18 / 2007 Knowledge sharing in cross - cultural software

This paper examines knowledge sharing in a cross-cultural context. We draw on a field study of a Jamaican-Indian software team to unpack how the system specification (spec) and formal coordination affected knowledge sharing and team performance. Our theoretical approach uses Polanyi’s theory of knowledge as processes of sense reading and sense giving, and recent developments in boundary theory to unearth how differences and conflict adversely affected knowledge sharing. We found that during the software development process, the spec shifted from being a flexible boundary object to a rigid shared object, and this influenced the emerging dynamics of inter-occupational conflict. Our study also highlights how increased formal coordination adversely affected boundary permeability, which led to a decrease in knowledge sharing activity. We suggest that a process of culturizing, or politicization of cultural boundaries, was integral to the subsequent hardening of boundaries which significantly impaired the knowledge sharing process and consequently team performance.