Cultural Differences In Software Industry

Discuss about the Impact on Cultural Differences in Software Industry in Singapore.

 

 

Introduction

In the current continuously transforming global business atmosphere, the issues associated with culture and the gaining knowledge about various cultures have become significant and has become a pre-requisite for the success of the organizations. The significance of culture and the differences in culture has become very much critical especially for the organizations functioning in the international markets and even having employees who hail from several cultures (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). It has been observed that since culture has the power to have an effect on the activities of the business, the organizations requires to consider the concepts related to culture in their daily operations in order to function successfully in the global environment.

Culture and cultural differences are key issues for each and every organizations in each and every industry. As explained by de Carvalho, Patah  and de Souza Bido (2015), these notions have become much more essential for computation due to the nature of making agreements, internationalization of the various procurement, partnering and joint venturing in the respective industries. It has been observed that with respect to the other industries there has been a rise in the strategic coalitions in the software industries even raises the importance of the cultural differences due to the communication of the employees from numerous cultures (Shah, Harrold and Sinha 2014). The benefits of managing differences in the culture in an effective manner have been explained by several researchers. It can improve the effectiveness of the firms and provide the company an extensive competitive edge. Conversely, the ineffectiveness to handle and manage the cultural differences can lead to adverse issues like the postponement of software services and fall in the productivity. Hence, gaining knowledge and taking care of the cultural differences in the software industry is become a significant topic specially in software industries in Singapore as there are various software companies functioning in the country and thus there are availability of employees who are hailing from numerous cultural backgrounds (Estleret al. 2014).   

Research Objectives

The aims and objectives of the paper has been the most significant factors that would be influential for the development of the paper as these objectives would be helpful to the researcher for the completion of the paper in an effective manner. The aims and objectives with respect to this paper are given as follows:

• To determine how cultural differences are existent in the software industry of Singapore
• To understand the how differences in the culture has an influence in the communication system among the employees and the management
• To determine to what extent cultural differences has an influence on the outcome of the industries
• The actions undertaken by the management in order to deal with the issues related to cultural differences

Problem Statement

The statement of the problem has been the issues that has compelled the researcher to undertake this research in accordance to this topic. It is seen that with the advent of globalization there has been entry of new software firms in the economy of Singapore along with employees from various cultures. Culture plays a significant role in the development of any organization and it is seen that the management of the firm undertakes various strategies in order to establish an effective cultural environment. The degree of culture aids in the development of the software industry and as software industry is a developing sector, it is seen that there are employees from various cultural backgrounds are taken appointed and therefore understanding their impacts is of utmost importance that would be influential for improving the functional section of software industry. Thus, determining the impact of these differences requires to be identified in order to construct various strategies.    

Research Questions

The research questions that has been framed are in respect to the problems that have been discovered by the researcher with respect to the cultural difference in Singapore. The research questions would be utilized in order to course the research and determine the impact of cultural differences in the cultural differences in the software industries in Singapore. The research questions are given as follows:

Q 1. How can cultural differences have an impact on the software industries in Singapore?

Q 2. How does the differences in culture have an impact on the relationship among the employees and the management?   

Q 3. What impact does the differences in the culture have on the operational activities of the software companies in Singapore?

Q 4. What actions can be undertaken by the management in order to improve the differences in the culture within the organizations? 

Literature Review

The literature review that is being constructed comprises of the suggestions that have been discovered from various other research papers constructed by the researchers with respect similar researches completed earlier. The review of literature tries to determine the meaning of cultural differences and the impacts that these differences have on the software industries. Rees-Caldwell and Pinnington (2013) has explained that there are various factors that had an impact on the differences in culture and identifying each of these factors would lead to development of various strategies that would be effective in the development of the organization.   

There are various definitions for culture and these definitions vary greatly with respect to the field of the research. Verner et al. (2014) defined culture as the simple method of what individuals does and what they perform like a society. Britto et al. (2014) has explained culture in the software industry is regarded to be the features of the industry, the values, goals and strategies of the organization where they function. Culture has numerous properties, which has been accepted widely. While investigating on the national cultures, it is seen that Niazi et al. (2013) has recognized four dimensions of culture and they include avoidance of uncertainty, power distance, collectivism and individualism and even masculinity and femininity. These four dimensions provide a framework for looking after the impact of the cultural differences on the management and even the company.

This section of the paper would try to explain the main theme of the thesis that would be taken into consideration so that effective measures can be taken that would be influential for the construction of effective research with respect to the topic. It is seen that there are various aspects that are taken into consideration while understanding the impact of cultural differences in the software industry in Singapore. It is seen that it is essential to first understand the background of the software industry in Singapore and it is seen that there are Singapore has a unique software industry as the organizations are developing from time to time and therefore has strategies and policies that would enhance the industry. The culture that has been prevalent in Singapore is even analyzed and it is seen that Singapore has a diversified economy over as employees and individuals from various parts of the world migrate in this country and thereby making it a diversified culture (Rees-Caldwell and Pinnington 2013). It is seen that there are understanding the effects of cultural difference plays a vital role in the operational activities of the firm. The main factors that has an effect on the cultural difference requires to be determined so that effective measures can be taken that would be fundamental for improving the operational activities of the software industry and the relationship between the employees operating in the software industry. The evaluation of the software industry along with the factors that are interlinked with the software business provides extensive knowledge, which would be influential for the development of the firm. The analysis can be done by taking help of the past and the present trends and the influences the future indications that the software industry would undertake so that cultural differences would be mitigated. Evaluating the main theme with respect to the cultural differences can be an effective one and this would aid the researcher to initiate various activities that would be influential for the development of solutions with respect to the impact of cultural differences in the software industry in Singapore.       

