How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an Asset versus Status as a Liability in the PGA and NASCAR

Organization Science, Forthcoming

42 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2010

See all articles by Matthew Bothner

Matthew Bothner

ESMT European School of Management and Technology

Young-Kyu Kim

Korea University Business School; Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession

Edward (Ned) Smith

Northwestern University

Date Written: July 21, 2010

Abstract

Two competing predictions about the effect of status on performance appear in the organizational theory and sociological literatures. On the one hand, various researchers have posited that status elevates levels of performance. This line of work emphasizes tangible and intangible resources that accrue to occupants of high-status positions and thus pictures status as an asset. On the other hand, a second line of work emphasizes complacency and distraction as deleterious processes that plague occupants of high-status positions and thus portrays status as a liability. Which of these two approaches best characterizes the actual performance of individuals in a market setting? And are these views in any way reconcilable? In this article, we summarize the two views and test them in two empirical settings: the Professional Golf Association (PGA) and the National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR). Using panel data on the PGA Tour, we model golfers’ strokes from par in each competition as a function of their status in the sport. Using similar data on NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series, we model drivers’ speed in the qualifying round as a function of their status in the sport. We find curvilinear effects of status in both empirical settings. Performance improves with status - until a very high level of status is reached, after which performance wanes. This result not only concurs with the view that status brings tangible and intangible resources, but also provides empirical support for the contention that status fosters dispositions and behaviors that undermine performance.

Suggested Citation

Bothner, Matthew and Kim, Young-Kyu and Smith, Edward Bishop, How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an Asset versus Status as a Liability in the PGA and NASCAR (July 21, 2010). Organization Science, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1646444

Matthew Bothner

ESMT European School of Management and Technology ( email )

Schlossplatz 1
10117 Berlin
Germany

Young-Kyu Kim

Korea University Business School ( email )

Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu
Seoul 136-701, 136701
Korea

Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession ( email )

1585 Massachusetts Avenue
Wasserstein Hall, Suite 5018
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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