The Effect Of Personality Factors And Competitive Setting On Teams’ Escalation Of Commitment

Scientists have not yet formulated a comprehensive model that can predict escalation behavior based on a set of personality factors and competitive setting.We have investigated the influence of “competitive setting” including uncertainty of outcomes,importance of outcomes and competition shadow and “personality factors” including competitive trait anxiety and risk propensity on team’s escalation of commitment.Throughout the laboratory experimental method,we have examined the mediating influence of team cohesion between rival estimation and escalatio n of commitment and mediating role of risk propensity between competitive trait anxiety and entrapment behavior.The experimental data has offered insights into the emotional identification processes underlying the distinct effects of competition on escalation behavior.The results of structural equation modeling using SEM-PLS have revealed that competitive trait anxiety and competition shadow have strongly predicted team rival estimation while rival estimation is a good predictor for team cohesion.Rival estimation and team cohesion had different effects on team’s escalation of commitment.Escalation of commitment would be increasing as rival estimation increases,but this increase is much lower than increasing by team cohesion.Overestimating rivals increase team cohesion and dramatically increases escalation of commitment.Experimental outputs have illustrated that team’s escalation attitude would be increasing as competitive trait anxiety decreases,but this increase is declining risk propensity.As risk propensity has a larger standard coefficient estimate than competitive trait anxiety,it played a more important direct role in ensuring a high escalation of commitment.Competition shadow also is the most important predictor of escalation of commitment directly and indirectly through rival estimation and team cohesion.The results also have revealed that team cohesion and risk propensity are the most important predictor of escalation of commitment in terms of both status and quality,compared with competition shadow,importance and uncertainty of outcomes,rival estimation,and competitive trait anxiety.Given that organizations often take advantage of teams to achieve their goals,therefore,creating teams with maximum efficacy is critical for any organiz ations.Accordingly,this study has represented an initial attempt at establishing a relationship between team rival estimation and team cohesion under a competitive situation.Rival estimation is a considerable factor during team strategic decisions,which manipulate team cohesion consciously and unconsciously.Thus,the present study has practical implications regarding team cohesion and team rival estimation.The present research has showed that risk propensity and competitive trait anxiety of teams’ member substantially influences escalation behavior,suggesting that when managers want to create an effective team for doing the project,they should consider individual differences.Therefore,managers in a business or a firm might influence subordinates’ escalation tendencies by noticing their competitive trait anxiety and possibly advocating anxiety-control training.This study has suggested evidences that competition shadow,as a psychological factor of teams,is the immediate determinant of escalation of commitment,which can provide a better understanding of the firms’ escalation behavior under competition.Finally,we discuss these results and the theoretical and practical implications of this research in the context of current academic research.