The Escalation Phenomenon Reconsidered: Decision Dilemmas or Decision Errors?

Previous studies and theoretical work suggest that the “escalation phenomenon” represents a syndrome of decision errors which tend to lock decision makers into a course of action. This paper develops an alternative model which implies that earlier studies may have observed decisions to recommit resources resulting from difficult dilemmas rather than a behavioral tendency to “throw good money after bad.”

[1]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Factors affecting entrapment in escalating conflicts: The importance of timing☆ , 1982 .

[2]  Gerardo R. Ungson,et al.  Managerial Information Processing: A Research Review. , 1981 .

[3]  H. Simon,et al.  Models of Man. , 1957 .

[4]  J. Thompson,et al.  Strategies, Structures, and Processes of Organizational Decision , 1959 .

[5]  R. Normann,et al.  Management for growth , 1977 .

[6]  Fremont E. Kast,et al.  Organization and management: a systems approach , 1974 .

[7]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes , 1976 .

[8]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Commitment to a Policy Decision: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective. , 1978 .

[9]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Factors affecting withdrawal from an escalating conflict: Quitting before it's too late , 1979 .

[10]  W. Starbuck.  Organizations as Action Generators , 1983 .

[11]  M. McCaskey.  The management of ambiguity , 1979 .

[12]  B. Hedberg.  How Organizations Learn and Unlearn , 1981 .

[13]  Mary Lloyd,et al.  Toward the Reduction of Entrapment , 1982 .

[14]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Commitment in an experimenting society: A study of the attribution of leadership from administrative scenarios. , 1980 .

[15]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Escalation: The Determinants of Commitment to a Chosen Course of Action , 1977 .

[16]  F. Heller,et al.  Managerial Decision-making , 1971 .

[17]  Edward J. Conlon,et al.  The moderating effects of strategy, visibility, and involvement on allocation behavior: An extension of Staw's escalation paradigm. , 1980 .

[18]  Gregory B. Northcraft,et al.  Dollars, Sense, and Sunk Costs: A Life Cycle Model of Resource Allocation Decisions , 1984 .

[19]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  The External Control of Organizations. , 1978 .

[20]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Managerial Response to Changing Environments: Perspectives on Problem Sensing from Social Cognition. , 1982 .

[21]  L. Zucker.  The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. , 1977 .

[22]  R. Abelson.  Script processing in attitude formation and decision making. , 1976 .

[23]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Knee-deep in the Big Muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action. , 1976 .

[24]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Factors Affecting Entry into Psychological Traps , 1980 .

[25]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Face-Saving and Entrapment , 1981 .

[26]  Derek W. Bunn.  Multiple Perspectives for Decision-Making , 1985 .

[27]  E. Johnsen.  Richard M. Cyert & James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of The Firm, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, 332 s. , 1964 .

[28]  R. Hogarth,et al.  Prediction, Diagnosis, and Causal Thinking in Forecasting , 1982 .

[29]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Factors affecting entrapment in waiting situations: The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern effect. , 1975 .

[30]  M. Bazerman,et al.  Escalation of commitment in individual and group decision making , 1984 .

[31]  David W. Conrath,et al.  Organizational Decision Making Behavior Under Varying Conditions of Uncertainty , 1967 .

[32]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Structure of Ill Structured Problems , 1973, Artif. Intell..

[33]  Igor H.Ansoff.  Strategic Management , 1979 .

[34]  A. Teger,et al.  Too Much Invested to Quit , 1980 .

[35]  B. Hedberg,et al.  Strategy Formulation as a Discontinuous Process , 1977 .

[36]  Charles A. O'Reilly,et al.  Responses to Failure: The Effects of Choice and Responsibility on Impression Management , 1982 .

[37]  M. Tushman,et al.  Organizational Evolution: A Metamorphosis Model of Convergence and Reorientation , 1985 .

[38]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Entrapment in escalating conflicts , 1985 .

[39]  Joel Brockner,et al.  The role of modeling processes in the “knee deep in the big muddy” phenomenon , 1984 .

[40]  N. Lewis.  A dynamic theory of personality , 1935 .

[41]  A. Pettigrew.  The politics of organizational decision-making , 1973 .

[42]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[43]  M. Bougon.  Cognition in Organizations: An Analysis of the Utrecht Jazz Orchestra. , 1977 .

[44]  J. March,et al.  Information in Organizations as Signal and Symbol. , 1981 .

[45]  Michael X Cohen,et al.  A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. , 1972 .

[46]  B. M. Staw.  The Escalation of Commitment To a Course of Action , 1981 .

[47]  J. March,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm , 1964 .

[48]  M. Hannan,et al.  The Population Ecology of Organizations , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.