Escalation of commitment in individual and group decision making

Abstract

Previous research (cf. B. M. Staw, Academy of Management Review, 1981, 6, 577–587) has found that when managers are given negative feedback on an initial individual investment decision, they allocate more additional funds to that investment if they, rather than another member of their organization, made the initial allocation decision. Justification is thought to underlie this phenomenon. This study explored commitment in group and individual decisions and examined the plausibility of dissonance processes as the mediator of escalation of commitment. One hundred eighty-three individuals participated in a role-playing exercise in which personal responsibility for an initial decision was manipulated for groups and individuals. As expected, escalation of commitment occurred for both groups and individuals. In support of a dissonance explanation, dissonance processes did vary as a function of the personal responsibility manipulation, and individual variation in dissonance responses accounted for a substantial portion of variance in allocation behavior beyond that accounted for by the experimental manipulations. The results concerning dissonance processes suggest a number of ways in which escalation can be reduced in individuals and groups.