The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies

Simone V. Spiegler; Christoph Heinecke; Stefan Wagner

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_6

The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies

Simone V. Spiegler, Christoph Heinecke, Stefan Wagner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Motivation: Many companies aim to provide more autonomy to their development teams. While some teams report on successes, others still struggle with the agile adaption, e.g. due to the organisational environment. Objective: Our objective was to explore how organisational culture and structure influence team autonomy in bureaucratic companies. Method and Results: 30 qualitative interviews from different business divisions at a conglomerate revealed that organisational factors related to hierarchy, specialist culture and functionally departmentalised structure decreased agile team features and consequently resulted in a reduced speed of decision-making. We suggest the Agile Matching Theory which implies that prevalent organisational factors and desired agile team features need to match to allow team autonomy to occur. Conclusion: We therefore encourage managers to further work on a learning organisation and a supportive structure within which autonomous teams can grow.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	XP 2019 Workshops Montréal, QC, Canada, May 21–25, 2019 Proceedings
Editors	Rashina Hoda
Place of Publication	Cham Switzerland
Publisher	Springer
Pages	46-54
Number of pages	9
ISBN (Electronic)	9783030301262
ISBN (Print)	9783030301255
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_6
Publication status	Published - 2019
Externally published	Yes
Event	International Workshop on Autonomous Teams 2020 - Montreal, Canada Duration: 25 May 2019 → 25 May 2019 Conference number: 2nd https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2 (Proceedings) https://www.sintef.no/en/publications/publication/?pubid=1714864 (Website)

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Publisher	Springer
Volume	364
ISSN (Print)	1865-1348
ISSN (Electronic)	1865-1356

Conference

Conference	International Workshop on Autonomous Teams 2020
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	25/05/19 → 25/05/19
Internet address	https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2 (Proceedings) https://www.sintef.no/en/publications/publication/?pubid=1714864 (Website)

Keywords

Autonomous teams
Bureaucracy
Challenges

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_6

436045298-oaFinal published version, 197 KB

Cite this

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title = "The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies",

abstract = "Motivation: Many companies aim to provide more autonomy to their development teams. While some teams report on successes, others still struggle with the agile adaption, e.g. due to the organisational environment. Objective: Our objective was to explore how organisational culture and structure influence team autonomy in bureaucratic companies. Method and Results: 30 qualitative interviews from different business divisions at a conglomerate revealed that organisational factors related to hierarchy, specialist culture and functionally departmentalised structure decreased agile team features and consequently resulted in a reduced speed of decision-making. We suggest the Agile Matching Theory which implies that prevalent organisational factors and desired agile team features need to match to allow team autonomy to occur. Conclusion: We therefore encourage managers to further work on a learning organisation and a supportive structure within which autonomous teams can grow.",

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year = "2019",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_6",

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pages = "46--54",

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booktitle = "XP 2019 Workshops Montr{\'e}al, QC, Canada, May 21–25, 2019 Proceedings",

url = "https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2, https://www.sintef.no/en/publications/publication/?pubid=1714864",

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Spiegler, SV, Heinecke, C & Wagner, S 2019, The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies. in R Hoda (ed.), XP 2019 Workshops Montréal, QC, Canada, May 21–25, 2019 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol. 364, Springer, Cham Switzerland, pp. 46-54, International Workshop on Autonomous Teams 2020, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 25/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_6

The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies. / Spiegler, Simone V.; Heinecke, Christoph; Wagner, Stefan.
XP 2019 Workshops Montréal, QC, Canada, May 21–25, 2019 Proceedings. ed. / Rashina Hoda. Cham Switzerland: Springer, 2019. p. 46-54 (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing; Vol. 364).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research

TY - GEN

T1 - The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies

AU - Spiegler, Simone V.

AU - Heinecke, Christoph

AU - Wagner, Stefan

N1 - Conference code: 2nd

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Motivation: Many companies aim to provide more autonomy to their development teams. While some teams report on successes, others still struggle with the agile adaption, e.g. due to the organisational environment. Objective: Our objective was to explore how organisational culture and structure influence team autonomy in bureaucratic companies. Method and Results: 30 qualitative interviews from different business divisions at a conglomerate revealed that organisational factors related to hierarchy, specialist culture and functionally departmentalised structure decreased agile team features and consequently resulted in a reduced speed of decision-making. We suggest the Agile Matching Theory which implies that prevalent organisational factors and desired agile team features need to match to allow team autonomy to occur. Conclusion: We therefore encourage managers to further work on a learning organisation and a supportive structure within which autonomous teams can grow.

AB - Motivation: Many companies aim to provide more autonomy to their development teams. While some teams report on successes, others still struggle with the agile adaption, e.g. due to the organisational environment. Objective: Our objective was to explore how organisational culture and structure influence team autonomy in bureaucratic companies. Method and Results: 30 qualitative interviews from different business divisions at a conglomerate revealed that organisational factors related to hierarchy, specialist culture and functionally departmentalised structure decreased agile team features and consequently resulted in a reduced speed of decision-making. We suggest the Agile Matching Theory which implies that prevalent organisational factors and desired agile team features need to match to allow team autonomy to occur. Conclusion: We therefore encourage managers to further work on a learning organisation and a supportive structure within which autonomous teams can grow.

KW - Autonomous teams

KW - Bureaucracy

KW - Challenges

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SP - 46

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ER -

The influence of culture and structure on autonomous teams in established companies

Abstract

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Conference

Keywords

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