Salary Discrimination in National Basketball Association - Essay Example

Salary Discrimination in National Basketball Association. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Background to Problem ment and Research Questions 2Choice of study 1.3 Purpose and Objectives of Study 1.4 Theoretical Framework and Literature design 1.5 Summary of Literature 1.6 Research Methods and Design 1.7 Preconceptions 1.8 Data Collection Methods 1.9 Time Scale 1.0 Introduction and Background to Problem Statement Sports statistics create a great opportunity to measure the relationship between productivity and income. Since its integration in the 1940s, professional basketball has achieved the highest level of African American representation of the major professional sports in the United States (Keen & Broyles 2005). Labor market discrimination is defined as unequal treatment of equally qualified workers. A great deal of research on labor market discrimination has focused on the racial pay differences of NBA athletes (see Kahn, 2000, 1991). Now, in existing national basket ball literature on pay discrimination, it is now well documented that Blacks earn less than their White counterpart. For example, using statistics drawn from the national basketball league of 1986, Khan & Sherer found a ceteris paribus black salary short fall of about 20%. Consumers (NBA FANS) may have discriminatory preferences for white stars but no real preference among black and white athletes of average ability. Found out that, whiter teams tended to be located in whiter metropolitan areas. Given their results, these authors concluded that their observed salary shortfalls were due primarily, to customer discrimination by white basketball fans (Dey 1997, Hamilton 1997). However, several recent studies have cast doubt on these results. Bodvarsson and Brastow (1998) performed a salary regression similar to the Kahn and Sherer specification and found no evidence of racial discrimination. Their methodology, however, was based on the assumption that consumer discrimination is pervasive throughout the ability distribution. Previous studies claim that NBA wage gaps in the 1980s are attributable to customer discrimination and monopsonistic wage discrimination. Michael (1988) and Walton &Gardella (2000) state that, employer discrimination was an important source of those gaps and that one reason they vanished was because reduced monopsony power eradicated employer discrimination. Against this background, this paper will specifically address the following research questions. Is the evidence of salary discrimination between Black and White players in the National Basketball Association? What factors are specifically responsible for salary discrimination for a Black and White professional in NBA? Finally, what should be the possible effect on a player’s performance if the player is being paid low when compared to his other team professionals with similar experience and performance. What have the various sporting teams doing to address salary discrimination amongst professionals? 1.2 Choice of Subject As a basket ball fan and a keen supporter of the sport, researches like this one will add to the growing pool of existing literature. Going through previous research on the subject, I came to realized attention have been focus on salary discrimination between white and black professionals. While some group of researchers such as Khan seems to have found enough evidence of the existence of salary discrimination, others have argued the differences in salary between black and white players have long disappeared. The is now a controversy as recent evidence pointed enough evidence of salary discrimination. Today, many researchers have argued that over 80 percent of NBA players are African American and moreover, many of the most celebrated athletes today, such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, are African American basketball players. It is therefore surprising that numerous studies provide evidence of discrimination in the NBA labor market. Thus a research like this one will not only be of significant value to politicians, economists, policy makers but will add to the mounting evidence that the is significance level of discrimination in the professional basketball between the Black and white race. 1.3 Purpose and Objective of study This research has as it main objective to examine evidence of salary discrimination between black and white players in the NBA. This will be possible using a sample of players and their salary structure drawn from the NBA teams for the last two seasons. Other objective will include To analyse the actions being taken by the various sporting teams to address the situation. Investigate those factors responsible for salary discrimination between black and white NBA players. And finally, the study will try and analyse the possible effect of salary discrimination on a victim’s performance. 1.4 Theoretical Framework and Literature Design This chapter focus on relevant literature and previous research on salary discrimination on NBA. To get the best out of the work, attention is focused on related peer review articles published in Science direct and Business source premier. With the Primary intention to give a proper theoretical framework for the research. In the review of related articles, I will also reviewed articles on the journal of science and medicines in sport. Thus, an overview of an on-going, international project designed to chart the developmental paths and activities of salary for sporting professionals and development will also be reviewed In the literature review proper, I will also focused on some related peer review literature and arguments in support of business ethics, and forms of salary discrimination. The chosen articles will be interesting, thought provoking, instructive to provide meaningful literature inline with the research area. To minimise redundancy, my review of related literature does not include articles and text on the general aspect of NBA. Thus, most of the related literature will be drawn from earlier studies examining salary discrimination on the national basketball association. From these materials, I will be able to formulate and support the research question. The chapter would also emphasize some of the difficulties of previous studies. 