An Instrument for Assessing Power Distance in Agile Organizations - Preliminary Results
Pages 136 - 146
Abstract
Background: Power Distance is defined as the degree of acceptance in relation to inequality of power among people. In agile organizations, high distance power can lead to restricted communication, reduced collaboration, and resistance to change, which can negatively affect the software quality. However, identifying latent behaviors associated with high power distance is not always straightforward. Objective: We present IDPD, an instrument to assess power distance in agile organizations whose measurement items are based on manifestations of power distance associated with human factors, organizational culture elements, and process-related elements. Method: We followed guidelines for developing psychometric scales. The IDPD was evaluated by an expert judge panel and in a case study in two agile teams. Results: The items were deemed easy to understand, relevant and adequate to evaluate power distance in agile settings. In general, the diagnosis provided in the case study showed little to no effect associated with high power distance on organizational culture elements and human factors. Conversely, high power distance may be impacting process execution and improvement. Conclusion: Initial evidence suggests that the IDPD supports the assessment of power distance in agile teams and provides insights for mitigating its impacts.
References
[1]
Enas Almanasreh, Rebekah Moles, and Timothy F Chen. 2019. Evaluation of methods used for estimating content validity. Research in social and administrative pharmacy 15, 2 (2019), 214–221.
[2]
Fahad S Altuwaijri and Maria Angela Ferrario. 2022. Factors affecting Agile adoption: An industry research study of the mobile app sector in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Systems and Software 190 (2022), 111347.
[3]
Hajer Ayed, Benoît Vanderose, and Naji Habra. 2017. Agile cultural challenges in Europe and Asia: insights from practitioners. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track (ICSE-SEIP). IEEE, IEEE, New York, NY, 153–162.
[4]
Carla AJ Bastiaansen and Celeste PM Wilderom. 2021. Agile and generic work values of British vs Indian IT workers: a culture-clash case. Journal of strategy and management 15, 3 (2021), 353–376.
[5]
Amadeu Silveira Campanelli, Dairton Bassi, and Fernando Silva Parreiras. 2017. Agile transformation success factors: a practitioner’s survey. In International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering. Springer, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 364–379.
[6]
Elena Delgado-Rico, Hugo Carretero-Dios, and Willibald Ruch. 2012. Content validity evidences in test development: An applied perspective. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology España 12, 3 (2012), 449–460.
[7]
Robert F DeVellis and Carolyn T Thorpe. 2021. Scale development: Theory and applications. Sage publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
[8]
Digital.ai. 2022. 16th Annual State Of Agile Report. https://digital.ai/resource-center/analyst-reports/state-of-agile-report/. (Accessed on 07/10/2023).
[9]
Eliezer Dutra, Cristina Cerdeiral, Patrícia Lima, Rafael Escalfoni, Bruna Diirr, and Gleison Santos. 2023. Using an Instrument to Assess Trust, Knowledge, Learning, and Motivation of Agile Teams. iSys - Brazilian Journal of Information Systems 16, 1 (May 2023), 7:1–7:32.
[10]
Eliezer Dutra, Bruna Diirr, and Gleison Santos. 2021. Human factors and their influence on software development teams-a tertiary study. In Proceedings of the XXXV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. ACM, New York, NY, 442–451.
[11]
Eliezer Dutra, Bruna Diirr, and Gleison Santos. 2023. On Building an Instrument to Assess the Organizational Climate of Agile Software Development Teams. In Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality (Brasília, Brazil) (SBQS ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 342–351.
[12]
Eliezer Dutra, Patrícia Lima, Cristina Cerdeiral, Bruna Diirr, and Gleison Santos. 2022. TACT: An insTrument to Assess the organizational ClimaTe of agile teams - A Preliminary Study. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development 10 (Jan. 2022), 1:1 – 1:21.
[13]
Aysegul Gelmis, Necmettin Ozkan, Ali J Ahmad, and Mehmet Guray Guler. 2022. Impact of turkish national culture on agile software development in turkey. In International Conference on Lean and Agile Software Development. Springer, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 78–95.
