A New Sports Manager Does Not Make a Better Team

Abstract

This article surveys the literature on the impact of managerial successions on team performance in professional sports and assesses ten studies on the effect of managerial succession. They cover 80 years (1920–2000) with data from four different sports and two countries. From these studies, three lessons emerge when teams perform poorly: i) a change of coach or manager during the season is not helpful; ii) if succession is deemed necessary, change the manager between seasons; and iii) if the choice is between a manager from inside the organization and one from the outside, choose the former. What is critical is that whichever manager is replaced or for whatever reason, the performance of the team will most likely not improve for that reason alone. In short, a new manager does not make a better team.