1.5 Summary of Literature Few studies have examined salary discrimination at the NBA more directly. One exception is a study by Stone and Warren (1999), which examines the price of NBA players’ trading cards. Using a sample of 258 NBA players from the 1976-77 seasons, they found that the price of NBA trading cards did not vary by player’s race According to Kahn (2000) consumer discrimination may explain some of the racial pay gap observed in basketball. If fans are prejudiced against African Americans, teams may hire more white players or pay white players more. There is evidence from the 1980s that is consistent with this hypothesis. Findings from other studies have not been different from Khan earlier proposition. Keen & Broyles (2005), using means of players performance variables find out that average black players outperform white players in points-per game and assists-per-game (Keen &Broyles 2005). Keen and Broyles further stipulated that, Black players average almost two more points per game and less than one assist more per game than white players. Nonetheless, according to Keen & Broyles (2005) these black players must perform better than whites to retain a place on the bench. In addition, the researchers further contend that, Coaches may keep white players who don’t perform as well to appease white fans. It may also reflect employer discrimination by coaches. Coaches may have higher expectations for black players than for white players. Hamilton’s (1997) research on earnings discrimination, the researcher find out those white players only had an advantage over black players at the superstar level-at the top of the earnings distribution 1.6 Research Methods and Design 1.6.1 Perspective Writing a research of this kind requires the researchers to take a standpoint. By taking a standpoint the researchers will be able to interpret a problem from their personal perspective. This influences concepts about the most important aspects of the research and the collection of information (Hantrais 1996). Depending on the purpose of this research, and from the perspective of an Academics and that of coaches I have been able to identify a standpoint. The perspective should reflect the researcher’s interpretation of the situation at hand. An academician and investors often view problem interpretation differently. In this case, there are two perspectives; that of the coaches and that of the teams. In order to choose a perspective, I have used the main objective “to investigate and analyse the role of coaching on sporting performance indicators, with case study the top six premiere league teams in England”. Since the choice of perspective naturally derives from the purpose of study, it should therefore influence the researcher’s method and theory (Nath & Ronholm 2004, Burton 2000) Researchers should take a standpoint and interpret a particular situation from their personal perspective. This intend influences the concepts and the collection of information1. As a business student my perspective wouldn’t be different from that of a businessman, but at the same time working in an academic area like this one requires the researchers to be more critical. While studying or researching on this topic, I will adopt the perspective of a researcher and coaches and try to be as objective as possible. 1.6.2 Preconception Preconceptions are a complex pattern based on a person’s social background, education, practical experience values and behaviour (Bryman & Bell 2004). Because of this situation, preconceptions make it practically impossible to be completely objective when writing a research like this one. Individual’s preconceptions are their ideas that exist regarding different phenomenon (Burton 2000, Bryman &Bell 2007). Preconceptions are socially founded, subjective opinions on the issues to be studied. The scientist preconceptions vary depending upon the parents, religion conviction, circle, set of acquaintances, working places, social status. Some are deeply founded than others and as such are harder to change e.g. faith and politics (Bechofer 2000:8). I have acquired academic and work experience background in the field of business. My personal preconceptions will of course affect not only the conclusions I make, but also the whole scientific process of the study. My preconceptions thus come from my previous studies and practical experience as a sport fan. I want to assure the reader at the same time I am objective. 1.6.3 Scientific ideal Reality can be perceived from different angles depending on the researcher and the individual. This view should follow the scientific and theoretical choices of the study. Performing a research requires the researcher to probe into different ideals. In this study, I have identified with the hermeneutics research approach, as it is most suitable with a qualitative research, which is the case with this study. However, some researchers can identify within two approaches. Depending on the researchers, they can identify and position themselves anywhere along the two approaches, qualitative and quantitative (Burton 2000:21). This is however not the situation in this study. Since I have taken the position of hermeneutics researchers I am therefore mostly concern with the interpretation of results. The positivism researcher on the other hand, is concerned with the reproduction of the reality in a much more objective way ( Burton 2000:21, Saunders et al 2003). In this study, since I will be mostly concern with the interpretation of result in the form of a case study that is finding out the role coaching on performance indicators on sporting activities. I will look at the real life situation and what actually happens. Thus, I will adopt the interpretist research approach, since the method better fits my research question and problem statement. The subject area is a complex and difficult one, but however, with my academics and practical experience experience as a sport and football fan, I will crave the reader to share with me as I have a fair understanding of the problem at hand. Thus, with these backgrounds, I will be able to probe into the research question. 