Keeping Promises: A Process Study of Escalating Commitment Leading to Organizational Change Collapse

Abstract

In the present research, we employ a theoretical lens—the one of escalation of commitment to a failing course of action that so far is not sufficiently reflected in the academic literature for analyzing large-scale organizational change processes. In doing so, we highlight aspects of complex change processes that are less visible than other theoretical perspectives that use “snapshots” of change. Using 3-year longitudinal process data, we present an in-depth empirical study of the failed attempt at strategic reorientation known as corporatization of the Norwegian Air Traffic Control organization—Avinor. Underway, we identified an important new variable that emerged as a significant determinant for persistence and escalating commitment that eventually led to the total collapse of the strategic change project known as Take-Off 05.