Can analytics fix the Rooney Rule?

Sports has led the way for diversity when the Rooney Rule was introduced in 2003 – but new research and outcomes ahead of the 2020 season prove it’s time for a reboot

“We have about one-third of the coaches in the National Football League are from the minority communities. That’s really not a bad pipeline. And so, the question is, why aren’t more of those people getting interviews?”

– Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II

The answer to Art Rooney’s question is an important one — NFL coaches and executives are watching, and so is the nation. Over the last 17 years, companies from Amazon to Uber have taken a page from the league’s playbook and implemented their own version of the Rooney Rule, which mandates teams interview at least one minority candidate for any head coach or senior football operations job. But today, the NFL is grappling with the same problem corporate America finds itself struggling with: underrepresentation in top leadership. Seventeen years after the implementation of the Rooney Rule, the numbers are bad for the league and the assessments are blunt.

“When you look at the demographics, it’s embarrassing,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations.

Said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II: “I think where we are right now, is not where we want to be, not where we need to be.”

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.