1.6.4 Scientific Approach In this section of the theoretical methods, I have chosen to show how I intend to approach the problem. To do this, I start by gathering relevant information from theories related to the subject matter and compare them with our empirical findings. There are basically two-research approaches, the deductive approach in which you develop a theory and hypothesis and design a research strategy to test the hypothesis, or the inductive method in which you will collect data and develop theory as a result of your data analysis (Saunders et al., 2003:84). Since I am mostly concerned with the interpretation of results, in this research, I will follow the inductive research approach. From existing research about the nature of the salary discrimination in NBA and methods, I will be able to form the interview questions, analyse and investigate the findings. Against this practical and theoretical background, I will start with initial empirical research, interviews (coaches) in order to strengthen the substance in both theoretical and practical background, and improve our performance in the interviews of key persons so that I could focus on the core issues. The initial visits and problem discussion would have the purpose of fine-tuning the work and on the basis of the results I will then start the main empirical work. 1.6.5 Research Method A research method involves collecting data, with specific instrument such as a self-completion questionnaire or a structured interview schedule or where a researcher listens to and watches others (Bryman & Bell 2004:32). Basically, there are two research methods from which the above examples stem from. The qualitative and quantitative research methods. None of the method is better than the other, as each of the methods becomes efficient and effective once used in the proper context. Qualitative research would seem to have the monopoly of the ability to study meaning. It proponents essentially claim that it is only through qualitative research that the world can be studied through the eyes of the people who are studied (Saunders et al., 2003:468). The weakness of this method is the effect from the control of the phenomena, which will continue to change because of the scientific process. During the oral method, the interviewer should guide the conversation as little as possible. Through the language, the scientist and respondents could take part of each other’s thoughts by their own valuations and experience, for it becomes easier for the scientist to gather information from the respondents. Qualitative research is by no means a new strategy or framework for doing social research (Bryman & Bell 2004). None-the-less, there has been a very considerable growth in the use and popularity of qualitative research since the early 1960s, which can easily convey the impression that it is of more recent origin than is in fact the case(Bryman & Bell 2004 ). Quantitative method on the other hand is based on already decided and well-structured questions, which all the respondents will be asked. This is also true for qualitative research method, though information is reduced to a certain area of interest and respondents are asked the same questions. This can be combined with open questions, which give the respondents the flexibility to answer from different perspectives ( Bryman & Bell 2004). Quantitative and qualitative aspects may also be combined in the same study. They can compliment each other by bringing width and depth into the research. A mix of qualitative and quantitative studies would have been the best ideal if I was to study the problem too, at the level of the players or other participants using questionnaires. However, since my problem statement, and research approaches identify with the qualitative research method I have chosen to adopt this method. Thus with this, I believe the approach has massive potentials that best suit the needs and will help probe into the research question by the end of the work. 1.6.6 0Practical method .1 The selection of respondents The research question will examine the research questions outlined above. In my position as someone concern with salary discrimination, I choose to get information through existing database having these information. I have considered the selection of respondents to be critical to the outcome and credibility of this work. 1.6.7 Data collection With the main purpose of the research being to examine salary discrimination between black and white players in NBA, this assignment will be completed through information drawn from university databases on the player’s salary structure. Also, a follow up interview with the direct management staff will be conducted. Thus, the questions will be directed, centred, and built around salary discrimination, with respect to individual teams, and the effects on the team performance indicators. Hamilton, Vidich and Lyman, (2003), suggested that three different kinds of interviews are often used in research depending on the nature of the study. Structured interview, semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews. Here, I will use semi-structured interview questions as it offers both the interviewer and interviewee more flexibility. A linear regression will be run to see the salary structure of white and black NBA players with similar experience, performance to see if there is any difference in their salary structure and if so, what factors are responsible for this. Thus we will be able to find out how performance differences between black and white players affected their salary. 3.2 Data sources. Salary data information relating to the sampled players that partake in NBA over the last two seasons will be retrieved from the Thomson Financial DataStream data base. This data base contains information about all major stock price, and salary streams. It therefore remains an essential source of data for this study. Data will also be drawn from journals, newspapers and reliable online sources. This study will therefore make use of these documents to answer the questions stated earlier in the introduction. References Bryman, A. and Bell. E: 2004 Business research methods. Oxford University press, 2003 Burton, D. (2000): Research Training for Social Scientists, a handbook for postgraduate researchers, edited by Dawn Burton. Sage Publications Ltd, Great Britain. Keen, B. &Broyles., (2005) Consumer Discrimination in the NBA Trading-Card Market issn: 1543-9518 Dey, Matthew S., (1997), “Racial Differences in National Basketball Association Players’ Salaries: Another Look,” The American Economist, 19 (3):293-318 Hamilton, Barton Hughes, (1997),”Racial Discrimination and Professional Basketball Salaries in the 1990s,” Applied Economic, 29:287-296 Hantrais L., 1996 Cross National Research in the Social sciences, London Printers, Pg.68 Kahn, Lawrence M., (2000), “A Level Playing Field? Sports and Discrimination,” Pp. 115-130 in William S. Kern (ed.), The Economics of Sport Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Kahn, Lawrence M., and Peter D. Sherer, (1988), “Racial Differences in Professional Basketball Players Compensation,” Journal of Labor Economics, 6 (1):40-61. Wallace, Michael, (1988), “Labor Market Structure and Salary Determination among Professional Basketball Players,” Work and Occupations, 15 (3):294-312. Walton, David and John Gardella (eds.), (2000), The Sporting News Official NBA Register 2002-2003 Edition, St. Louis: The Sporting News. Read More