NFL Study Sheds Light on Teams

Though few financiers could score a touchdown in a professional football game, even if given the opportunity, there might be a striking similarity between the success of NFL players on the field and businessmen in the boardroom, according to a recent study by Harvard researchers.

The two Harvard academics, Boris Groysberg and Robin Abraham of Harvard Business School, conducted the study with investment manager Lex Sant.

The researchers found tracked the success of traded NFL athletes and compared them to mobile businesspeople, finding that success for both groups is dependent on a team.

The study, which was published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, found that the success of NFL star players was not unilaterally defined by ability, but also, by the surrounding team. Star players were defined as players with exceptional ability.

A similar result was seen in the business sector: the results suggested that the performance of star investment bankers and managers is not the sole result of individual ability.

In the NFL, a large performance gap was found between individual players, like punters, and team-dependent athletes, like receivers.

“Some types of jobs are distinctively more portable than others,” Abraham said.

Punters, like retail brokers, work independently and are less influenced by a change in environment, she said, but the performance of NFL receivers, like workers on a team, is largely dependent on teammates.

“It is a risky business of hiring stars,” Groysberg said. “Part of your performance is driven by the system that you are in.”

He suggested that an efficient hiring structure can make a significant difference in firm performance. He hoped that firms can benefit from these results by realizing that hiring star workers will not guarantee that the worker will succeed in the new environment.

The authors also had advice on an individual level.

Abraham said that individuals should make prudent career decisions, and when transferring to a different job, the individual should consider how his success will be related to his co-workers.

Groysberg said that he will continue to conduct research on individual performance to better understand how to optimize a firm’s success.