ENTREPRENEURIAL STRESSORS

Yosr Ben Tahar

Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier Business School and University Montpellier I, Montpellier Research in Management

SUMMARY The entrepreneurial context is known as stressful, studies use models and tools extracted from employee stress research. On one hand stressors indicated are not totally pertinent. On the other hand, existing models do not capture all stressors. The aim of this study was to identify pertinent stressors among entrepreneurs in the context of SMEs. A qualitative approach was used with of life story interviews. Twenty participants related their entrepreneurial experience and recognized twenty-nine factors as stressors. Entrepreneurs face work-related stress and its negative outcome on physical and psychological health. The analysis of transcript interviews shows that environmental stressors interact with personality and lead to role stressors. The relation to public administration and to interpersonal conflicts are revealed as entrepreneurial stressors that are not mentioned in previous studies. These findings advance entrepreneurial stress research and introduce the notion of interactions between stressors.

Key words Stress, entrepreneurs, role stress, public administration, interpersonal conflict.

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A work environment characterized by a high professional pressure, low decisional latitude, low social support, high psychological demands and imbalance in effort-rewards leads inevitably to the development of mental troubles for workers (Stansfeld & Candy, 2006). Work-related stress flourishes in this type of environment and reflects an increase in psychological and physiological troubles. Professional stress or work-related stress may be defined as the situation wherein factors interact with the individual to change psychological and/or physiological conditions (Beehr & Newman, 1978). Most of research about stress adopts an interactionist perspective. Stress is considered as the result of the relationship between the person and its environment (Caplan & al., 1975; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1987; Lazarus, 1991). The personality and the way of coping are the personal variables considered. Environmental variables are potential stressors (Sadri & Marcoulides, 1994). Stressors are tasks related to work (intrinsic to the job), professional relationships (with superiors, colleagues and subordinates), career development prospects, organizational factors (organizational structure and climate, cultural and political environment), organizational roles and non-work factors (Cartwright & Cooper, 1997; Schuler, 1982; Quick & Quick, 1984). Psychological and physiological strains are emotional, compartmental and biological responses to stress (Beehr & Glaser, 2005; French, Caplan & Harrison, 1982; Pearlin, 1999). Facing events or situations is determined by the subjective evaluation of the stressor and its impact on well-being (Lindsay & Normal, 1980).

Entrepreneurial stress refers to work-related stress among entrepreneurs. Research on entrepreneurial stress and stressors uses employee models that are partially pertinent in this specific context. In these models stressors and coping are mixed. But, the former introduce the latter. Coping is the conscious and unconscious strategy used to cope with stress. Another criticism that can be made is that classic models focus on employee’s lack of decisional power. Employees suffer from the authority of their superior. Many studies interested in employees confirm that a large part of employee turnover, cost of ill health, the reduction in overall performance are caused by stress at work. In comparative studies between entrepreneurs and employees, entrepreneurs are found have greater commitment (Felfe & al., 2008). They work longer hours (Chay, 1993) and experience more work-family conflict (Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001). Jamal (1997) and Parslow and al. (2004) find that there is no significant difference in the mental and physical health of entrepreneurs and employees. The most frequent troubles, in descending order, are: musculoskeletal troubles, mental health

problems and a low state of general health (Gunnarsson, Vingärd & Josephson, 2007). But, however, Stephan and Roesler (2010) indicate that entrepreneurs suffer lower somatic and mental morbidity than employees. Also, they have lower blood pressure and reduced prevalence to hypertension. Entrepreneurs report a more favourable level of well-being and better behavioural indicators than employees. The advantages of entrepreneurship seem to negatively affect the health of the entrepreneurs. According to Dolinsky and Caputo (2003) their state of health is worse than that of employees.

Stressors such as loneliness, the need for accomplishment, work overload, conflict work nonwork, and role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload are recurrent in entrepreneurial stress research. Research results are mixed because of the heterogeneity in the research methods and samples. In qualitative research, the principal sources of stress are loneliness, immersion in the job, problems with others and the need to accomplish (Boyd & Gumpert, 1983; Akande, 1992). Nevertheless, Boyd and Gumpert (1983) consider that work overload is related to the need for accomplishment. The need for accomplishment, the need for power, the need for affiliation, are all sources of stress (Vasumathi & al., 2003). This leads to problems of delegation, conflict work non-work, loneliness and overload. Vasumathi and al. (2003) show that these problems explain in large part high levels of entrepreneurial stress.

