reinamelendrez13

Week 5: Post 1 of 2 – Role Dilemmas

Founders often have to make difficult decisions about who is responsible for what and who has the authority to make important decisions. I think role dilemmas are especially important because a business can have a great idea and motivated founders, but unclear responsibilities can create problems as the company grows. To me, having clearly defined roles does not mean that everyone has to stay in a specific position forever. Instead, roles should provide a base ground for a company while also allowing the organization to adapt and evolve these roles.

In The Founder’s Dilemmas, Wasserman discusses the challenges founders face in deciding who should assume leadership positions and how decision-making authority should be divided. One issue I found particularly interesting is that disagreements among founders are not necessarily a bad thing. Research by de Jong et al. (2013), which examined 323 new ventures, found that task-related conflict can improve performance, as relationship conflict can negatively affect it.
Another important consideration is that founder roles may need to change as the business grows. This is a big aspect in HR as well, as job descriptions and job weights are constantly changing. According to Van Lancker et al. (2023), founder roles evolve as ventures prepare to scale. Their research shows that other members of the organization can gradually take over certain responsibilities from the founders, allowing the founders to focus on areas where they can provide the most value.

I can see this being especially important in the future company I want to build. I want to be involved in most of the decision-making because the business has been a long-term vision of mine. As the business grows, I will delegate the operational responsibility to others, including baking, customer service, marketing, and finance. Clearly defining these responsibilities could encourage everyone to contribute their strengths while preventing any confusion about who is responsible for specific decisions.

I believe entrepreneurs should be willing to adapt their roles as businesses grow. The goal should not be to eliminate the need to maintain complete control over every decision, but for founders to create an environment where people can challenge ideas respectfully, understand their responsibilities, and work toward shared goals. This does come back to our first week’s reading on how entrepreneurs should be maintaining their company and when to involve outside employees or investors.

References

de Jong, A., Song, M., & Song, L. Z. (2013). How lead founder personality affects new venture performance: The mediating role of team conflict. Journal of Management, 39(7), 1825–1854. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311407509

Van Lancker, E., Knockaert, M., Collewaert, V., & Breugst, N. (2023). Preparing for scaling: A study on founder role evolution. Journal of Business Venturing, 38(4), 106315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106315

Wasserman, N. (2012). The founder’s dilemmas: Anticipating and avoiding the pitfalls that can sink a startup. Princeton University Press.

Responses

  1. Danielle Gualtieri Avatar
    Danielle Gualtieri

    I liked your point that founder disagreements aren’t necessarily a bad thing and can actually improve decision-making when they stay focused on the task. I also love the idea that roles should evolve as the company grows – this seems self-evident to me but I know its not!

    In my SME interview, the owner talked about how its just as important to grow the people at the busienss as it is to grow the business itself. It made me wonder how founders know when it’s actually time to step out of a role and let someone else take over.

    Especially because I imagine a lot of founders start a company partly because they really enjoy a certain part of the work. If that’s the thing you’re good at AND the thing you love doing, it seems like it could be pretty hard to hand it off. And then there’s the emotional attachment to the vision. If it’s your company and you’ve been thinking about it for years, how much should you continue to hold onto certain responsibilities just because they’re important to you? Especially if you know someone else can do it better!

    Like

    Reply
    1. reinamelendrez13 Avatar
      reinamelendrez13

      Hi Danielle,

      I really like the questions you raised because I think this is one of the most difficult transitions founders face. It seems much easier to recognize when a business needs new skills than when the founder is no longer the best person to provide them. As you mentioned, many founders start a company because they are passionate about a particular part of the work, so stepping away from that role can feel like losing a piece of what made the business meaningful in the first place.

      One point you had brought up about growing the people alongside the business also stood out to me. I think one sign to look out for, as it could be time for a founder to hand off responsibilities, is when someone else on the team can perform that role more effectively, allowing the founder to focus on the next stage of growth. That doesn’t mean the founder is less valuable; it just means their value may shift from doing the work to leading the organization. I will add that the emotional attachment to the founder’s vision can make this even more challenging. Letting go requires a lot of trust in your team, especially when the responsibility is something the founder enjoys or has handled since the beginning. But if a founder truly wants the business to grow, they may have to accept that other people can bring expertise and perspectives that improve the company beyond what they could accomplish alone.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply