If you can’t say something nice: Factors contributing to team member silence in distributed software project teams

Stacie Petter

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Managing software projects is complex. Increasingly, organizations are using different methods and forms of teams to ensure software projects are developed on time, on budget, and meet functionality requirements. One factor that can affect the success of a software development team is the willingness of team members to be fully engaged and to share concerns throughout the effort. Employee silence is the unwillingness of an individual to express concerns. This exploratory research study examines three factors that influence a team member’s choice to remain silent when participating in a distributed software project: the individual’s level of experience, the role of the offending team member, and the individual’s personal responsibility to report. Using a scenario-based experiment, this study finds that some of the factors that are assumed in other contexts of employee silence may not be related in the context of distributed teams in which there is a need to voice concerns among peers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSIGMIS-CPR 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages43-49
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781450357685
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 18 2018
Event2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, SIGMIS-CPR 2018 - Buffalo-Niagara Falls, United States
Duration: Jun 18 2018Jun 20 2018

Publication series

NameSIGMIS-CPR 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research

Other

Other2018 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, SIGMIS-CPR 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBuffalo-Niagara Falls
Period6/18/186/20/18

Keywords

  • Employee silence
  • IS project teams
  • Mum effect
  • Team dynamics
  • Team member silence
  • Whistleblowing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Information Systems

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