Since the mid-sixties, the examination of role stressors is widespread in stress research. These include role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload. In theory, role stressors may be induced by demands, constraints or opportunities (Kahn & al., 1964; McGrath, 1976). Role ambiguity reflects the degree of imprecision, ambiguity or uncertainty in expectations. The perception of lack of information leads to great difficulties in fulfilling needs (Kahn & al., 1964). The ambiguity may be considered as a source of opportunity because it creates unpredictable complications (Jelinek & Litterer, 1995). If personal expectations and roles presumed by others are inconsistent there is a role conflict (Kahn & al., 1964). The greater this incongruence the more the individual experiences internal tension. Role overload is strongly related to the insufficiently available resources to meet expected commitments and obligations to fulfil a role (Latack, 1981).

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Rauch, Unger and Rosenbuch (2007) found that psychosomatic complaints have positive effects on the long term survival of the enterprise and its results. This kind of complaint represents the somatisation of stress. So, to the authors work-related stress is beneficial to the sustainability of the enterprise. Kariv (2008) suggests that negative stress (i.e. the perception that events negatively affect the individual’s well-being) induce negative outcomes on performance. Lewin-Epstein an Yuchtman-Yaar (1991) find that entrepreneurs have a higher rate of cholesterol and triglycerides than employees. These findings are supported by those of Buttner (1992) who finds that entrepreneurs have more health problems more frequently than employees. They present more physical symptoms related to stress (Elmuti, Kathawala & Wayland, 2003). Entrepreneurs suffer from higher stress than employees (Rahim, 1996; Jamal, 2009). For Shepherd and al. (2010), an entrepreneur has to be able to cope with pressures and stressors that arise in periods of creation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunity; at the same time they to try to balance personal, family and organizational demands. It is difficult to establish and manage this equilibrium. There is a great risk when under stress conditions. Therefore, risks also affect the entrepreneur’s health and the sustainability of the enterprise.

Quantitative research uses scales to evaluate the level of stress and to determine stressors that are not usually pertinent. Results are mixed and do not necessarily improve or facilitate the advancement of the research. Some authors call for the construction of scales of evaluation from studies focusing on entrepreneurs. In this study, a qualitative approach is used in order to identify specific stressors among entrepreneurs and the interactions between stressors. In this paper the purpose is to investigate the negative perception of conditions, situations and events that are identified as stressful. It focuses on factors clearly identified as stressors and their interactions. This issue has rarely been studied in qualitative studies, and the study reported here aims at covering such a gap. This paper is the first part of a three-part investigation that looks at entrepreneurial stressors and outcomes.

METHOD This is an exploratory study, focused on entrepreneurs of SMEs. The significance of professional stress among employees justifies the interest to this psychosocial risk. In the

entrepreneurial context, both personal and professional experience is mixed. The qualitative approach, based on personal interviews is suitable for identifying specific stressors and interactions among entrepreneurs. Personal interview investigation methods enable access to intimate and sometimes traumatic experiences.

Sample Participants were contacted by emails through local economic development agencies such as LRI (Languedoc Roussillon Incubation), CJD (Centre for Junior Leaders), CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Of those contacted, the response rate approached 10%. The small size of the population (20 interviewees) offered the opportunity to focus and to acquire a wealth of information from each respondent. The interviewees accepted participating and asked to be anonymous. The sample comprised 5 women and 15 men aged from 30 to 65 years. All of them are owner-manager of at least one SME. Sectors represented in the sample are various such as textile, web development and food industry. The story of every enterprise is different – a family enterprise, simple opportunity, or own job creation etc. Some interviewees have more than one entrepreneurial experience, others a large experience as an employee.

