Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2758
• Author: John S. Chen,Pranav Garg
• Published date: 01 May 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s

temporary absence for organizational performance

John S. Chen

1

| Pranav Garg

2

1

Department of Management, Warrington College

of Business Administration, University of Florida,

Gainesville, Florida

2

Strategy Area, Indian Institute of Management

Bangalore, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Correspondence

Pranav Garg, Indian Institute of Management

Bangalore, India.

Email: gargp@iimb.ac.in

Funding information

Class of ’86 Fellowship, Young Faculty Research

Chair, and Research Seed Grant (all at the Indian

Institute of Management Bangalore)

Research Summary: While research has focused pri-

marily on stars as individual contributors, we examine

organizational situations where stars must work closely

with non-stars. We argue that, in such situations, build-

ing teamwork around a star is an exercise in learning

under complexity. In response, organizations prioritize

interactions involving the star to simplify learning.

This simplification, however, creates organizational

myopia. We claim that a star’s temporary absence helps

the organization overcome myopia by triggering a

search for new routines. When he returns, the organiza-

tion may combine these new routines with pre-absence

routines to improve teamwork and performance. We

exploit injuries to star players in the National Basket-

ball Association as an exogenous shock and find that

on average, teams perform better after a star’sreturn

than before his absence.

Managerial Summary: This study examines the effect of

the temporary absence of a star employee on organiza-

tional performance. We find evidence that a star

employee’s temporary absence helps the organization

overcome an over-reliance on the star and improve team-

work. Improved teamwork, in turn, enables the organiza-

tion to perform better upon the star’s return than it did

prior to his absence. This result suggests that organiza-

tions might want to revisit the tendency to view stars as

too valuable to lose, even for a short time. In particular,

organizations may want to pull stars from ongoing pro-

jects and encourage them to attend professional develop-

ment programs. A star’s temporary absence and return

from such a program improves not only the star’s skills

but also the organization’s teamwork.

[Correction added on April 12, 2018, after first online publication: The text in Managerial Summary was incorrect in the

previous version of the article.]

Received: 23 March 2016 Revised: 22 September 2017 Accepted: 30 September 2017 Published on: 7 February 2018

DOI: 10.1002/smj.2758

Strat Mgmt J. 2018;39:1239–1267. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1239

KEYWORDS

human capital, organizational adaptation, organizational

learning, organizational performance, routines

1|INTRODUCTION

A growing body of research emphasizes individuals as the key levers for organizational performance

(Coff & Kryscynski, 2011; Frank & Obloj, 2014; Gambardella, Panico, & Valentini, 2015; Mollick,

2012). Within this domain, the emphasis on individual human capital is particularly salient in work

that examines star performers (Groysberg, Lee, & Nanda, 2008), who are considered to make dis-

proportionate individual contributions to their organizations (Wright, Coff, & Moliterno, 2014).

Practitioners echo the importance of star performers evocatively through the “80-20 Rule”

(Lavinsky, 2014), stating that 80% of the work in a firm is accomplished by 20% of the workers.

In contrast, a rich literature gives primacy to organizational routines over individuals as the cor-

nerstone of organizational learning and performance (Cyert & March, 1963; Levitt & March, 1988;

March & Simon, 1958; Nelson & Winter, 1982). Complementing this view, scholars have argued

that routines change through individuals exercising agency in their tasks (Becker, Lazaric, Nelson, &

Winter, 2005; D’Adderio, Feldman, Lazaric, & Pentland, 2012; Feldman, 2000, 2003; Feldman &

Pentland, 2003). Thus, change is accomplished not by star performers but by “ordinary people doing

ordinary things in a competent way”(March, 1981, p. 575).

These contrasting schools of thought suggest that organizations face a tradeoff in utilizing stars.

On the one hand, stars possess unique skills and bring new ideas to an organization. On the other

hand, these unique skills may also make it difficult for organizations to use stars effectively because

organizational routines are typically geared to utilize more conventional skill sets. Progress in under-

standing this tradeoff has been limited because research on star performers has focused on stars’

individual skills rather than the fit between the star and the organization (Call, Nyberg, & Thatcher,

2015; Pfeffer, 1998), and research on routines conceptualizes individuals as ordinary performers

(March, 1981).

This tradeoff is particularly salient in organizations that exhibit high task interdependence

(Thompson, 1967), so that individuals must work closely together—for example, in software pro-

jects, product development groups, consulting teams, surgical units, or soccer teams. We argue that,

in highly interdependent contexts, organizations often develop routines that center excessively

around a star at a cost to fostering greater teamwork. We propose that a star’s temporary absence is

one mechanism for the organization to overcome this problem. The adjustments an organization is

forced to make during a star’s absence serve, somewhat paradoxically, as the basis for improving

teamwork upon the star’s return. Consequently, organizational performance upon the star’s return

may increase relative to performance before her absence.

The potential tradeoff between star performance and organizational performance is not lost on

practitioners. Early in the 2014–2015 National Basketball Association season, Keegan (2014) sug-

gested that untimely injuries to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s two stars, Kevin Durant and Russell

Westbrook, were a blessing in disguise for the team. Keegan argued that it would allow other

players to gain experience and reduce the team’s dependence on the two stars. He believed this

1240 CHEN AND GARG