Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/67213 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6884
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
When a key responsibility of a manager is to allocate more or less attractive tasks to subordinates, these subordinates have an incentive to work hard and demonstrate their talents. As a new manager is less well acquainted with these talents this incentive mechanism is reinvigorated after a management change - but only when the team is sufficiently homogenous. Otherwise, a new manager quickly makes similar choices as the old one did. We investigate this hypothesis using a large data set on coach dismissals in the German football league where the selection of players is indeed a key task of the coach. Indeed, we find substantial evidence that coach replacements enhance team performance (only) in homogenous teams. Moreover, from a methodological point of view, we argue that there is typically a negative selection bias when evaluating succession effects, which might reconcile previous findings of no (or even negative) effects with the vast number of dismissals observed in reality.
Subjects: 
managerial succession
teams
heterogeneity
tournaments
JEL: 
D22
J44
J63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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