IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v40y2019i1p105-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Manager impacts on worker performance in American football: Do offensive coordinators impact quarterback performance in the National Football League?

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua D. Pitts
  • Brent Evans

Abstract

Ample research in nonsports labor markets suggests that managerial quality significantly impacts worker productivity; however, studies using sports data have been less likely to find such evidence supporting the importance of managers/coaches. We examine the impact of offensive coordinators on quarterback performance in football. While we find that various offensive coordinator characteristics have little impact on quarterback performance, we show that individual offensive coordinators do seem to play a role in quarterback development. Consistent with research on manager effects outside of sports, this suggests that elite and poor offensive coordinators do significantly impact the productivity of the quarterbacks they manage.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua D. Pitts & Brent Evans, 2019. "Manager impacts on worker performance in American football: Do offensive coordinators impact quarterback performance in the National Football League?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 105-118, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:40:y:2019:i:1:p:105-118
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.2985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.2985
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.2985?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Benn Eifert & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2013. "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 1-51.
    2. Lawrence M. Kahn, 1993. "Managerial Quality, Team Success, and Individual Player Performance in Major League Baseball," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(3), pages 531-547, April.
    3. Bruinshoofd, Allard & ter Weel, Bas, 2003. "Manager to go? Performance dips reconsidered with evidence from Dutch football," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 233-246, July.
    4. Curtis M. Hall & Roberto Pedace, 2016. "Do Managers Matter? Manager Effects on Organization Performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(8), pages 541-551, December.
    5. C. Edward Fee, 2006. "Promotions in the Internal and External Labor Market: Evidence from Professional Football Coaching Careers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(2), pages 821-850, March.
    6. Stefan Wagner, 2010. "Managerial succession and organizational performance-evidence from the German Soccer League," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 415-430.
    7. Jed DeVaro & Hodaka Morita, 2013. "Internal Promotion and External Recruitment: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(2), pages 227-269.
    8. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    9. Chan, William, 1996. "External Recruitment versus Internal Promotion," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(4), pages 555-570, October.
    10. Andreas Heuer & Christian Müller & Oliver Rubner & Norbert Hagemann & Bernd Strauss, 2011. "Usefulness of Dismissing and Changing the Coach in Professional Soccer," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-7, March.
    11. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw & Christopher T. Stanton, 2015. "The Value of Bosses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 823-861.
    12. Jan C. van Ours & Martin A. van Tuijl, 2016. "In-Season Head-Coach Dismissals And The Performance Of Professional Football Teams," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 591-604, January.
    13. Wallace Hendricks & Lawrence DeBrock & Roger Koenker, 2003. "Uncertainty, Hiring, and Subsequent Performance: The NFL Draft," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(4), pages 857-886, October.
    14. Goff Brian, 2013. "Contributions of Managerial Levels: Comparing MLB and NFL," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 428-436, September.
    15. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2012. "The Effects of Managerial Turnover," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(2), pages 152-168, April.
    16. M. A. Roach, 2013. "Mean reversion or a breath of fresh air? The effect of NFL coaching changes on team performance in the salary cap era," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(17), pages 1553-1556, November.
    17. John Charles Bradbury, 2017. "Hired to be Fired: The Publicity Value of Managers," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(7), pages 929-940, October.
    18. Audas, Rick & Dobson, Stephen & Goddard, John, 2002. "The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 633-650.
    19. E. Scott Adler & Michael J. Berry & David Doherty, 2013. "Pushing “Reset”: The Conditional Effects of Coaching Replacements on College Football Performance," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 94(1), pages 1-28, March.
    20. Baltagi, Badi H. & Wu, Ping X., 1999. "Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions With Ar(1) Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 814-823, December.
