Buffered by reflected glory? The effects of star connections on career outcomes

Connections to exceptionally high-performing industry stars facilitate individuals' job attainment. But what are the career consequences for people who benefit initially from star connections? Using balance theory, we integrate social network and basking-in-reflected glory research to examine how high expectations resulting from the persistence of reflected glory affect the evaluation of star-connected employees' performance long after their work associations with stars have ceased. To preserve cognitive balance, evaluators may discount the poor performances of the star-connected. Good performances, on the other hand, affirm positive cognitive associations in the minds of evaluators between stars and those who once worked with them. Using the career trajectories of assistant and head coaches in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1976 to 2015, we found that star-connected head coaches, relative to their nonconnected peers, were protected from being fired when underperforming but benefited less when overperforming. Study 2 showed experimentally that a star-connected employee, relative to a nonconnected peer, was buffered from the effects of work performance because of the high work performance expectations held by evaluators. We contribute new evidence concerning the effects of star performers on colleagues and move research beyond the fleeting impressions that have occupied prior basking-in-reflected glory work. Further, we contribute to integrating the social network emphasis on advantageous network connections with research on merit-based advancement. The overall conclusion from these two studies is that the reflected glory of star connections influences careers long beyond the hiring stage in ways that buffer individuals from their own performance outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).