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Management & Leadership vocabulary · Decision Making

Escalate

Meaning in management & leadership, with examples

/ˈeskəleɪt/verbCore term

In management & leadership, escalate means: To pass a problem or decision to someone with more authority because it cannot be solved at your level; of a conflict, to become more serious.

In Turkish: üst kademeye iletmek, eskale etmek, tırmanmak

How it is used

Used every day in operations, customer service and projects: you escalate an issue, a complaint or a risk to your manager. The noun is escalation, and many teams have a clear escalation path.

Example sentences

  1. If the supplier doesn't reply by Friday, escalate it to me.

  2. The complaint was escalated to the regional director.

  3. We need to settle this disagreement before it escalates.

Common collocations

  • escalate an issue
  • escalate to management
  • escalation path
  • escalate quickly
  • chain of commandThe official line of authority in an organisation, showing who gives instructions to whom and the order in which decisions and problems move up and down.
  • decision-makingThe process of choosing between different options, including collecting information, weighing risks and benefits, and agreeing who makes the final choice.
  • authorityThe official power or right to make decisions, give instructions and use resources, usually linked to a person's role in an organisation.
  • risk assessmentThe process of identifying what could go wrong in a plan or activity, judging how likely and how serious each risk is, and deciding how to reduce it.
  • follow upTo check on a task, request or decision after it has been given or discussed, to make sure it is done or to get more information; the noun is follow-up.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Decision Making

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