    21. Bridgewater, Sue & Kahn, Lawrence M. & Goodall, Amanda H., 2011. "Substitution and complementarity between managers and subordinates: Evidence from British football," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 275-286, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Naveed Ahmad Khan & Andrija Mihoci & Silke Michalk & Kirill Sarachuk & Hafiz Ali Javed, 2022. "Employee Performance Measures Appraised by Training and Labor Market: Evidence from the Banking Sector of Germany," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Joshua D. Pitts & Brent A. Evans, 2020. "Defensive Coordinator and Head Coach Effects on Team Defensive Performance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(5), pages 493-524, June.
    3. W. David Allen, 2021. "Work Environment and Worker Performance: A View from the Goal Crease," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 418-448, December.
    4. Joshua D. Pitts & Brent A. Evans, 2023. "New contracts and dismissal threats from highly drafted rookies: What motivates NFL quarterbacks?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 4-16, January.
    5. Brian Goff & Dennis Wilson & David Zimmer, 2019. "The effect of management changes on winning in professional sports: Analysis using a dynamic lag adjustment model," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(8), pages 982-992, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joshua D. Pitts & Brent A. Evans, 2020. "Defensive Coordinator and Head Coach Effects on Team Defensive Performance in the National Football League," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(5), pages 493-524, June.
    2. Luc Arrondel & Richard Duhautois & Cédric Zimmer, 2020. "Within-season dismissals of football managers: evidence from the French Ligue 1," PSE Working Papers halshs-02505315, HAL.
    3. Thomas (T.L.P.R.) Peeters & Stefan Szymanski & Marko Terviö, 2017. "The inefficient advantage of experience in the market for football managers," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-116/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Kaori Naritaa & J .D. Tenaa & Claudio Detottoc, 2020. "What Makes the Ideal Profile of a New Manager in Times of Adversity? Evidence from Italian Serie A," Working Papers 202031, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    5. Kaori Narita & Benjamin Holmes & Ian McHale, 2022. "Managerial Contribution to Firm Success: Evidence from Professional Football Leagues," Working Papers 202224, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    6. Gerd Muehlheusser & Sandra Schneemann & Dirk Sliwka & Niklas Wallmeier, 2018. "The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 786-819, August.
    7. Mario Bossler & Philipp Grunau, 2020. "Asymmetric information in external versus internal promotions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2977-2998, December.
    8. Janina Kleinknecht & Daniel Würtenberger, 2022. "Information effects of managerial turnover on effort and performance: Evidence from the German Bundesliga," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 791-812, April.
    9. Caliendo, Marco & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Pfeifer, Harald & Uhlendorff, Arne & Wehner, Caroline, 2024. "Managers’ risk preferences and firm training investments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    10. César Velázquez Guadarrama & Juan Martín Hernández Velázquez, 2022. "Cambio de director técnico en el fútbol mexicano. Evidencia de 2009 a 2018/Coach change in Mexican football. Evidence from 2009 to 2018," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 37(1), pages 149-170.
    11. Hideo Owan & Shingo Takahashi & Tsuyoshi Tsuru & Katsuhito Uehara, 2014. "Finding good managers: an econometric case study of a large Japanese auto dealership," Working Papers EMS_2014_08, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    12. Luigi Buzzacchi & Federico Caviggioli & Francesco Luigi Milone & Davide Scotti, 2021. "Impact and Efficiency Ranking of Football Managers in the Italian Serie A: Sport and Financial Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(7), pages 744-776, October.
    13. Brian Goff & Dennis Wilson & David Zimmer, 2019. "The effect of management changes on winning in professional sports: Analysis using a dynamic lag adjustment model," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(8), pages 982-992, December.
    14. Nicolas Scelles & Matthieu Llorca, 2. "Head coach change and team performance in the French men's football Ligue 1, 2000-2016," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 920-937020.
    15. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    16. Claudio Detotto & Dimitri Paolini & J. D. Tena, 2018. "Do managerial skills matter? An analysis of the impact of managerial features on performance for Italian football," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 270-282, February.
    17. B Frick & R Simmons, 2005. "The impact of managerial quality on organizational performance: evidence from German soccer," Working Papers 566927, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    18. Ajay Bhaskarabhatla & Luis Cabral & Deepak Hegde & Thomas Peeters, 2021. "Are Inventors or Firms the Engines of Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3899-3920, June.
    19. Alex Bryson & Babatunde Buraimo & Alex Farnell & Rob Simmons, 2021. "Time To Go? Head Coach Quits and Dismissals in Professional Football," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 81-105, February.
    20. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw & Christopher T. Stanton, 2015. "The Value of Bosses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 823-861.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:40:y:2019:i:1:p:105-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.