Being cheated by your own relatives

In Uganda, as in many other societies, it is common for business owners to employ their own relatives in their business enterprises. These employments are, from the business owners’ perspective, primarily seen as part of a larger pattern of social responsibilities within the family (Nystrand, 2015). Employing relatives is seen as a social obligation, not as a contribution to the business, and most business owners find these employments difficult to handle. In my study on social responsibility of owners of SMEs in Uganda (Nystrand, 2015) several interviewed business owners complained that employed relatives did not understand their role as employees and indicated that relatives perceived that they had some type of claim on the business because of the family relationship. Firing an employed relative was very difficult because of opposition from other relatives, even in cases of fraud and where the employee had inflicted large damage on the business enterprise.