Managerial, Expertise and Team-Centered Forms of Organizing: A cross-cultural Exploration of Interdependencies in Engineering Work

Based on field research on software engineers with similar tasks in China, India, and Hungary, this study documents variation in forms of reciprocal interdependence - the back and forth exchange of work inputs between engineers and managers in completing a joint task. It further shows that the form of reciprocal interdependence that evolves is shaped by and continually shaping elements of the social context - the perceived rewards shared values, and temporal norms. To create sustainable change in any component of the resulting system of organizing work, composed of both the form of reciprocal interdependence and elements of the social context, requires the whole system to adjust. Hence, recognizing the existence of this system helps to identify why change is so difficult to make.