Conflicts and complements between eastern cultures and agile methods: an empirical investigation

Abstract

Agile methods have been widely adopted around the world – particularly in the Eastern world, where cultural scripts differ from that of the West from where agile methods originated. However, there is a lack of understanding of the interplay between the basic tenets of agile methods and the Eastern cultures. This understanding is crucial for the effective use of the methods in these cultures. To examine how Eastern cultural phenomena interplay with agile methods, we followed an emic approach in a multisite case study. We examined the adaptation of agile practices in organizations in China, India, and South Korea. We developed a framework describing how Eastern cultural scripts often express the collectivist response to cultural theoretical concepts and how the cultural response interacts in complementary and conflicting ways with agile methods. To explore how conflicts are mitigated, we examined the ways organizations develop ambidextrous practices.

Keywords:

• agile methods
• culture
• theory of individualism and collectivism
• ambidexterity
• complementarity

Note: This paper was originally submitted to the Cross-Cultural IS Research Special Issue, published in May 2015

Associate Editor: Merrill Warkentin

Editor: Dov Te’eni

Note: This paper was originally submitted to the Cross-Cultural IS Research Special Issue, published in May 2015

Associate Editor: Merrill Warkentin

Editor: Dov Te’eni

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Balasubramaniam Ramesh

About the Authors

Balasubramaniam Ramesh is Board of Advisors Professor of Computer Information Systems at Georgia State University. His research interests include requirements engineering and traceability, agile software development, decision support systems and knowledge management. His work appears in several leading journals including MIS Quarterly, ISR, JMIS, JAIS, EJIS, ISJ, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, ACM Transactions on MIS, DSS, Communications of the ACM, IEEE Computer, IEEE Intelligent Systems, IEEE Software among others.

Lan Cao

Lan Cao is an Associate Professor of Information Technologies and Decision Sciences at Old Dominion University. She received her Ph.D. degree from Georgia State University. Her major research interests are agile software development and software process simulation and modeling. Her work appears in many journals including ISR, JAIS, EJIS, ISJ, DSS, ACM TMIS, ACM JDIQ, IEEE Software, IEEE IT Professionals among others.

Jongwoo Kim

Jongwoo Kim is an Associate Professor of Management Sciences and Information Systems (MSIS) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He received his Ph.D. degree in CIS from the Georgia State University. His work appears in journals including EJIS, Information & Management, IEEE TEM, Information Technology & People, IEEE TPC, IEEE IT Professionals among others. His research interests include IS security, IT in inter-organizational networks, and conceptual modeling.

Kannan Mohan

Kannan Mohan is a Professor of CIS at Baruch College. Dr. Mohan received his Ph.D. degree in CIS from the Georgia State University. His research interests include managing software product family development, providing traceability support for systems development, knowledge integration, and agile development methodologies.

Tabitha L. James

Tabitha L. James is an Associate Professor of Business Information Technology at Virginia Tech. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Her research appears in Networks, Information Technology and Management, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Computers & Security, and others. She serves on the editorial board for the journal Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence.