Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Organizational Culture and ISD Practices: Comparative Literature Review

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Information Systems Development

  • 1643 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter reports results from a study that aims to analyze and compare the literature related to custom IS, packaged, and open source software organizational cultures, and their systems development practices. The comparative analysis is performed using a framework for organizational culture as lenses to the literature. Our study suggests that the beliefs and values of these three communities of practice differ remarkably and make their organizational culture and systems development practices different. The most important differences were found in business milieu, ISD team efforts, ISD approaches, and products and quality. Based on the study we can question the widely held wisdom of methods, techniques, and tools in systems development and managing its efforts. Our study has several implications for research and practice, which are discussed in this chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Avison, D.E. and Myers, M.D. (1995). Information systems and anthropology: an anthropological perspective on IT and organizational culture. Information Technology & People, 8(3), 43–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Harrington, S. and Rubbel, C.P. (1999). Practical and value compatibility: their roles in the adoption, diffusion, and success of telecommuting. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 103–112, December 12–15, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dellana, S.A. and Hauser, R.D. (1999). Towards defining the quality culture. Engineering Management Journal 11(2), 11–15.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Pliskin N., Romm T., Lee A.S. and Weber Y. (1993). Presumed versus actual organizational culture: managerial implications for implementation of information systems. The Computer Journal 36(2), 143–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Krumbholz, M. and Maiden, N. (2001). The implementation of enterprise resource planning packages in different organizational and national cultures. Information Systems 26(3), 185–204.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science 2(1), 40–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wenger E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Martin J. (2002). Organizational Culture: Mapping the Terrain, Thousands Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Smirchich L. (1983). Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 339–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Carmel, E. and Sawyer, S. (1998). Packaged software development teams: What makes them different? Information Technology and People, 11(1), 7–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Carmel E. and Bird B. (1997). Small is beautiful: a study of packaged software development teams. The Information Society 13(1), 125–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Carmel, E. (1997). American hegemony in packaged software trade and the culture of software. The Information Society, 13(1), 125–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Feller, J. and Fitxgerald, B. (2000). A Framework Analysis of the Open Source Software Development Paradigm. Proceedings of the twenty first international conference on Information systems, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, pp 58–69.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ovaska,P (2008): A Case Study of Systems Development in Custom IS Organizational Culture. In Barry, C., Lang, M., Wojtkowski, W., Wojtkowski, G., Wrycza, S., and Zupancic, J. (eds) The Inter-Networked World: ISD Theory, Practice, and Education. Springer-Verlag: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Sawyer, S. (2000). Packaged software: implications of the differences from custom approaches to software development. European Journal of Information Systems, 9, 47–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Keil, M and Carmel, E (1995). Customer-developer links in software development. Communications of the ACM, 8(5), 33–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Stewart, K. and Gosain, S. (2006). The impact of ideology on effectiveness in open source software development teams. MIS Quarterly, 30(2), 291–314.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Boehm, B. (1987). Improving software productivity. IEEE Computer, 20(8), 43–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Carmel, E. (1995). Cycle-time in packaged software firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 12(2), 110–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Walz, D.B., Elam, J.J. and Curtis, B. (1993). Inside a software design team: Knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration. Communications of the ACM, 36 (10), 63–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Constantine, L. (1995). Constantine on Peopleware, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Yourdon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Augustin, L., Bressler, D. and Smith, G. (2002). Accelerating software development through collaboration. ICSE’02, May 19–25, Orlando, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Zachary, G. (1994). Showstopper: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows-nt and the Next Generation at Microsoft. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Sawyer, S. (2004). Software development teams. Communications of the ACM, 47(12), pp. 95–99.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Humphrey, W. (1989). Managing the Software Process. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Heckman, R. (1998). Planning to solve the ‘skills problem’ in the virtual information management organization. International Journal of Information Management, 18(1), 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Ye, Y. and Kishida, K. (2003). Towards an understanding of the motivation of open source software developers. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, Portland, Oregon, May 3–10, pp. 419–429.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Larson, E. and Gobeli, D. (1988). Organizing for product development projects. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 5, 180–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Gosain, S. (2003). Looking through a window on open source culture: Lessons for community infrastructure design. Systémes d'Information et Management, 8(1), pp. 11–42.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Cusumano, M. and Selby, R. (1995). Microsoft Secrets: How the World’s Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages People. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Cusumano, M. and Smith, S. (1997). Beyond the waterfall: Software development at microsoft. In Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence (Yoffie D., Ed.), 371–411. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Ljungberg, J. (2000). Open source movements as a model for organizing. European Journal of Information Systems (9:4), 208–216.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Markus, M.L. and Robey, D. (1988). Information technology and organizational change: Causal structure in theory and research. Management Science, 34 (5), 583–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Kling, R. and Iacono, S. (1984). Computing as an occasion for social control. Journal of Social Issues 40 (3), 77–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Elliott, M. and Scacchi, W. (2003). Free Software Development: Cooperation and conflict in A Virtual Organizational Culture. Open Source Software Development, IDEA Publishing, Hershey, PA, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Päivi Ovaska

  2. South Karealia University of Applied Sciences, Imatra, Finland

    Pasi Juvonen

Authors
  1. Päivi Ovaska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pasi Juvonen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Angelos Papadopoulos

  2. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Wita Wojtkowski

  3. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Gregory Wojtkowski

  4. Dep. of Information Systems, University of Gdansk, 81-824 Sopot,Polska ul. Armii, Krajowej, 119121, Poland

    Stanislaw Wrycza

  5. University of Maribor, Presernova 11, Kranj, 4000, Slovenia

    Jože Zupancic

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ovaska, P., Juvonen, P. (2009). Organizational Culture and ISD Practices: Comparative Literature Review. In: Papadopoulos, G., Wojtkowski, W., Wojtkowski, G., Wrycza, S., Zupancic, J. (eds) Information Systems Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_64

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_64

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84809-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84810-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation