| Abstract: |
We use data on British football managers and teams over the 1994-2007 period
to study substitution and complementarity between leaders and subordinates. We
find for the Premier League (the highest level of competition) that, other
things being equal, managers who themselves played at a higher level raise the
productivity of less-skilled teams by more than that of highly skilled teams.
This is consistent with the hypothesis that one function of a top manager is
to communicate to subordinates the skills needed to succeed, since less
skilled players have more to learn. We also find that managers with more
accumulated professional managing experience raise the productivity of
talented players by more than that of less-talented players. This is
consistent with the hypothesis that a further function of successful managers
in high-performance workplaces is to manage the egos of elite workers. Such a
function is likely more important the more accomplished the workers are -- as
indicated, in our data, by teams with greater payrolls. |