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With an outsider's eyes
The document discusses software development from an anthropological perspective, highlighting various theoretical frameworks like structuralism and postmodernism. It provides examples such as algocracy and corporate culture, exploring the relationship between management and engineers, including issues of control, autonomy, and conflicting interests. The text emphasizes the challenges of integrating both objective and subjective views while acknowledging the complexities of human interactions in organizational contexts.
With an outsider's eyes
- 1. With an outsider’seyes Software Development from Anthropological Point of View Nobuyuki Hosaka
- 2. Approaches of anthropologiststo field Schools Objective/subjective Representative scholars (Structural-)Functionalism Objective B. Malinowski, A. Radcliffe-Brown Structuralism C. Levi-Strauss Marxism M. Godlier Cognitivism D. Sperber Interpretivism Subjective C. Geertz Postmodernism J. Clifford, G. Marcus M. Bloch Caution: This is a very simplified categorization. E. Leach
- 3. Example 1: “Algocracy”(Aneesh 2006) • Regime of rule • Bureaucracy (rule by the office) • Panopticon (rule by surveillance) • Algocracy (rule by code) • Business logic implemented in code = “all choices are already programmed and nonnegotiable” • Version control system = “the underlying structure shaped in a way does not allow older versions to pass as newer ones” • “implementing technical controls has long been a universal method to transfer control from workers to employers”
- 4. Example 2: CorporateCulture (Upadhya 2009) • Theory: “flat” organization, based on communication, collaboration, teamwork and knowledge sharing • Reality: • “requiring total commitment of the self, involves the ‘super-exploitation’ of both managers and workers” • traditional “organizational culture persists in the form of hierarchical structures, bureaucratic mentality and ‘feudal relationships’”
- 5. Strength and weakness •Obtain insight on what insiders cannot easily recognize • See reality from wider perspective, including external conditions • Tend to impose framework from outside • Cannot convey experience of insiders, thus misrepresent them It is not easy to use both objective and subjective perspective and draw a coherent picture. Here I will start from what is closer to engineer’s viewpoint.
- 6. Starting point: Rationalcalculation
- 7. Just a problemof trade-off?
- 8. Impossible rationality We can’tsearch infinitely. Then what should we do?
- 9. From managers’ pointof view
- 10. How to evaluate? Engineers’information is secondary for managers, so they have to evaluate its reliability.
- 11. From engineers’ pointof view
- 12. How to persuade? Herealso logic/reason is not the only one focal point.
- 13. Politics of meanings Symbolicmeaning of an action is often important. • Use of rhetoric as a sign of bad intention / commitment • introducing practices (ex. TDD) where its effectiveness is not clear but it is seen as advanced • staying late as a sign of dedication / incompetence And how do others evaluate those behavior? What kind of effect do those system of meaning have?
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- 16. Conflicting logic • control<-> autonomy • cooperation <-> individualism • routine <-> creative • human machine <-> active agent Both managers and workers use both side of the dichotomy to achieve their purposes. How and in what context do they use either of the pole?
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- 18. Purpose Different interest isthe source of conflict and distrust.
- 19. Bibliography • Aneesh, A.2006. Action Scripts: Rule of the Code. in A. Aneesh, Virtual Migration. Durham: Duke University Press. • Upadhya, Carol. 2009. Controlling offshore knowledge workers: Power and agency in India’s software outsourcing industry. New Technology, Work and Employment 24:1 pp.2-18. • Alvesson, Mats. 2011. De-Essentializing the Knowledge Intensive Firm: Reflections on Sceptical Research Going against the Mainstream. Journal of Management Studies 48:7 pp.1640-1661
Editor's Notes
- #7 Elements are interconnected. This mindmap is not MECE.
- #9 Infinite research is against purpose, whatever it is. Relying on authority is also a kind of communication.
- #11 Managers’ decision is also a kind of decision making. But what kind of information is necessary? What is the indicator of trustworthiness? Look at “justifiability”. Managers may be thinking about other communication, like that with executives. We have no reason to assume that managers want to be as logical as possible.
- #13 Here also engineers intentionally rely on non-reason. What is not told is often important. It is not always the case that engineers try to persuade and managers try to evaluate. If the management want to introduce a new scheme with a consent of employees, the relationship is reversed. If power inequality is large, threat can be used.
- #16 While evaluating some practice work well or not, it may be most problematic to assess human factors. Both the aspects of prediction and leadership exists in evaluation.
- #19 There is no reason to presuppose that all the employees are making efforts to achieve the common goal. Both engineers and managers have their own interests. Nor interest of the company is clear. Negotiation becomes difficult if distrust prevails. Conflict is emphasized especially in writings of authors with Marxist influence.