Question

The following descriptions illustrate several mistakes that decision makers might have made as they were deciding how to rebuild Greensburg. With regard to the decision to go green, which of the following fictional scenarios would be the best representation of escalation of commitment?
A) As time went on, Greensburg started to lose residents because of the high taxes associated with creating green city buildings. The Greensburg town council voted to continue building green because the town had already spent so much time and money on the effort.
B) One of Greensburg's primary attractions was the Big Well, which, at 109-feet deep, was the world's largest hand-dug well. The Big Well museum was ruined in the tornado. The city council received bids to rebuild the museum from contractors all over the world. In an effort to save time, they chose the first bid that came in under budget without looking at the other bids.
C) Greensburg followed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum standards in determining how to make its buildings most energy efficient, not realizing that the energy standards created by Green Globes were equally efficient but faster and less expensive to implement.
D) Lonnie McCollum, the mayor of Greensburg, returned to reassume his position but was not reelected because he left the office without building a coalition.

Answer 1

Answer: A) As time went on, Greensburg started to lose residents because of the high taxes associated with creating green city buildings. The Greensburg town council voted to continue building green because the town had already spent so much time and money on the effort.

Explanation:

Escalation of Commitment refers to a situation where an activity done by a person or Organization seems to be on the receiving end of growing negative outcomes and criticism. Yet instead of ceasing the activity, they continue.

This can happen due to a couple of reasons such as Emotional attachment to the action, the need to show consistency and the fact that so much may have already been spent that there will be a feeling of abject failure if the activity is cancelled and defeat acknowledged. This last reason is where the town of Greensburg falls under. They can clearly see that building the city is having a negative impact on the town but they keep going because so much has been spent already that to turn back now would be failure and defeat.