Jerry Ross

Commitment to a Policy Decision: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective.

March 1978, volume 23 Subjects in an experimental simulation played the role of a decision maker in the World Bank. This simulation was designed to tap some variables relevant for policy situations and to compare specific predictions derived from six psychological theories. Subjects were asked to allocate resources to one of several courses of action and their commitment was measured following a financial setback. Causal information pertaining to the financial setback was experimentally manipulated as was prior success or failure experience. The results showed that individuals may process information differently after a failure as opposed to a success experience, and that this differential processing may account for differences in commitment to policy decisions.

Expo 86: An Escalation Prototype.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the librarians at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver Public Library, and the archivist at the Expo 86 offices. The authors would also like to express appreciation to Nick Steadman, Ian Mulgrew, Mark Wexler, several Expo 86 staff members who preferred not to be cited by name, and ASOs associate editor and anonymous reviewers. This paper examines British Columbias decision to host a worlds fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver. Despite rapidly increasing deficit projections (from a

Understanding Behavior in Escalation Situations

6-million projected loss in 1978 to over a

The Effects of Marriage and a Working Wife on Occupational and Wage Attainment.

300-million projected loss in 1985), the provincial government remained steadfast in its plans to hold Expo. Expo is therefore a visible and prototypical example of the escalation of commitment, a phenomenon subject to extensive laboratory research in recent years. By examining the Expo case in some detail, this study provides field grounding for previous investigations of escalation. The case not only illustrates the frequently studied processes of self-justification and biased information processing but also highlights the potential importance of institutional explanations of escalation. New theory is proposed that integrates determinants of escalation from several levels of analysis over time. It is proposed that escalation starts with project and psychological forces but can evolve over time into a more structurally determined phenomenon.*

Gender-Based Wage Differences The Effects of Organizational Context

Everyday observation reveals that both individuals and organizations often become overly committed to losing courses of action; in a sense, throwing good money after bad. More than 10 years of research on this escalation problem shows that persistence is associated with at least four major clases of determinants: project, psychological, social, and organizational variables. The influence of these four sets of variables evolves over time, forming a dynamic model of behavior in escalation situations.

Interpersonal Attraction and Organizational Outcomes: A Field Examination.

The data used in this study were obtained from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data were originally collected by the Center for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University. Neitherthe original collectors of the data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented in this paper. In a study of a national random sample of mature male managerial, professional, and blue-collarworkers, the positive effects of being married and the negative effects of having a working wife on both occupational status and wage attainment were observed most strongly for the professional and managerial subsamples. These results are consistent with both a conformance-to-social expectations and wife-as-career resource arguments, but not as consistent with either human capital/market-signalling or distributive justice arguments. The effects of specific organizational tenure, education, and socioeconomic origins on both forms of attainment tended to be stronger for managers than for professionals, and, in turn, than for the blue-collar respondents. These results are consistent with the different need for control, given the uncertainty of evaluation and performance and importance of the jobs (higher for managers and professionals than for others), and the different mechanisms for achieving control. Professional control is achieved more through extraorganizational mechanisms, while managerial control is achieved through background, certification, and tenure, which tend to be associated with compliance to the normative structure.

The Compensation of College and University Presidents.

In a study of more than 20,000 high-level administrators in 821 colleges and universities, it was found that womens salaries were lower than mens, even when institutional, individual, and positional characteristics were statistically controlled. Moreover, the negative effect of female incumbency on salary was greater in larger institutions and in private as compared with public colleges and universities. There was also limited evidence that the availability of more resources tended to increase the amount of gender-based wage discrimination. There was no effect of being in a university, a four-year college, or a two-year college. The results are consistent with the evidence of wage discrimination against women, and serve to identify some factors of organizational context that affect the extent of such discrimination.

Scorcese's the Age of Innocence: An Escalation Interpretation

The authors wish to thank Gary Albrecht, Jeanne Brett, David Dittman, and Barry Staw for their very helpful criticisms and suggestions during the early stages of this research. The authors also wish to thank theASQ reviewers and editorial staff for their valuable assistance. Objective evaluation is one of the basic tenets of rational administrative theory. However, it is widely recognized that several barriers exist to objective evaluation in practice. Informational social influence theory offers an auxiliary approach to understanding organizational outcomes. While informational social influence subsumes a wide variety of elements, three components were selected for examination from the social psychological literature on interpersonal attraction. The relationship of physical attractiveness, attitude similarity, and social background to performance ratings and salaries was examined at two public accounting firms. Motivation and ability measures were included to provide baselines for results. The data were consistentwith research suggesting that physical attractiveness may lead to higher outcomes but are less supportive of previous findings on attitude similarity and social background.

ORGANIZATIONAL ESCALATION AND EXIT: LESSONS FROM THE SHOREHAM NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

In a study of the compensation of over 600 college and university presidents, both individual characteristics (tenure in the position, gender, and whether or not the person was hired from inside) and institutional characteristics (size, resources, university type, and form of control) were found to predict salary. In private institutions, size, resources, and type (university, four-year college, two-year college) had more effect on salary than in public colleges and universities. There is evidence that over the period from 1978 to 1983, salaries increased more in private organizations, and the link between level of resources and compensation increased in public colleges. The results, taken as a whole, are consistent both with functional theories of compensation as well as with perspectives that emphasize the attribution of effectiveness to leaders.

Commitment in an Experimenting Society: A Study of the Attribution of Leadership from Administrative Scenarios.

Escalation theory provides an explanation for why individuals and organizations often continue with failing courses of action. Contemporary models of escalation involve multiple determinants differentially influencing persistence over time. This article examines how Martin Scorceses film The Age of Innocence, can provide an effective teaching illustration of contemporary escalation theory. The article then discusses the broader implications of this demonstration for management theory and management education.