Can You Measure Baseball Executive Leadership?

Simple answer: Yes.

Baseball executive leadership can be measured. I’ve done it multiple times in multiple ways. I imagine I’ll continue to measure baseball leadership, and the measurement will get more precise, similar to some of the sabermetrics used with baseball players.

One of the ways I’ve looked at baseball leadership is through the lens of transformational leadership and baseball executive Hall-of-Famers. Here is a link to a conference poster I presented at the Society for American Baseball Research summarizing that research.

One of the things that stands out to me today about the baseball executive Hall-of-Famer research is the key finding that those rated highest on the transformational leadership scale all achieved something beyond the “team”, i.e., their own organization, level. I’m struck by this finding because I’ve heard baseball executives mention other baseball executives — not in the Hall-of-Fame (Note: One of my friends would point out that, technically, no executives are in the Hall-of-Fame) — who put the industry ahead of their own teams.

Outside of baseball, I’ve observed this same phenomenon, where a CEO or executive acts with industry citizenship, above and beyond, their own organization. Anecdotally, stories spring to mind about executives stepping across boundaries to produce innovations. Within baseball, for example, Roland Hemond and his many contributions to the sport easily come to the forefront.

So, yes, baseball leadership can be measured also described, and fostered. And, yes, the etymology of the word “foster” is not related to Rube Foster, highest rated executive on the transformational leadership scale.