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• Article | Administrative Science Quarterly

  A Fair Game? Racial Bias and Repeated Interaction between NBA Coaches and Players

  Letian Zhang

  There is strong evidence of racial bias in organizations but little understanding of how it changes with repeated interaction. This study proposes that repeated interaction has the potential to reduce racial bias, but its moderating effects are limited to the treatment of individuals rather than of entire racial groups. Using data from 2,360 National Basketball Association (NBA) players and 163 coaches from 1955 to 2000, I find that players receive more playing time under coaches of the same race, even though there is no difference in their performance. This racial bias is greatly reduced, however, as the player and the coach spend more time on the same team, suggesting that repeated interaction minimizes coaches’ biases toward their players. But it does not reduce coaches’ racial biases in general. Even after years of coaching other-race players, coaches still exhibit the same levels of racial bias as they did upon first entering the league. These results suggest that repeated workplace interaction is effective in reducing racial bias toward individuals but not toward groups, making an important contribution to the literature on organizational inequality.

  Keywords: discrimination; bias; Interaction; NBA; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Equality and Inequality; Interpersonal Communication; Sports;

  Citation:

  Zhang, Letian. "A Fair Game? Racial Bias and Repeated Interaction between NBA Coaches and Players." Administrative Science Quarterly 62, no. 4 (December 2017): 603–625.  View Details

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• Article | Organization Science | Forthcoming

  Who Loses When a Team Wins? Better Performance Increases Racial Bias

  Letian Zhang

  Although it is well known that organizational and team performance influences strategic decision-making, little is known about its impact on ascriptive inequality. This study proposes a performance effect on racial bias: higher team performance reduces managers’ performance pressure and, therefore, leads to more managerial bias in the subsequent round. I find strong evidence for this proposition using a fine-grained dataset from the National Basketball Association. In this highly competitive industry, team performance is positively associated with coaches’ subsequent exercise of racial bias: players experience more favorable treatment from same-race coaches after their teams have won more games. This study demonstrates an important relationship between performance feedback and racial bias and suggests that even in highly competitive industries, managerial bias may be prevalent in high-performing teams and organizations.

  Keywords: discrimination; race and ethnicity; performance feedback; NBA; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Ethnicity; Performance; Sports;

  Citation:

  Zhang, Letian. "Who Loses When a Team Wins? Better Performance Increases Racial Bias." Organization Science (forthcoming).  View Details

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