Globalization

Abstract

Globalization is usually related to time, distance, and culture. Referring to time, we cite Friedman’s book The World is Flat : “… That’s globalization, said Nilekani. Above the screen, there were eight clocks that pretty well summed up the Infosys workday: 24/7/365. The clocks were labeled US West, US East, GMT, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia” (Friedman 2005, p. 6). Referring to distance, a physical distance between teams, which work together on one product, increases the process complexity. It is further claimed that even a 50 m distance can be considered as a distributed environment (Allen 1984 in Sangwan et al. 2007). Referring to culture , this concept has been explored extensively with respect to different kinds and sizes of groups like nations, tribes, and teams. We define the concept of culture as a set of explicit and implicit norms, values, and beliefs, shared by the practitioners in a group to which they belong that, on one hand, influences directly the practitioners’ daily activities, behaviors, and interactions and, on the other hand, is fed back by these activities, behaviors, and interactions and is shaped by them. The culture of a specific team is influenced by the culture of the nation as well as the organizational culture. Both are relevant for global environments. In this chapter, we address globalization as it is expressed by agile teams.