The escalation of commitment. An empirical case in Colombia

Abstract

The objective of this research work is to describe the escalation of commitment, also known as a commitment bias, a phenomenon that is evidenced in the actors who make decisions in organizations, the government, among others. In order to make the behavior of escalation of commitment in the organization visible and to have the possibility of analyzing it in real situations, we designed and implemented an academic case on the actions that can take place in an organization, identifying the most relevant components of the literature that are part of this behavior. Initially, a group of 464 people, with knowledge in administration and finance, were asked about the way in which they visualize the escalation of commitment in the proposed case and the most relevant attitudes associated to it; then, we analyzed which of the components are the ones that most influence the decision making of financial managers; and finally, what actions would be the best to implement with this behavior. The results of this work show that commitment escalation behaviors, as well as organizational behaviors, are more relevant and important for the group of older women than any other group of the population.