2. 1. Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic
Review of the determinants of escalation of
commitment
2. A Social Context Model of Envy and Social
Undermining
3. Collective Memory Meets Organizational
Identity: Remembering to forget in a firms
rhetorical history
3. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Journal: Academy of Management Journal
Time: 2012 June
Author:
＊ Dustin J. Sleesman ( Doctoral candidate of Michigan State University and
University of Delaware)
＊ Donald E. Conlon (Professor of Management at the Eli Broad College of
Business, Michigan State University)
＊ Gerry McNamara (Professor of management at the Eli Broad College of
Business, Michigan State University)
＊ Jonathan E. Miles (Doctoral candidate in the Department of Management at
the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University)
Data Base: Business Source Complete
Google Scholar Citation Times: 2 (2013.1.1)
4. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Research 6
Definition:
1. Meta-Analysis
Glass (1976)
2. Escalation of Commitment
Staw (1976)
throwing good money (or resources more
generally) after bad
5. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Theory Background: Escalation of Commitment
Four sets of determinants (Staw,1976)
risk, opportunity cost information,
1. Project determinants perfomance trend, prefernce for initial decision
sunk cost, time investment, experience,
2. Psychological Determinants self-confidence, responsibility for failure,
ego threat
3. Social Determinants public evaluation of decision(save face), resistance
from others, group identity (conformity)
4. Structural Determinants agency problems
6. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Theory Background: Escalation of Commitment
Relevant theoretical perspectives:
1. Subjective expected utility theory (e.g.,Savage, 1954)
2. Self-justification theory (e.g., Aronson,1968; Festinger, 1957)
3. Prospect theory (e.g.,Kahneman & Tversky, 1979)
4. Goal substitution effect (e.g., Conlon & Garland, 1993)
5. Self-presentation theory (e.g., Goffman, 1959; Jones & Pittman,1982)
6. Agency theory (e.g., Eisenhardt, 1989;Jensen & Meckling, 1976)
7. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Why escalation of commitment…?
Many results but didn’t systematically integrate
Why meta-analysis…?
Meta-analysis provide power and comprehensive overview
Why now…?
Staw(1987) said: …as the volume of escalation studies has grown in recent
years, attempts to summarize and integrate this literature . . . have become
increasingly difficult.
Staw(1987) said …the field was “a long way from being able to conduct
such meta-analyses, not only because the empirical studies have been so
few, but because most of the studies have been rather unique conceptually”
8. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Meta-Analysis
Research Structure:
Efficacy comparison
Literature review
Moderate effect measurement
Research filtering
Main effect measurement
9. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Hypotheses: Main effect
10. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Hypotheses: Main effect
11. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Hypotheses: Main effect
12. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Hypotheses: Moderate effect
“We concentrate on
these determinants
because they are the
best known and
most studied”
13. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Results: Main effect
14. 1 Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Results: Moderate effect
15. Cleaning Up the Big Muddy: A Meta-Analytic Review 1
of the determinants of escalation of commitment
Interesting findings: Paper#1
Clear
1. Ego threat has biggest effect size
2. Having people responsible for the project by choosing
them-self or assigning to them doesn’t matter
3. the prominence of sunk costs was lower than expected
4. Opportunity cost salience can lead to de-escalation in
some situations but escalation in others
5. The sharing of decision authority may lead to greater
levels of escalation.
16. 2 A Social Context Model of Envy
and Social Undermining
Journal: Academy of Management Journal
Time: 2012 June
Author:
＊ Kristin L. Scott (Assistant professor in the College of Business and
Behavioral Science at Clemson University.)
＊ Jason D. Shaw (Professor and the Curtis L. Carlson School–wide Professor
in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.)
＊ Bennett J. Tepper (Professor of managerial sciences in the J. Mack
Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.)
＊ Karl Aquino (Professor of Business and Society at the Sauder School of
Business at the University of British Columbia.)
Data Base: Business Source Complete
Google Scholar Citation Times: 3 (2013.1.1)
17. 2 A Social Context Model of Envy
and Social Undermining
Definition:
Context:
Griffin(2007):“context is the set of circumstances in which
phenomena (e.g. events, processes or entities) are situated”
Organizational context Social context Cultural
context….
18. 2 A Social Context Model of Envy
and Social Undermining
About Research: Contextual
Variable
In this paper…, researchers integrate moral
Contextual
Variable
disengagement, social identification, and social norms
Contextual
Variable
Contextual
theories to develop, test, and replicate a model that explains
Variable
how and when envy is associated with social undermining.
Behavior
19. 2 A Social Context Model of Envy
and Social Undermining
Method: Logistic Regression
Theoretical model:
20. A Social Context Model of Envy
2
and Social Undermining
Paper#2
Result: Clear
Study1:
Moral disengagement did not occur when employees identified
strongly with coworkers
Study2:
The indirect effect of envy on social undermining through
moral disengagement occurred only when social identification
was low and team undermining norms were high.
21. Collective Memory Meets Organizational
3
Identity: Remembering to forget in a firms
rhetorical history
Journal: Academy of Management Journal
Time: 2012 June
Author:
＊ Michel Anteby (Associate professor in the organizational behavior unit at
Harvard Business School)
＊ Virág Molnár (Assistant professor of sociology at the New School for
Social Research.)
Data Base: Business Source Complete
Google Scholar Citation Times: 2 (2013.1.2)
22. Collective Memory Meets Organizational
3
Identity: Remembering to forget in a firms
rhetorical history
Definition:
Organization change (e.g. Merger)
Organization identity vs Identity endurance
This research shows how to sustains organization identity by
forgetting a firm’s rhetorical (i.e., structural omission) or
neutralizing new things and old things with valued identity
cues (i.e., preemptive neutralization).
23. Collective Memory Meets Organizational
3
Identity: Remembering to forget in a firms
rhetorical history
Method: Documenting
24. Collective Memory Meets Organizational
3
Identity: Remembering to forget in a firms
rhetorical history
Paper#2
Clear
Result:
1. When faced with such contradictions, managers might be
inclined to ignore them; instead, proactively addressing them
is central to identity endurance.
2. Manager’s ability to infuse meaning into work depends in
part on her or his ability to help others remember and forget.
3. The routine traces(e.g. company’s bulletins) can significantly
shape and capture a firm’s identity.
