Analysis of escalation of commitment is used to highlight the differences between two paradigms in the study of decision making. The rational paradigm proposes that escalation is a dysfunctional response to failure (Staw and Ross 1987). A single-option paradigm, developed in this paper, proposes that it is a necessary response to uncertainty which may, but not necessarily, result in failure. Analysis of the decision-making process of President Bush prior to Operation Desert Storm highlights the differences between the two paradigms and demonstrates how they provide different interpretations and evaluations of a given decision process.
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