‘I’ll show them who’s boss’: A critical analysis of a television consultancy

This article examines how a media activity in the form of a BBC television programme, ‘I’ll show them whose boss’, constitutes a ‘discursive intervention’ into the lives and relationships of four family businesses. It is argued that in promoting the importance of ‘singular leadership’, the discursive intervention helps to create a context for action in relation to leadership involving a father-son owned business, a sibling partnership between three brothers, a cousin consortium with eighteen family members, and an inter-generational business involving two couples. In showing the intermixing of public-private, home and work in the programme, the discursive strategies and positionings in relation to leadership selection are portrayed. Although the idea of singular leadership is accepted in some of the businesses, processes of distributed leadership are also very relevant for understanding the influences and means through which leadership occurs in family firms.