Interviews and Procedure The interviews were conducted during the summer of 2011. An interview-based life story approach was used beginning with “would you relate the history of the enterprise from its founding until now, focusing on stressful situations and events, implications and their effects?” Notes were taken during the interviews and were used to obtain greater precision on the subject of interest. The interviews were all conducted by phone. Interviewees were confident enough to expose their life and explain traumatic events by phone. The interviews were recorded and lasted between a thirty and one hundred minutes. The interviews were then transcribed word-for-word. This type of transcription remained faithful to the participants’ narrative. Data was categorized by coding meaningful segments where interviewees identified stressful situations or events.

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RESULTS Analysis of the data revealed a variety of recurrent themes that are classified with a verbatim extract in the table present at the end of the document. Overall twenty-nine stressors were identified, and each was identified by at least two entrepreneurs. The most frequent stressors cited are human resources, responsibilities and financial problems. These factors involve uncertainty, work overload, pressure of responsibility and pressure in decision making. Human resource management is related to confidence and conflict. A decrease in confidence by the employee may lead to legal procedures, dismissal and feelings of betrayal. French administration is criticized relative to task complexity, unequal employment law, heavy and slow procedures. These lead to lengthy and/or recurrent stressful periods. The level of rewards backed by the administration is insufficient to balance personal efforts. Furthermore, personal problems may interfere with work creating conflict. Interactions between stressors express interactions between personal and professional spheres. To many entrepreneurs, the enterprise is a tool to achieve a social role. Any element perceived as harmful to the enterprise, is perceived by them as stressful. Environmental, personal and role stressors interact and lead to the development of mental and physical troubles. The participants cited numerous psychological troubles. Burnout, depression and attempted suicide are cited as somatization. Other physiological troubles are indicated such as angina, vagal and skin problems. Verbatim reports are used to explain the relationships between the stressors. Mostly, they are related to the environment of the enterprise. They are re-constructed by the prism of an individual’s personality, way of coping and expectations. This leads the role stressors to be transformed. Thereby, the stressors revealed by the analysis of interview transcripts can be categorized in three groups: environmental stressors, personal stressors and role stressors.

Environmental Stressors In entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur expresses an idea and a vision in his enterprise. He wants to detect this commitment in the employees’ attitude. However, the principal problem revealed is not the employee’s attitude but the perception or organizational roles portrayed by the public administration. In France, entrepreneurs perceive labour laws as unfair. They consider that laws are more favourable to employees. Furthermore, procedures are heavy and

complicated. For example, Prud’homme (i.e. the administrative tribunal) procedure is a legal one. The legal responsibility of the entrepreneur and the risks of paying significant compensation increase the level of stress. “When you are business manager you are responsible for many things, from one point of view you are responsible for your employees because they are fathers and you must do everything you can to pay them each month and to give them work.”

The decision to dismiss is motivated by the sustainability of the enterprise. But this decision is frequently questioned by the tribunal from employee legal action. In situations of low decisional latitude and high pressure, the person experiences a high degree of stress. The departure of an employee impacts, also, directly on the sustainability of the enterprise. On the one hand, delay times lead to the loss of customers and delays in payment. These factors disturb the cash flow. On the other hand, work overload, lack of skills, uncertainty and responsibility push the entrepreneur into an unbalanced situation. He has to manage it carefully, because the exposure to high levels of stress for long periods raise the probability of developing physical and mental troubles. “During this period, … depression … no more energy, so you can’t get up in the morning, that is what we call burnout, and here, ok, being objective it is really because the body somatizes, it can’t cope any more, at one moment it does not know which direction take so it say stop, that is what it did.”

Personal Stressors Among the motivational factors cited, autonomy of decision is in the first place, followed by the wish to create a social environment and participate in building society. If the enterprise disappears, it is expressed as a personal failure. Conflicts with employees or colleagues affect the enterprise’s social climate and performance. It follows decisions such as dismissal or the colleague’s departure. In a family enterprise these decisions are complicated because of the tangle between professional and personal problems. “Oh, in fact if it’s one or the other, is it the chicken or the egg, I don’t know. I have some problems … personal ones with … my family, with my wife that leads me to take more work so as to not face these problems.”

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Commitment and the need for accomplishment lead to loneliness, isolation, and overload. The entrepreneurs expect the commitment of the employee to the enterprise. Attitudes revealing lack of commitment are perceived as betrayal and partial failure. The perception of inequity is increased by this lack of commitment and labour law. Further, the notion of responsibility for family wealth does not facilitate decision making. In fact, these situations can reduce the enterprise’s performance and are accompanied by conflicts reflecting this tension. The conflicts take their roots in the lack of confidence in a partner. A lack of confidence is perceived as betrayal. It is rarely understood and adds role ambiguity and role conflict. “Effectively it is not easy to understand, to accept effectively that it is legitimate that employees strike, or I don’t know what, relative to a situation that I absolutely don’t want, so that’s it, there are … contradictions emerging in these situations that lead at one moment to stress, not external but unconsciously related.”

Role Stressors The relationship of the entrepreneur to his enterprise is complex. Many of them identify themselves with it. The enterprise is a way of job creation, of career perspective, of earning money and of social identification. This relationship may lead to unrealistic expectations that are sources of stress. “There was also… a problem that I can’t express… that I can’t express … that I can’t express … I think that’s part of emotion, in fact I had to be hard and to use very difficult methods to manage a problem with an employee, that cost me too much emotionally.” Unbalanced effort-rewards lead to distress, negative stress (Siegrist, 1996). Some entrepreneurs do not receive a salary and some of them borrow bank credit their personal property as guarantee. Two kinds of responsibilities are involved, the first is relative to maintaining and developing their enterprise so rewarding their need for accomplishment. The second is related to the pressure of banks and the economic risk of being deprived of any economic rights. The roles of employer, borrower, parent and funder are distorted by different sources of pressure. This leads to increased levels of all role stressors. These stressors are not clearly identified by participants, but verbatim reports help to understand them. “I spent a week in the hospital and I think that it is related to this. I had obvious discomfort, I did all medical exams but they don’t know what I had, I think that there is some stress in there.”

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS Through the analysis, it is evident that environmental stressors interact with personality variables and lead to role stressors. Entrepreneurs suffer from high and recurrent exposure to work-related stress. These results are coherent with those of other studies such as a European study finding that entrepreneurs of SMEs suffer from high levels of exhaustion and stress (Benavides & al., 2000). Physical troubles are considered as the stress signal triggering awareness. According to Stephan and Roesker (2010) eneterprises whose owners have suffered from somatization of stress are more sustainable and more profitable. This may be due to the adaptive strategies required to cope with stress. In this study, physical troubles are not necessarily harmful to the enterprise, but mental troubles evidently lead to management difficulties. These results are supported by those of Gunnarsson and Josephson (2011).

As suggested by Gumpert and Boyd (1984), the need for accomplishment carries loneliness and weak perception of social support. Also, commitment leads to work overload and responsibility pressure. Work overload is not the most important entrepreneurial stressor, contrary to the suggestion of Fraboni and Salstone (1990). Effectively, work overload leads to problems of delegation. Responsibility comes from risk-taking through decision making. Decisions not only imply personal and legal responsibilities but also the involvement of the enterprise. These responsibilities are a source of stress as suggested by House and al. (1979). Family responsibilities (Elmiti, Kathawala & Wayland, 2003), work pressure and work responsibility (Ahmad & Salim, 2009) are recognized as pertinent stressors among entrepreneurs. Environmental factors include also, the family environment. In coherence with Bradley and Roberts (2004) the results of personal problems induce tension at work.

Financial problems represent an important and recurrent source of stress. According to Gorgievski and al. (2010), experiencing financial problems predicts psychological troubles among owners. Lack of control of the economic environment and lack of skill in administrative procedures result in lack of autonomy and decisional latitude. These are characteristics of a stressful environment (Karasek & Theorell, 1990). Inadequacy between the entrepreneur and the environment leads to interpersonal conflicts and internal tensions. 9

Inadequacy leads to a positive correlation between burnout and the professional environment. Jamal (2009) suggests that entrepreneurs experience higher levels of stress and health problems. Burnout is a syndrome rooted in the exposure over a long period to high level of stress (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). Individuals in burnout need psychological help from a medical practitioner. Unfortunately, as presented by Naffziger, Hornsby and Kurato (1994), they are loath to disengage from their prior engagement.

