This article examines the evolving use of boundary objects in cross-cultural software teams. Our field study of a Jamaican-Indian team examines the use of software specifications and project management tools as boundary objects in facilitating sharing across knowledge boundaries. We examine how and why the role and use of boundary objects may facilitate collaboration across knowledge boundaries at one time and contribute to conflict at other times. We unpack the interacting elements that both facilitate and constrain knowledge sharing, and trigger conflicts at different stages of the software team development. Specifically, we found that the use of boundary objects at transitions involving definitional control and the subsequent redistribution of power/authority may inhibit knowledge sharing. The subsequent reifying of cultural boundaries along with negative stereotyping led to relational conflict, through a process we call culturizing , as cross-cultural differences emerged as problematic for team dynamics.
Ayub N., Jehn K. ( 2006) National diversity and conflict in multinational workgroups: The moderating effect of nationalism. International Journal of Conflict Management17(3): 181-202.
2.
Barki H., Hardwick J. ( 1994) Measuring user acceptance, user involvement, and user attitude. MIS Quarterly18(1): 59-79.
3.
Barki H., Hartwick J. ( 2001) Interpersonal conflict and its management in information system development. MIS Quarterly25(2): 195-228.
4.
Barrett M., Drummond D., and Sahay S. ( 1996) Exploring the impact of cross-cultural differences in international software development teams: Indian expatriates in Jamaica. In: Coelho JD, Konig W, Krcmar H, O’Callaghan R, Saaksjarvi M (eds) Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Information Systems , Lisbon, Portugal.
5.
Bechky B. ( 2003) Object lessons: Workplace artifacts as representations of occupational jurisdiction. American Journal of Sociology109(3): 720-752.
6.
Briers M., Chua W. ( 2001) The role of actor-networks and boundary objects in management accounting change: A field study of an implementation of activity-based costing. Accounting, Organizations and Society26(3): 237-269.
7.
Carlile P. ( 2002) A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science13(4): 442-455.
8.
Carlile P. ( 2004) Transferring, translating and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science15(5): 555-568.
9.
Cohen C., Birkin S., Garfield M., and Webb H. ( 2004) Managing conflict in software testing. Communications of the ACM47(1): 76-81.
10.
Cummings J. ( 2004) Work groups, structural diversity, and knowledge sharing . Management Science50(3): 352-364.
11.
D’Adderio L. ( 2004) Inside the Virtual Product: How Organizations Create Knowledge through Software. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
12.
Dekker H., Malova D., and Hoogendoorn S. ( 2003) Nationalism and its explanations. Political Psychology24(2): 345-376.
13.
DeSanctis G., Jackson B. ( 1994) Coordination of information technology management: Team based structures and computer based communications systems. Journal of Management Information Systems10(4): 85-110.
14.
Eisenhardt K. ( 1989) Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review14(4): 532-550.
15.
Ewenstein B., Whyte J. (forthcoming) Knowledge practices in design; the role of visual representations as ‘epistemic objects’. Organization Studies.
16.
Faraj S., Sproull L. ( 2000) Coordinating expertise in software development teams. Management Science46(12): 1554-1568.
17.
Ford D., Chan Y. ( 2003) Knowledge sharing in a multi-cultural setting: A case . Knowledge Management Research and Practice1(1): 11-27.
18.
Gersick C. ( 1988) Time and transformation in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. Academy of Management Journal31(1): 9-41.
19.
Harvey F., Chrisman N. ( 1998) Boundary objects and the social construction of GIS technology . Environment and Planning30(9): 1683-1694.
20.
Henderson K. ( 1991) Flexible sketches and inflexible data bases: Visual communication, conscription devices, and boundary objects in design engineering. Science, Technology & Human Values16(4): 448-473.
21.
Hinds PJ, Mortensen M. ( 2005) Understanding conflict in geographically distributed teams: The moderating effects of shared identity, shared context, and spontaneous communication. Organization Science16(3): 290-307.
22.
Holden N. ( 2001) Knowledge management: Raising the spectre of the cross-cultural dimension. Knowledge and Process Management8(3): 155-163.
23.
Jehn K., Mannix E. ( 2001) The dynamic nature of conflict: A longitudinal study of intergroup conflict and group performance. Academy of Management Journal44(2): 238-251.
24.
Jehn K., Northcraft G., and Neale M. ( 1999) Why difference makes a difference: A field study of diversity, conflict and performance in workgroups. Administrative Science Quarterly44(4): 741-763.
25.
Korsgaard A., Jeong S., and Mahony D. ( 2008) Multilevel view of intragroup conflict. Journal of Management34(6): 1222-1252.
26.
Kraut R., Streeter L. ( 1995) Coordination in software development. Communication of the ACM38(3): 69-81.
27.
Lamont M., Molnar V. ( 2002) The study of boundaries in the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology28(1): 167-195.
28.
Langley A. ( 1999) Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review24(4): 691-710.
29.
Leidner DE, Kayworth T. ( 2006) Review: A review of culture in information systems research: Toward a theory of information technology conflict. MIS Quarterly30(2): 357-399.
30.
Levina N. ( 2005) Collaborating on multiparty information systems development projects: a collective reflection in action view. Information Systems Research16(2): 109-130.
31.
Levina N., Vaast E. ( 2005) The emergence of boundary spanning competence in practice: Implications for implementation and use. MIS Quarterly29(2): 335-36.
32.
Levina N., Vaast E. ( 2006) Turning a community into a market: A practice perspective on IT use in boundary-spanning. Journal of Management Information Systems22(4): 13-38.
33.
Levina N., Vaast E. ( 2008) Innovating or doing as told? Status differences and overlapping boundaries in offshore collaboration. MIS Quarterly32(2): 307-332.
34.
Lindkvist L., Soderlund J., and Tell F. ( 1998) Managing product development projects: On the significance of fountains and deadlines. Organization Studies19(6): 931-951.
35.
Lyytinen K., Robey D. ( 1999) Learning failure in information systems development. Information Systems Journal9(2): 85-102.
36.
Metiu A. ( 2006) Owning the code: Status closure in distributed groups . Organization Science17(4): 418-435.
37.
Peltokorpi V. ( 2006) Knowledge sharing in a cross cultural context: Nordic expatriates in Japan. Knowledge Management Research & Practice4(2): 138-148.
38.
Polanyi M. ( 1968) Knowing and Being. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
39.
Randal A. ( 2003) The salience of culture in multinational teams and its relation to team citizenship behaviour. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management3(1): 27-44.
40.
Robey D., Farrow D., and Franz C. ( 1989) Group process and conflict in systems development. Management Science35(10): 1172-1191.
41.
Sapsed J., Salter A. ( 2004) Postcards from the edge: Local communities global programs and boundary objects. Organization Studies25(9): 1515-1534.
42.
Sarker S., Sahay S. ( 2002) Understanding virtual team development: An interpretive study. Journal of Association for Information Systems4(1): 1-38.
43.
Sherman R. ( 2005) Producing a superior self: Strategic comparison and symbolic boundaries among luxury hotel workers. Ethnography6(2): 131-158.
44.
Star S. ( 1989) The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. In: Huhns M, Gasser L (eds) Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Menlo Park, CA : Morgan Kaufman, 37-54.
45.
Star S., Greismer J. ( 1989) Institutional ecology, ‘translations’ and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Social Studies of Science19(3): 387-420.
46.
Swan J., Bresnen M., Newell S., and Robertson M. ( 2007) The object of knowledge: The role of objects in biomedical innovation. Human Relations60(12): 1809-1837.
47.
Tajfel H. ( 1981) Human Groups and Social Categories: Studies in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
48.
Thomas R., Sargent L., and Hardy C. ( 2008) Power and participation in the production of boundary objects. Working Paper Series, Cardiff Business School .
49.
Tiwana A., Mclean E. ( 2005) Expertise integration and creativity in information systems development. Journal of Management Information Systems22(1): 13-43.
50.
Tsoukas H., Chia R. ( 2002) On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change. Organization Science13(5): 567-582.
51.
Tuckman B. ( 1965) Development sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin63(6): 384-399.
52.
Vallas S. ( 2001) Symbolic boundaries and the re-division of labor: Engineers, workers and the restructuring of factory life. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility18(1): 3-39.
53.
Vallaster C. ( 2005) Cultural diversity and its impact on social interactive processes. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management5(2): 139-163.
54.
Vaast E., Levina N. ( 2006) Multiple faces of codification: Organizational redesign in an IT organization. Organization Science17(2): 190-201.
55.
Walsham G. ( 2002) Cross-cultural software production and use: A structurational analysis. MIS Quarterly26(4): 359-380.
56.
Walsham G., Sahay S. ( 1999) GIS for district-level administration in India: Problems and opportunities. MIS Quarterly23(1): 39-66.
57.
Walz D., Elam J., and Curtis B. ( 1993) Inside a software design team: Knowledge acquisition, sharing and integration. Communications of the ACM36(10): 63-77.
58.
Wastell DG ( 1999) Learning dysfunctions in information systems development: Overcoming the social defenses with transitional objects. MIS Quarterly23(4): 581-600.
59.
Wimmer A. ( 2008) The making and unmaking of ethnic boundaries: A Multilevel process theory. American Journal of Sociology113(4): 970-1022.
60.
Yakura E. ( 2002) Charting time: Timelines as temporal boundary objects . Academy of Management Journal45(5): 956-970.