[14]
Daniel Graziotin, Per Lenberg, Robert Feldt, and Stefan Wagner. 2020. Psychometrics in Behavioral Software Engineering: A Methodological Introduction with Guidelines. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. I, 1 (may 2020), Article 111 – 49 pages. arxiv:https://arXiv.org/abs/2005.09959
[15]
Shivam Gupta, Sachin Modgil, Bharat Bhushan, Sachin Kamble, and Juhi Mishra. 2023. Digital innovation and transformation capabilities in a large company. Expert Systems 41, 7 (2023), e13452.
[16]
Jakob Heumann, Martin Wiener, and Ulrich Remus. 2012. Power distance in information systems offshoring projects - A control theory perspective. In International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2012, Vol. 1. ICIS, Orlando, Florida, 1–18.
[17]
Rashina Hoda, James Noble, and Stuart Marshall. 2011. Supporting Self-organizing Agile Teams: What’s Senior Management Got to Do with It?. In Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming: 12th International Conference, XP 2011, Madrid, Spain, May 10-13, 2011. Proceedings 12. Springer, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 73–87.
[18]
Geert Hofstede. 1980. Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
[19]
Geert Hofstede. 2001. Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
[20]
Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov. 2010. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. Vol. 3. Mcgraw-hill, New York, NY.
[21]
Philipp Hohl, Jil Klünder, Arie van Bennekum, Ryan Lockard, James Gifford, Jürgen Münch, Michael Stupperich, and Kurt Schneider. 2018. Back to the future: origins and directions of the “Agile Manifesto”–views of the originators. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development 6 (2018), 1–27.
[22]
Helena Holmström, Brian Fitzgerald, Pär J Ågerfalk, Eoin Ó Conchúir, et al. 2006. Agile practices reduce distance in global software development. Information systems management 23, 3 (2006), 7–18.
[23]
Robert J House, Paul J Hanges, Mansour Javidan, Peter W Dorfman, and Vipin Gupta. 2004. Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
[24]
Miloš Jovanović, Antoni-Lluís Mesquida, Antonia Mas, and Ricardo Colomo-Palacios. 2020. Agile transition and adoption frameworks, issues and factors: a systematic mapping. IEEE Access 8 (2020), 15711–15735.
[25]
Mira Kajko-Mattsson, Gayane Azizyan, and Miganoush Katrin Magarian. 2010. Classes of distributed agile development problems. In 2010 Agile Conference. IEEE, IEEE, New York, NY, 51–58.
[26]
Thorben Kuchel, Michael Neumann, Philipp Diebold, and Eva-Maria Schön. 2023. Which Challenges Do Exist With Agile Culture in Practice?. In Proceedings of the 38th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing. ACM, New York, NY, 1018–1025.
[27]
Tanishq Likhi. 2022. Effects of the power distance index on multicultural software engineering teams. Master’s thesis. Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS).
[28]
Kirwin B Matthews and Maureen C Tanner. 2022. The Influence of National Culture Dimensions on Agile Practices: The Case of South African Software Development Teams. IADIS International Journal on Computer Science & Information Systems 17, 2 (2022), 12 pages.
[29]
Claudio Saraiva Mattos, Eliezer Dutra, Edna Dias Canedo, and Gleison Santos. 2024. Understanding How Power Distance Affects Agile Organizations. In Quality of Information and Communications Technology, Antonia Bertolino, João Pascoal Faria, Patricia Lago, and Laura Semini (Eds.). Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 311–327.
[30]
Claudio Saraiva Mattos, Eliezer Dutra, and Gleison Santos. 2024. Supplementary Material - Instrument for Diagnostics of Power Distance (IDPD) in Agile Organizations. Database on OSF.
[31]
Jaakko Palokangas. 2013. Agile Around the World-How Agile Values Are Interpreted in National Cultures?Master’s thesis. University of Tampere - School of Information Sciences.
[32]
Denise F Polit and Cheryl Tatano Beck. 2006. The content validity index: are you sure you know what’s being reported? Critique and recommendations. Research in nursing & health 29, 5 (2006), 489–497.
[33]
Per Runeson and Martin Höst. 2009. Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering. Empirical software engineering 14 (2009), 131–164.
[34]
Per Runeson, Martin Host, Austen Rainer, and Bjorn Regnell. 2012. Case study research in software engineering: Guidelines and examples. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
[35]
Piyush Sharma. 2010. Measuring personal cultural orientations: Scale development and validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 38 (2010), 787–806. Issue 6.
[36]
Kerstin V Siakas and Errikos Siakas. 2007. The agile professional culture: A source of agile quality. Software Process: Improvement and Practice 12, 6 (2007), 597–610.
[37]
Darja Šmite, Nils Brede Moe, and Javier Gonzalez-Huerta. 2021. Overcoming cultural barriers to being agile in distributed teams. Information and Software Technology 138 (2021), 106612.
[38]
Ana C. Souza, N. Alexandre, E. Guirardello, A. Souza, N. Alexandre, and E. Guirardello. 2017. Psychometric properties in instruments evaluation of reliability and validity. Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde 26, 3 (jul 2017), 649–659.
[39]
Ana Cláudia de Souza, Neusa Maria Costa Alexandre, and Edinêis de Brito Guirardello. 2017. Psychometric properties in instruments evaluation of reliability and validity. Epidemiologia e servicos de saude 26 (2017), 649–659.
[40]
Simone V Spiegler, Christoph Heinecke, and Stefan Wagner. 2019. The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies. In Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming–Workshops: XP 2019 Workshops, Montréal, QC, Canada, May 21–25, 2019, Proceedings 20. Springer International Publishing, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 46–54.
[41]
Diane E Strode, Sid L Huff, and Alexei Tretiakov. 2009. The impact of organizational culture on agile method use. In 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE, IEEE, New York, NY, 1–9.
[42]
Mark Summers. 2008. Insights into an Agile Adventure with Offshore Partners. In Agile 2008 Conference. IEEE, New York, NY, 333–338.
[43]
Viswanath Venkatesh and Hillol Bala. 2008. Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. Decision sciences 39, 2 (2008), 273–315.
[44]
Viswanath Venkatesh and Fred D Davis. 2000. A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: Four longitudinal field studies. Management science 46, 2 (2000), 186–204.
[45]
Daniel Welsch, Luisa Burk, David Mötefindt, and Michael Neumann. 2023. Navigating Cultural Diversity: Barriers and Potentials in Multicultural Agile Software Development Teams. arxiv:https://arXiv.org/abs/2311.12061 [cs.SE] https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12061
[46]
Robert K Yin. 2009. Case study research: Design and methods. Vol. 5. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Index Terms
- An Instrument for Assessing Power Distance in Agile Organizations - Preliminary Results
Recommendations
Becoming agile: a grounded theory of agile transitions in practice
ICSE '17: Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Software EngineeringAgile adoption is typically understood as a one-off organizational process involving a staged selection of agile development practices. This view of agility fails to explain the differences in the pace and effectiveness of individual teams transitioning ...
The Combination of Agile and Lean in Software Development: An Experience Report Analysis
AGILE '11: Proceedings of the 2011 Agile ConferenceThere has been a noticeable focus shift from agile methods such as extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum to lean software development in the last several years, which is indicated as â from agile to leanâ . However, the reality may not be as simple or ...
Agile ways of working: A team maturity perspective
AbstractWith the agile approach to managing software development projects comes an increased dependability on well‐functioning teams, since many of the practices are built on teamwork. The objective of this study was to investigate if, and how, team ...
Comments
Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
November 2024
763 pages
ISBN:9798400717772
DOI:10.1145/3701625
Copyright © 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
Publication History
Published: 21 December 2024
Check for updates
Author Tags
Qualifiers
- Research-article
Conference
SBQS 2024
Acceptance Rates
Overall Acceptance Rate 35 of 99 submissions, 35%
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 8Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)8
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)8
Reflects downloads up to 30 Jan 2025
Other Metrics
Citations
View Options
Login options
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Sign in