Free Non Rational Escalation of Commitment to Studying Essay Sample

My group successfully engaged in a discussion about decision making, commitment, escalation of commitment and non rational escalation of commitment. In our context of discussion, we defined commitment as the adherence or pledge to stick to a particular chosen course of action. Escalation of commitment was taken to mean any action that a person takes to affirm previous decision while on the other hand, non rational escalation of commitment was taken to refer to the level of commitment in which a person’s continues to decide to stick to a particular course of action previously decided on despite the negative impacts the action being taken may be causing to the person. We came up with several examples where this behavior has been practiced in society. Personally, I found an example of a student’s decision to “work hard” most interesting.

In the example of the student, several factors lead to the initial decision to commit to hard work. To being with, it is evident across the globe that there is a lot of pressure on students to perform well in class. Teachers and parents push their students and children respectively to study hard. The promise and belief is that academic success implies future success in life. Parents and teachers give typical examples of individuals who have succeeded from academic excellence. In this sense, a student will most likely make a decision to work hard, get high grades and hopefully make it big in their future.

Now the decision to work hard in school work is a good decision in itself. However, there arise problems when the decision to work hard is not planned properly. It is one thing to work hard but at some levels, it becomes ultimately disastrous. For instance, in the case of the example we discussed, it was felt that when a student decides to spend more time with books, reading and revising, the student may lose social contact which is very important for the development of any person. Commitment into reading deep into the night could come with effects of lack of sleep. At this level, if such a student presses on working hard, then this becomes non-rational escalation of commitment.

The decision to continue working hard at adverse levels is non-rational in several perspectives. For instance, a person who compromises their social network in favor of academic excellence has indeed entered the adverse effects of escalation to commitment. An activity such as reading too much during the day without taking breaks has adverse effects to the function of the mind and refreshment of the body. Reading on deep into the night without having enough sleep also has adverse effects on the student’s body. For instance, a student who is a victim of the commitment to work hard academically and who studies deep into the night without sufficient sleep will obviously be fatigued most of the time. Such a student will often doze off during the day and daydream whenever awake. These among others are some of the effects of the commitment to work hard which provide basis for the classification of this tendency as a non-rational escalation to commitment.

This form of tendency common among students is most likely to be observed in schools, especially boarding schools. Non-rational escalation of commitment has several impacts on the decision maker. For example, non- rational escalation of commitment causes a person to keep repeating a mistake longer. In this kind of decision making, one may cause harm to him or herself directly or indirectly. Overall, the general impact of non-rational escalation of commitment is that a person’s productivity is lowered and their potential and capacity to shine in an opportunity is shuttered.  

 

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