selection of previously published articles in his area of expertise, all dealing with the problems and prospects of family businesses.

The articles come in two varieties. Approximately half are lengthy and scholarly treatments originally published in the peer-reviewed Family Business Review. The others are less formal and, generally, much shorter examinations that appeared in publications such as Family Business. Kaye presents them as alternating chapters, providing an agreeable rhythm as we explore the various aspects of conflict and cooperation in family business settings.

The original publication dates of these articles range from 1991 to 2004, giving an idea of the length of Kaye's experience working and writing in the family business arena. In fact, he has considerable greater related experience, having worked -- and published -- as a family therapist and researcher into parent-child reactions in his previous career dating back to 1970, when he received a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University.

His writing here exhibits a breadth as impressive as the length of this career to date. The topics cover a comprehensive range of family enterprise ailments, symptoms and remedies. In addition to general-purpose conflict resolution, Kaye addresses the special case of the youngest brother of a family business clan, describes the role of religious beliefs in aiding or blocking family business success and evaluates the merit of mediation in resolving conflicts in family firms, among others.

The opening chapter, from a 1991 Family Business article titled "Resolving Conflict", is a readable but meaty inquiry into the power and practice of uncovering underlying issues in family fights. Kaye's initial point is that the hidden nature of the key issues in many family-based conflicts is what makes them so enigmatic, even to the participants, and enduring. He shows how to use a series of gently probing questions directed at conflict participants to ultimately reveal what people are really fighting about and, therefore, make real resolution possible.

Perhaps the most original and insightful piece is the second, a paper on "Penetrating the Cycle of Sustained Conflict" from a 1991 Family Business Review. Here, Kaye refers to the "problem maintenance system" a concept from family therapy, as a way to understand many long-lived quarrels. He reviews several models of interaction and communication to show how family clashes often fail to fit the prevailing approaches to conflict resolution.

One key difference is that family business arguments are often about issues other than the ones they appear to be about. Another is that families sometimes sustain their conflicts because they are actually getting something they regard as positive out of the in-fighting, such as communication with a family member that they don't know how to communicate with otherwise. Again using questions of the form "What would happen if...?" Kaye shows how to uncover the unsuspected desires these conflicts serve, and thereby bring them to an end.

This wide-ranging look at conflict and trust in family businesses manages to be both authoritative and accessible in a way few similar books can claim. It's full of useful information for family business owners as well as practitioners in the field.