Escalating commitment harms organizations from the start through self-justification and face-saving

Evidence

Since there are no increasing returns or similar enhancing effects, it highlights another problem area— namely, pathological decision behavior based on the dynamics of self-justification and fears of losing face. In effect, escalating commitment is problematic from the very beginning. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 60

Categorization

• SHARE: Worth sending to someone working on escalation of commitment or failed corporate projects.
• XREF: connects to: Organizations survive by abandoning goals that threaten their existence — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 66