Is a fresh pair of eyes always better? The effect of consultant type and assigned task purpose on communicating project escalation concerns

Prior research suggests that the use of third party (independent) consultants to review on-going projects is an effective way to recognize and prevent escalation of commitment. This study uses an experiment to investigate whether the type of consultant (internal or external) and the stated purpose of the task assigned to the consultant influences willingness to communicate concerns about a project manager’s decision to escalate an unprofitable project to top management. We find that explicitly asking internal consultants to communicate concerns reduces both their tendency to disagree with the project manager’s escalation decision and their willingness to communicate their concerns. In contrast, external consultants’ willingness to communicate escalation concerns is not affected by the stated purpose of their assigned task. Our findings have implications for organizations seeking to engage consultants as part of their management control to prevent project escalation.