- Having a critical mass of women executives is associated with a reduction in player arrests of 21% for that team organization. Put differently, a critical mass of women executives was associated with .33 fewer arrests.
- The likelihood that a team, in any given season, experiences a player arrest is 15.4% lower for team organizations with a critical mass of women executives.
- The power held by women executives, as measured by a power index, did not moderate (change) the relationship between the presence of a critical mass of women executives and player arrests.
- We also examined the relationship between a critical mass of executives who are racial/ethnic minorities and player arrests. However, the coefficient on this critical mass variable was not statistically significant: we found no relationship between having a critical mass of minority executives and player arrests. These results are presented in the paper’s Appendix.
Implications for NFL Teams
Serious off-the-job misconduct by high-profile employees is not uncommon in professional sport team organizations, media and entertainment firms, and public-facing institutions. Our study suggests that firms searching for preventive and remedial solutions to misconduct should consider a basic structural solution to this problem: ensuring that there is a critical mass of women on the top management team. In addition, previous research suggests that there may be other beneficial outcomes that accrue to team organizations with greater gender and racial/ethnic diversity on their top management teams. Our findings also have implications for organizations beyond those employing professional sport players, particularly visible organizations with high-profile employees, such as media and entertainment companies; and public-facing entities such as courts, schools, and government entities.