Technology Team Socialization

A long running debate in the social sciences deals with internal versus external forces behind the behavior of people. Within a corporate environment, knowing how to understand people and work with them is important to receive the maximum benefit from company team members. Knowing whether to address personal or social issues helps businesses direct their efforts appropriately to receive the benefits they seek from their team members.

The dominant perspective of business success is the Resource Based View (RBV). This view perceives the relative advantage of a given business to be the bundle of resources it possesses that are difficult to reproduce at other companies. If a competing company tries to build a similar product with similar resources, it may be unable to do so effectively if the resources are not marshaled effectively. Therein lies an implicit believe that management of resources is paramount for managerial success.

One piece of the bundle of resources that a company has is its culture. Culture is something that is unique from company to company. People spend more time at their jobs than in any other social context (0ther than their families). In light of this, the influence of corporate culture on people cannot be understated. All forms of cultural norms and values, not just about work, but about society and social interaction are inculcated in a business environment. Like the sunshine, this constant influence is present on an individual at least eight hours a day and is likely to leave a cultural tan as it were on the individual.

Technology teams are affected significantly by culture. This culture can be both imported by employees coming into the work force or created on the job. In the current era within which we live, one recent development is that technology teams are increasingly composed of international individuals. A CIO of a billion dollar company I spoke to recently said he could field three full cricket teams at a company picnic. In discussing his staff, he related that his biggest challenge was to encourage the same entrepreneurial spirit in this non-native development team as that which had existed when the company grew from a small group to its current status.

Many interesting questions come up in light of these issues. How much do corporations influence the social process of its team members? What are the implications for companies that hire from other companies as a result of this? What are the effects on society of corporate cultures? What options are available to managers wishing to encourage certain corporate cultures? How do off-shoring and outsourcing affect a single corporation's social culture?