Mandating and enforcing culture

Fifty years after the family foundation was founded, Filene’s social and political commitments still prevail.

Lincoln Filene would be pleased that today, members of the third, fourth and fifth generations of the family serve side by side on the board and on program committees carrying out the work he began on issues involving civic education, public broadcasting and job training.

Families are in a constant state of transition as each member moves through the cycles of life and the family itself moves from one stage of development to the next.

Organizations with distinct cultures invariably bore the imprint of their founders.They run the gamut from formal, with tightly run meetings held in foundation boardrooms, to informal, with gatherings around a family member’s dining-room table.As in corporations, the values and norms of the founders and their families determine the focus of the foundation as well as how it is governed, how conflicts are handled and how emotions are expressed.In direct and subtle ways, children are molded by the family culture into which they are born.Growing up, their assumptions about what is right and wrong, good and bad, reflect the beliefs, values and traditions of the family culture.