Escalation in major projects: Lessons from the Channel Fixed Link

Why do major projects escalate on schedule and budget? Research from an engineering management perspective has focused the technical failings in project management, but little has been achieved in improving performance. We therefore contribute to theory by posing the question “can a more comprehensive perspective on the escalation phenomenon drawing on organisation theory be developed?” We turn to three contributions to research on major projects which treat project escalation as an organisational process rather than an engineering problem. We suggest each of these contributions – future-perfect strategising, strategic misrepresentation, and escalation of commitment – makes only a partial contribution, but also they can complement each other as elements in a more comprehensive perspective on the escalation phenomenon. The resultant analytic model is applied to the case of the Channel Fixed Link using a hindsight approach to explore the dynamics of escalation using history for generating theory in project management research.

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