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An Empirical Test of Staw and Ross's Prescriptions for the Management of Escalation of Commitment Behavior in Organizations *
Author(s) -
Barton Sidney L.,
Duchon Dennis,
Dunegan Kenneth J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1989.tb01565.x
Subject(s) - escalation of commitment , test (biology) , context (archaeology) , medical prescription , de escalation , psychology , political science , social psychology , medicine , nursing , paleontology , law , biology
This study tests two major prescriptions of Staw and Ross about the management of escalation behavior in organizations. Since these prescriptions are primarily based on research using students in controlled settings, the efficacy of the prescriptions was tested in the context of a real, functioning organization. The results provide conditional support for separating initial decision responsibility from subsequent responsibility as a means of reducing escalation behavior. However, the findings did not support a reduction of project failure risk as a means of minimizing escalation of commitment to a failing course of action.