Why Do Leaders Matter? The Role of Expert Knowledge

Amanda Goodall (), Lawrence Kahn and Andrew Oswald

No 3583, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Why do some leaders succeed while others fail? This question is important, but its complexity makes it hard to study systematically. We examine an industry in which there are well-defined objectives, small teams, and exact measures of leaders’ characteristics. We show that a strong predictor of a leader’s success in year T is that person’s own level of attainment, in the underlying activity, in approximately year T-20. Our data come from 15,000 professional basketball games. The effect on team performance of the coach’s ‘expert knowledge’ is large and is discernible in the data within 12 months of his being hired.

Keywords: leadership; productivity; firms; organizational performance; fixed-effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2008-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cbe and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2011, 77(3), 265-284

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