Social Conduct, Learning and Innovation: An Abductive Study of the Dark Side of Agile Software Development

Abstract

Agile methodologies have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations to improve their responsiveness. However, few studies have empirically analysed the effect of Agile on long‐term organizational goals such as learning and innovation. Using an abductive approach, this study examines the relationships between self‐regulated teams' social conduct and their resulting learning and innovation. Results indicate that the time pressure induced by the implementation of Agile impedes team engagement in learning and innovation activities. Time pressure is affected by a set of different control strategies, more specifically concertive, belief, diagnostic and boundary controls, and these need to be adequately addressed in order to minimize the potential dark side of Agile.

Doing complexity leadership theory: How agile coaches at Spotify practise enabling leadership

“…An overview of the company and its general organization is provided below, and a description of agile software development is provided in Appendix , for context. For a more extensive review of agile development methodologies in general , see, for example, Annosi et al ().…”

“…Studies of agile teams on the other hand (e.g. Annosi, Magnusson, Martini, & Appio, 2016;Hoda, Noble, & Marshall, 2013;Moe, Dingsøyr, & Dybå, 2010) have not examined the role of agile coaches specifically or with the perspective of coaches as (complexity) leaders. A search on Scopus in August 2018 with the terms "agile coach" or "scrum master" results in only one peerreviewed study (Srivastava & Jain, 2017), and three conference papers examining the practices of the roles explicitly at all (Bass, 2014;Parizi, Gandomani, & Nafchi, 2014;Santos, Goldman, & Filho, 2013).…”

FlyClockbase: Importance of Biological Model Curation for Analyzing Variability in the Circadian Clock of Drosophila melanogaster by Integrating Time Series from 25 Years of Research

“…The extreme known as ‘agile methods’ advocates for quick iterations that implement tangible improvements. Its successes have made it popular, but it is not without a dark side that can stifle the development of innovations and strategies needed for solving more complex problems (J anes and S ucci 2012; A nnosi et al 2016). The other extreme approach to software development is known as the ‘water-fall method’.…”

Adapting to the agile workplace : a descriptive case study on the role of corporate MOOCs in organizational learning processes

“…First, the IT organization under investigation recently experienced a shift to agile work practices. This adaptation demands work teams to work collaboratively and not individually, altering their social dynamics and routine learning practices (Annosi et al, 2016). Also, the IT organization is continually adapting to environmental and industry changes, creating a need for quickly learning as an organizational unit (Annosi et al, 2016;Annosi et al, 2018;Gandomani & Nafchi, 2016).…”

“…This adaptation demands work teams to work collaboratively and not individually, altering their social dynamics and routine learning practices (Annosi et al, 2016). Also, the IT organization is continually adapting to environmental and industry changes, creating a need for quickly learning as an organizational unit (Annosi et al, 2016;Annosi et al, 2018;Gandomani & Nafchi, 2016). Finally, the implementation of a MOOC platform for knowledge management and sharing connects learners and information through digital and social interactions (Egloffstein & Ifenthaler, 2017;Maravilhas & Martins, 2018), but could be hindered by legacy politics from the organizational levels that exist in the research site (Berends & Lammers, 2010).…”