Further, the lack of adjustment between people and the environment influence the intention to exist and to grow in an entrepreneurial context (Brigham, Castro & Shepherd, 2007). Inadequacy may be expressed in professional relationships by conflict. Conflicts in family configurations influence family cohesion negatively. Family cohesion is positively correlated to anxiety, a somatization of stress (Smyrnios & al., 2003). Interpersonal conflicts are responsible for the increase of emotional exhaustion and the decrease in the professional satisfaction (Karatepe & Tekinus, 2006). As supported by many studies, social interactions affect work and health (Heaphy & Dutton, 2008). Emotional exhaustion is the main dimension of burnout. This syndrome is part of the psychosocial risks for entrepreneurs (Brigham, 2002; Duran-Whitney, 2004).

Interactions between environmental stressors and personality variables lead to experiencing role stress. Role ambiguity is engendered by lack of skill, experience and the necessary information. Responsibilities lead to role conflict. Managerial ones suggest decisions and legal ones impose such postures. Commitment, responsibility, uncertainty and other stressors increase the number of roles to be fulfilled. Such situation involve role overload. These findings are consistent with those of Wincent, Örtqvist and Drnovsek (2008) and those of Grant and Ferris (2009).

As supported by Wincent and Örtqvist (2009), environmental factors interact with personality and affect the level of stress. At the individual level, role stressors such as role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload are pertinent in the study of entrepreneurial stress. Relations between the enterprise environment and the entrepreneur lead to stress and affect performance negatively. The model presented in their article takes into account a number of variables

which are not as pertinent, such as venture technology. At the same time, stressors like administration and interpersonal conflicts are not considered. The Wincent and Örtqvist (2009) model represents an advance in the field of entrepreneurial stress but misses interactions between the environment and the individual. These are the theoretical implications of this study.

In terms of the practical implications, the results show that entrepreneurs suffer from burnout. This syndrome is related to reduction in emotional resources, impersonal and cynical attitudes, negative self-evaluation of skills and capabilities. It leads to the development of numerous troubles (Burke & Deszca, 1986; Maslach & Pines, 1977). Stress and burnout are responsible for the rise in the frequency of mental and physical symptoms. Preventive training is necessary to enhance the entrepreneur’s tools to cope with stress.

Future research should depart from this study’s limitations. Contradictory findings about the level of role ambiguity compared to employees are derived from studies by Harris, Salstone and Fraboni (1999) and Buttner (1992). This is the first limitation because qualitative methods are not sufficient to arbitrate between these findings. A study incorporating a role stress scale would permit the assessment of its level among entrepreneurs. A second limitation is the exploratory approach of this study. Reference is made to a large range of stressors. Using a theoretical model such as Wincent and Örtqvist (2009), and integrating the findings of this research would help to adapt the model and confirm it an entrepreneurial context. The advance on this subject requires the validation of different variables of the model and the development of suitable scales. Appropriate scales are essential to investigate outcomes of work-related stress on the enterprise.

CONCLUSION To sum up, this study shows that environmental, personal and role stressors are pertinent among entrepreneurs. Work-related stress is recurrent in the entrepreneurial context. Public administration is one of stressors that is not yet considered in other studies. Interpersonal conflicts are widely studied in psychology but not yet in entrepreneurship and particularly not 11

in entrepreneurial stress. Interactions between the environmental and the personal sphere involve organizational roles. These interactions explain the divergence of previous findings.

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Table : Stressors and Related Reported Verbatim Stressors

Verbatim

Environmental stressors Human Resources

“Periods of stress are related to the difficulties of a small structure to find competences and motive persons with an affordable cost to a small structure. It’s an axis, rather, I will say, principal in term stress source’s. It’s not heavy but continuous.” “The mistake that I made is to don’t recruit a commercial, I have made mistakes at this period too. When you are tired you don’t trust anyone at this moment I should have recruited a commercial and I should began not working but supervising”. “The management of human resources still stressor, for example, if we can’t recruit and the production is delayed, it’s a stressor to me.” “Personnel management is the first source of stress.”

Financial problems “I think that the first stress is to know how to do, in a financial way I mean, to live.” “The stress phase in this moment is “de se dire bon sang” I have to find agreement before 3 months; I have to bring cash, purchase orders, to have the financial help of the Region. This help will set, in optimistic version 3 weeks and in pessimistic one 3 months, manage all that and match all, good, here I tell there is a stress, there is a super stress.” “The first stressor is: no money, I borrowed the enterprise’s capital, I did not have personal cash.” “The important periods of stress are related to the budgetary problematic.” “Off course I will say that financial investment in its self is not the most stressful. The most stressful is to bring cash in my enterprise to continue it.” “[Money] yes it’s true, it’s a permanent source of stress.” Financial insecurity “Anyway when you work on a project of this magnitude, given the youth of my business, you find yourself working full time on this project so the stress factor is there telling you that you can’t fail because anyway materially you don’t have enough time to create something else as well.” “I have unemployment insurance, it’s not the same as the employees but anyway it makes me, it creates a little security, because insecurity is a stressor.” “So yes, a businessman, I think that his situation is very precarious, not only in his job. Precariousness affects his personal life, his property, everything. I feel this precariousness daily still today.”

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Financial crisis

“I have to say that the crisis is a great moment of stress.” “An important stress was the financial crisis when customers payed one year later, there was a real problem of cash flow management.”

Cash flow

“The second stressor is the management of the cash flow.” “But now, it’s stressful not paying suppliers, for 4 months … 5 months now… but with losses since …2007.” “To see the cash curve that goes through the floor …!!!! euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh that’s it (smile). So the heat’s on, that’s the stress of the moment …” “The problem is that cash dwindles and banks are bothersome.” “The first stress of … being the boss it’s mainly to pay the staff, well I would say that’s paying all the bills each month end.”

Turnover

“The stress came mainly from the managing cash flow, after 4 or 5 years. It’s the realization of that cash flow has to pay overheads.” “There are moments when we lost a large part of the cash flow and that caused us enormous stress but from day to day you have a job and enough to eat.”

Financial

“It’s the confirmatory commercial phase. There yes, there is stress, because we feel we haven’t enough time, people that had

uncertainty

seen [the project] are always positive but till [we give] a quotation, not necessarily … the stress born at this moment.” “So I was in a petrified mode. Damn, customer orders don’t come, things don’t come, I will not have the purchase orders, I will not have the grant, and in three months we are dead. This is a large rise of stress.” “The biggest factor of stress it’s that at a moment you find yourself advancing funds, advancing funds, advancing funds, and you know if there is any administrative failure, you will not be paid back”.

Public

“On the other hand negative stress is to waste time on tasks for which we don’t have concrete responses and the red tape of the

administration

French administration makes us thinks why don’t we go away?” “It’s really a negative stress and although recently I was really busy because of that and it’s a stress that is not useful as anyway we can’t do anything and we don’t have a concrete response from French administration but anyway …” “That’s why just now I was talking about employment legislation that is excessively stressful and oppressive.”

Administrative

“After and a half years of a European project, I felt I was transformed into a European administrative agent and accounting

tasks

officer, and in the end you realize that dedicating too much time to peripheral [activities], that’s the major problem and that’s the source of stress.” “The boss is pressed by administrative tasks in France, and that’s really a point, 15 days ago I spent 3 days to trying to contact an employment agent for an employee and to me it’s really a negative stress”. 21

Uncertainty

After, what creates stress is changes in the economic environment. For example losing an important client, losing cash flow in relation to the financial crisis, all that can disturb the normal operating of the enterprise, it also can be a serious accident to an employee, maybe … losing a building site, that’s it.” “But when staff turnover began, it was a stressful period. It generated stress and it’s something that I felt, I hadn’t anticipated, it is change.” “I have symptoms related to stress … I live in fear … continuously. So good … I practice high-risk sports and I master them … it’s not the same thing, there are not the same risks, it’s not the same thing. I face the unknown.”

