Enabling Interpersonal Dynamic Capability: Four Emerging Collaborative Practices in Globally Distributed Software Development

ABSTRACT

Dynamic capabilities (DCs) are noted drivers of organizations’ competitive advantage in fast-changing, digitalizing operating environments. However, research has reached no consensus on the essence of DCs, and the focus has shifted from managerial excellence to employee involvement and participation. The interpersonal view of DCs is suggested as crucial in enabling organizations’ change capacity. At the same time, globally distributed work is a common operating model today but often hindered by tensions and collaborative challenges. In this qualitative single-case study, we explore the collaborative practices enabling interpersonal DC in globally distributed software research and development (R&D). By semi-structured interviews with senior key informants from a northern European site of a case organization, inductive and abductive analyses, and the practice perspective, we identified four emerging practices nurturing organizational dynamism in global software work: dialogical organizational development, constructive working culture, global open engagement, and facilitated shared learning. The findings highlight the role of employees and create a new understanding of the influence of collaborative practices in generating DCs in a global R&D working environment. Finally, the paper proposes a dynamic model for evaluating the development of such practices and suggests a stronger adoption of the practice perspective in further study of DCs.

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the case organization for enabling this study by their participation, commitment, encouragement, and comments. We are grateful for the Editors and Reviewers for their feedback and constructive criticism, which greatly helped improve the paper. Finally, we wish to thank colleagues for their insightful views and discussions during the process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation under the Grant number 00200407, and The Foundation for Economic Education under the grant number 12-6494.

Notes on contributors

Katriina Vartiainen

Katriina Vartiainen is a Doctoral researcher in the field of Information and Systems in Tampere University, Finland. Her research interests are in organizational development, digitalization, and the related changes in work. She has worked in practitioner and research projects on e-procurement, enterprise systems, and global software development. Her current PhD project explores the changing capabilities of organizations in digitalizing operating environments.