In a sample of 360 players in the National Football League who were arrested for a crime, we investigated the degree to which player value impacts the likelihood of employment termination.
Because our outcome is dichotomous (employment terminated or not terminated), we used binary logistic regression in SPSS 25 to analyze the data (Wright, 1995), which came from archival data sources.
While individual performance and expected performance were found to generally reduce the likelihood of termination after arrest, arrests for intimate partner violence and DUI still significantly increased the likelihood of termination. We also find that watershed events – critical events in the organization's history – influence which kinds of violations are tolerated by the organization and which are not, and that expectation violations are treated differently after watershed events than they were prior.
This paper demonstrates how star performance influences individual–organization relationships, including the differential enforcement of organizational policy. The paper also shows how key events in an organizations history influence policy and behavioral change and extends the inducements-contributions framework by conceptualizing detriments and repellents. These ideas have implications for sport and business more broadly.