Work overload

“We [the enterprise] are an intermediate size, we have to structure. If not, it’s not possible, it’s not organized enough, too many things to do. Supplementary tasks are so much more stressfull.” “The stress to become viable, I don’t know how to say it, it’s the everyday stress […] the stress from working like 10 people.” “I have the impression that I worked as much as 12 to 14 hours, even more the next year, and I think that was not good. I was exhausted … I was … I didn’t see things clearly and with my job, I had no, I have lost the … the sense of priority, to know why for every business question I have to make a decision.” “Stressful periods, it’s very simple; at the beginning like any entrepreneur we were very committed without any other preoccupation … 7/7 and 15h/d.”

Personal stressors

Relations

with “The multiplicity of customer obliges you to change into selling whereas your interest is your technical job.”

customers/clients

“We have had huge markets … with margins reducing as purchase price reduced, it was a permanent stress.” “No, the stress today is related to the customer relations.”

Reputation

“The results determine your professional reputation and lead to other contracts or not, so anyway there is a stress factor.” “Actually my structure is very small, we are 6, and what we do is that we try to give back a frame of a business and we can’t be stammering. I must be able to be multi-disciplinary, to go to the bottom of the subject, with a good precision level, to answer questions. I have to be completely multi-disciplinary and not only running, but also, swimming, running, jumping, on longterm.”

Relations officials

with “A tax audit came one day. I was told Sir, you have to pay 60 million Euros and that was the beginning of the plunge because it was … […] let’s say that is rather the tax audit that was depressing, disappointing because on one hand they want French entrepreneurs and on the other hand when you send the balance sheet late and there is no wish on your part to harm the nation or to do any harm at all, you don’t understand. To give you an example, I was taxed 900 000 Euros.” “I have folders in Prud’homme*, folders that have been open for a year, a year and half, and nothing happens. It’s very slow. It’s a latent risk, which is not vital but stressful.” “The owner-manager is the only person in French’s law, presumed guilty till he proves his innocence, while in French law for others it’s inversed. All that because the owner-manager is deemed to be rich and the employee to be poor.” 23

Relationships with “I never wanted to work in a large undertaking because it was a source of stress in my first enterprise.” colleagues members others)

(family “So stress may arise quickly from relationships between founding members because there is always someone who feels that they and are working harder than the others …” “The periods where the communication is not good between us generate a lot of stress for me; communication is very important and when it does not goes well you feel weakened and there yes, yes, the communication between colleagues is extremely important it’s what makes things work or fail.” “She [my mother] was able to require, already that I hire … my brothers and then, she came during hours of … work and in front of everyone, to negotiate increases for her other sons. That puts you in an infantile position which is very difficult to manage. I would not recommend this stress to anyone.”

Confidence/betrayal “It was very hard because we have the impression that people working with you plant a knife in your back … they were embezzling, they had bad intentions.” “They look at testimonials from other employees, and then … describe you as if you were a horrid person. It is a stress factor and nervousness factor, and with always a possible sum to be paid, do you see?” “The second source of stress is … some employees who … have perfectly written that dismissal yields three times more than retirement. They use any deviousness in bad faith trying to get fired and to sue you in court, saying if I can get a bit more that will be even better.”

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Personal problems

“Last year, [there was a] burglary at our house and we found ourselves like in our underpants, with … my wife who went into depression because of that, umm … so life in the enterprise is not always simple, even in these cases.” “Yes, especially before starting the enterprise there was big moments of stress that were more personal in the sense that obviously we could have made an easier choice by going to work for a company.” “Oh, in fact if it’s one or the other, is it the chicken or the egg, I don’t know. I have some problems … personal ones with … my family, with my wife that lead me to take on more work so as to not face those problems.” “I took on the family enterprise with a particular signal of stress after the sudden death of my father [the founder of the entreprise].»

Lack of experience

“I am stressed because … I have no enterprise experience so obviously, more stress and in a social area where there is no certainty and precision.” “The enterprise’s boss has to choose and to decide. It’s possible to hear an opposing opinion; here there is a stress, because you know that the choice you made today you are not necessarily competent to take it. Experts advise you but these choices will affect situations in the coming years.” “All this time when I had to find my place, corresponds effectively to a stressful period [that is] more intense than 15 years experience in company management.” “I began to manage people that are more experienced and older than me because I arrived in an unknown universe and I saw that I was being led by the nose and I felt that I wasn’t sufficiently strong to assert myself and that was generating a lot of stress.” “The Prud’homme* is something totally new and heavy and a strong generator of stress.” “It’s that, this stressor was generated by … a … an incoherence between my objective … my personal attitude … there was a contradiction between me, as a person and me as an owner-manager because there were decisions or attitudes that we are forced to adopt as owner-manager that we don’t adopt naturally.»

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Responsibility

“When you are business manager you are responsible for many things. From one point of view you are responsible for your employees because they are fathers and you must do everything you can to pay them each month and to give them work.” “That’s what I am saying, that’s wearing, that’s because you carry a lot of things on your shoulders, a lot of pressure.” “It’s a stressor. We work for us as well as to permit to people to live. We have such a responsibility.” “There may be cash flow problems due to non payment, all that creates a … how to say it … all that is pathogenic to the enterprise, it’s the leader who is hit by it on arriving … he has the responsibility so it affects him.” “It can be a stress generator because when a consumer tells you ‘I have something better somewhere else,’ you absolutely have to reduce prices but you know that cheaper prices and losing this consumer puts you in difficulties, you have to choose between two negative choices, and it is still your responsibility. Here the stress is enormous.”

Decision making

“How to put it, the responsibility I have is 100% and if I am wrong it’s 100% me.” “It’s more the stress to say I have that, I have that, I can’t keep them both, so I have to choose.” “Concerning periods of stress there are also choices to make to bring in cash - taking from the company but it will soon run out, how long, what must I do so that it doesn’t take too much of my energy.”

Perfectionism

There is also another stress, by dint of building, building, at the end you want something perfect except that by dint of wanting something perfect, in fact, we never start, because perfection can’t be attained.”

Self image

“When they drag too much and I have customers who grumble, there effectively, it begins … I don’t like the image reflected back, I don’t like it, I know how to manage it once, twice, but the third time it will be so stressful to explain to a customer that I have too many jobs to do. When I need to justify my delays and other things that I have not done on time, the stress of the image reflected back to me.” “After, there is the self-image that’s damaged. A boss who takes his enterprise to the tribunal, it’s a confession of weakness but anyway it’s not easy ... it’s a confession of humility.” “It’s not easy to understand, to accept effectively that it’s legitimate that employees go on a one-day strike or I don’t know what compared to a situation that I absolutely do not want, so that’s it, there are … contradictions that emerge in these situations. It means that at a time there is stress.”

Commitment/Sacrif “Knowing that beside that [advance funds for the project], yes it was a priority but not necessarily – you’rve got so many strings ice

attached, standard of living … and also as important stressors, there was for example the closing down of the business of my enterprise, I found myself on social security.” “To do all we do for the enterprise, to commit like that providing for family life, providing for children, and most of all providing for oneself, mostly oneself even pleasures, because we don’t experience the pleasure of life anymore … and maybe are not paid in return, always hope to be paid but not …” “Already at the start we commit at 150% and we end up not having any social life till the moment where we realize that it’s a mistake, because you always have your nose to the grindstone. It doesn’t help progress, you must have moments to breathe.”

Inequity

“Inequity … is an important source of stress.”

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Loneliness

“At the Prud’homme you are ahead, you are responsible and alone with customers, you are alone and responsible with the banks, the same with the administration and you are alone in a penal process.” “There is some loneliness. After I feel that it’s like working alone, we learn to with … This loneliness is funny, I don’t think that I see it. I feel I’m undergoing it and not seeing it.” “It’s also to be alone and to take all the responsibilities, it’s heavy, and work at home, work alone, not much [time for] relationships.”

Isolation

“I have had stressful periods, periods that were not easy because when you are a boss, you are isolated, you are alone.”

Legitimacy

“Taking over a family business when the situation was not right following the sudden death of my father, when I was projected into the number 1 [job] in the enterprise while I haven’t any legitimacy, it’s a big stressor.”

Confusion

“So, yes confusion … and so confusion maintains stress […] the fact to don’t know what to do maintains the stress.”

... : silence; [...]: deletion in verbatim, not affecting the meaning. [abc] words added to overcome confusion in part due to translation from French *Prud’homme: legal recourse for employees with a grievances

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