¶ … decision was to hold bi-annual meetings for teachers of a new program implemented by a community college. The purpose of these meetings was to liaise with other teachers and to ensure cooperation and synthesis within the program. The persons involved in this decision were the head and vice managers of the program.

Initially the meetings appeared to be a good idea. Everybody from the surrounding regions gathered to share ideas and discuss problems. Experts in a variety of fields were invited to speak. The meeting was concluded with lunch and a final concluding speech. The next meeting was scheduled for the second half of the academic year, and was met with enthusiasm, due to the success of the first meeting. All the events took the same form as previously, with extensive orientation sessions. This was seen as somewhat redundant, as all the facilitators were present at the first session. It was however still interesting to find what solutions work best for the problems previously discussed. After 5 years and 10 meetings, however, it has become clear that management has become nonrational in its commitment to these same-structure meetings. Always before an upcoming meeting, a collective groan is heard from facilitators who have better ways to spend their time. The prevalent negativity towards the sessions themselves also make them even less effective than they already are. The main problem is that the structure of the meetings have not changed, despite numerous complaints from experienced facilitators. Catering for all the delegates has therefore become a cost that far exceeds any benefits. Indeed, the only benefit is the emotional satisfaction of the vice-manager, who fell in love with the first session and from then escalated her commitment to it in a nonrational manner. The impact is that facilitators who could spend their time otherwise are negatively oriented towards the sessions and gain nothing by it. A solution would be to either require only new facilitators to attend or to change the structure of the sessions altogether.

Sources

Fox, Shaul & Hoffman, Michael. (2002). "Escalation Behavior as a Specific Case of Goal-Directed Activity: A Persistence Paradigm." In Basic and Applied Social Psychology

Vol. 24, No. 4, Pages 273-285

Schmidt, Jeffrey B. (2005). "Managerial commitment can be detrimental as well as beneficial, according to an award-winning paper." Product Development & Management Association. http://www.pdma.org/visions/oct03/managerial.html