There has been an expanding interest in the studies with respect to cultural differences in the software industry. Søderberg, Krishna and Bjørn (2013) has examined that there has been a connection among the cultural differences and the activities of the software industries with the perspective of Singapore. Singapore is a developing country and with the advent of globalization there has been entry of various software industries along with the existence of the domestic software industries as well. The rise in the level of competition has led to the companies hiring employees from various parts of the globe and thereby leading to the development of cultural differences in the industry. There are various aspects that require significant examination with respect to this topic as it has been observed that cultural differences has a significant impact on the functions of the software industries and therefore in order to rectify the differences and improve the relationship among the employees and the management and thereby improve the operational activities of the software industries as well.

Research Methodology

The methodology for the concerned research paper has been framed in order to aid the researcher to establishing a guideline or course that would be followed by the researcher in order to collect the data that would be best effective for the completion of the paper. The research methodology even aids the researcher to look for the kind of data that would be best useful for the collecting data that would meet the problem statement of the research and would help the researcher to identify the impacts of cultural differences in the software industries. The each and every step of the methodology that would be used by the researcher would be explained individually.

Research Onion

The research onion comprises of the various efficient progression with the help of which the research methodology can be constructed. Its effectiveness is dependent in its flexibility for any kind of research methodology and can be utilized in a variety of aspects(Gustafsson, Herrmann and Huber 2013). The research onion comprises of the various layers that would be used by the researcher to complete the methodology in an effective manner. The each layer of the onion will be explained as follows:

Research Philosophy

The research will be undertaken by taking help of the philosophy of positivism as it mainly concentrates on understanding the various impacts that are faced by the software industries due to cultural differences. The primary data that is gathered with the help of the positivism philosophy would improve the validity of the research. Furthermore, the outcome of the research would be quantifiable and observable (Fuggetta and Di Nitto 2014).

Research Approach

The present research would follow the deductive approach as the paper will mainly concentrate on examining the impact of cultural differences on the software industries in Singapore. The research would establish a hypothesis that is dependent on the recognized concepts and would examine the validity by comparing them with the primary data.

Research Type

The impact of cultural differences on the software industries operating in Singapore would be undertaken with the help of the primary research. It is seen that primary data would be influential for collecting the precise data as the responses of the employees would be influential for the development of the precise results (Bryman and Bell 2015).

Research Design

The primary research will be undertaken by taking help of the quantitative research design as this research involves investigating the associations, explaining the examining cause and effect relationships. The present research will examine the impact of cultural differences in the software industry in Singapore. Quantitative data would be gathered by surveying the individuals who are working in the software industry (Edison, Bin Ali and Torkar 2013). Descriptive research design would be undertaken for the completion of the paper as it has been observed that explained answers from the responses would be influential for the completing the paper effectively.

Sampling Technique and Population

The paper would either make use of the random or probability sampling technique in order to select the employees who are functioning in the software industry in Singapore. The researcher has decided to select employees of various ages and departments of the organizations. A sample size of 100 respondents would be sued for the completion of the paper in an effective manner.

Time Table

STEPS IN THE RESEARCH PLAN	DEADLINE FOR THE COMPLETION
Submission of the proposal	1st week
Design of a research plan	1st week
Gaining access to work in a particular area	1st week
Literature Review	2nd week
Sample frame	3rd week
Design and testing of the questionnaire	3rd week
Designing of the final questionnaire	4th week
Interviews and posting	5th week
Raw tabulation of the data	5th week
Analysis of the data	6th week
Report up findings	7th week
Presentation of the final research product	7th week

References

Britto, R., Freitas, V., Mendes, E. and Usman, M., 2014, August. Effort estimation in global software development: A systematic literature review. In Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), 2014 IEEE 9th International Conference on (pp. 135-144). IEEE.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

deCarvalho, M.M., Patah, L.A. and de Souza Bido, D., 2015. Project management and its effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry comparisons. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), pp.1509-1522.

Edison, H., Bin Ali, N. and Torkar, R., 2013. Towards innovation measurement in the software industry. Journal of Systems and Software, 86(5), pp.1390-1407.

Estler, H.C., Nordio, M., Furia, C.A., Meyer, B. and Schneider, J., 2014. Agile vs. structured distributed software development: A case study. Empirical Software Engineering, 19(5), pp.1197-1224.

Fuggetta, A. and Di Nitto, E., 2014, May. Software process. In Proceedings of the on Future of Software Engineering (pp. 1-12). ACM.

Gustafsson, A., Herrmann, A. and Huber, F. eds., 2013. Conjoint measurement: Methods and applications. Springer Science & Business Media.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Niazi, M., Mahmood, S., Alshayeb, M., Riaz, M.R., Faisal, K. and Cerpa, N., 2013, October. Challenges of project management in Global Software Development: Initial results. In Science and Information Conference (SAI), 2013 (pp. 202-206). IEEE.

Rees-Caldwell, K. and Pinnington, A.H., 2013. National culture differences in project management: Comparing British and Arab project managers' perceptions of different planning areas. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.212-227.

Shah, H., Harrold, M.J. and Sinha, S., 2014. Global software testing under deadline pressure: Vendor-side experiences. Information and Software Technology, 56(1), pp.6-19.

Søderberg, A.M., Krishna, S. and Bjørn, P., 2013. Global software development: commitment, trust and cultural sensitivity in strategic partnerships. Journal of International Management, 19(4), pp.347-361.

Verner, J.M., Babar, M.A., Cerpa, N., Hall, T. and Beecham, S., 2014. Factors that motivate software engineering teams: A four country empirical study. Journal of Systems and Software, 92, pp.115-127.