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Family businesses comprise the largest portion of organizations in the United States. Although much is known about how individuals interact in these businesses, little is known about how family businesses function at an organizational level. Family businesses are likely to use strategic ambiguity in their mission statements to allow for multiple interpretations of the same message by their stakeholders. This study analyzed the mission statements of the 20 largest family businesses in the United States to explore their use of strategic ambiguity. Family businesses used strategic ambiguity for the purposes of unified diversity, promoting varied understandings of goals, and for facilitating organizational change, but not for the purposes of deniability. This research begins to provide an explanation of the potential driving factors of family business mission statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on assumptions of framing theories of anxiety/uncertainty management and planning, we considered how planning differs in intra- versus inter- cultural contexts, as well as how self-monitoring and tolerance for ambiguity are associated with plan complexity, anxiety, and uncertainty with reference to an anticipated interaction with a stranger. One hundred and eight American females responded to a videotape of either an American or a Korean confederate with whom they believed they would be holding a conversation. The content and complexity of respondents' plans were examined in conjunction with type of interaction, interaction anxiety, attributional certainty, self-monitoring, and tolerance for ambiguity. Plan content and complexity were not predicted by any of the variables assessed. However, self-monitoring and tolerance for ambiguity were associated with anxieties related to the planned interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]