Abstract

Software teams are increasingly ethnically diverse due to the growth in distributed software development and a globally mobile labour force. As ethnicity reflects critical aspects of an individual’s values, beliefs and behaviours, ethnic diversity has been found to affect team collaboration and therefore influence team performance. However research is mixed in determining whether ethnic diversity improves or hinders team performance. Previous research indicates that task related aspects can be enhanced through a variety of perspectives but relationship related aspects can be hindered through challenges with team communication and conflict. In this paper interview responses from managers of 16 software projects have been analysed to consider how the project manager can influence the effects of ethnic team diversity. The findings indicate that project managers who recognised that ethnic diversity affected team productivity were more likely to take actions to maximise the positive effects of ethnic diversity. Using socio-technical system theory, the duality of software development as both social and technical is highlighted, along with the critical independencies between these two components. This helps to understand and explain the effect of ethnically diverse software teams and the role of project managers’ attitudes and actions on team collaboration.