Helga Drummond: Escalation in Decision Making

Organization Studies, Wntr, 1999

1996, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 237 pages.

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This book examines how and why organizations become ensnared in disastrous decisions. The focal point is Taurus, the now notorious IT venture commissioned by the London Stock Exchange. Taurus was intended to replace London's antiquated share settlement procedures with a state-of-the-art electronic system that would be the envy of the world. The project collapsed after three years of intensive work at a cost to the Stock Exchange and the City of London of almost [pounds]500 million. This book is a study of what the author calls 'escalation' in decision making: 'persistence with a decision well beyond the point where a sensible person would give it up'. On the basis of a large number of interviews with many of those involved at first hand, the author discusses such issues as the roles of poor system design, infighting, lack of clear decisions and directives, and poor communication and control. Her argument is that expectation and system design grow exponentially with each compromise, which produces the escalation in decision-making phenomena. Typical for this escalation, according to the author, is that the cause is still that 'everybody [is] behaving rationally'.

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Helga Drummond: Escalation in Decision Making

Organization Studies, Wntr, 1999

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