Calabria Described By Cesare Lombroso
Newsletter on the results of scholarly work in sociology, criminology, philosophy and political science
Journal Article
This dissertation presents evidence to expand theory on conflict in ongoing distributed virtual work groups, such as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities, through the inclusion of ...normative conflict. Specifically, the work outlines how FOSS teams experience disagreements not only arising out of the direct action of working on a software project, but also concerning the norms of the group, such as ideology, mission and values. Conflict as a team process is thus more than a task byproduct; in long-term oriented self-organizing teams, it is a self-reflexive process that can stimulate community evolution, and in some cases, dissolution. Normative conflict is not only a novel addition to conflict theory, but also a factor with significant impact on the health of open collaborative communities. Empirical findings suggest normative conflict to be the strongest overall predictor of developer retention, having both a direct negative effect, as well as through exacerbating other types of work-driven conflict. The dissertation traces the discovery (through interviews and community engagement), operationalization (through development and refinement of a normative conflict scale) and generalization (following a wide survey) of normative conflict as part of an updated conflict framework for ongoing distributed virtual work groups. The dissertation thus presents a theoretical, methodological and practical contribution to understanding conflict in virtual communities and organizations. Theoretically, the work elucidates and provides support for the expansion of our existing understanding of conflict in distributed teams. Methodologically, the work provides a validated set of measurement tools for the updated conflict framework. Finally, the dissertation examines various team structural factors that may stimulate or reduce conflict occurrence, offering practical advice for community building and maintenance.
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