The Rhetoric of Culture as an Act of Closure in a Cross-National Software Development Department

Global software teams work on interdependent tasks across geographies, time zones, and cultures. Studies of cross-national software teams report that the main challenges are sharing knowledge, creating trust, and establishing common ground. In this study we examine another challenge—the use of the word “culture” as an exclusionary act of closure. As theorized by Metiu, who builds on Weber, closure occurs when one group seeks to preserve the advantages of their situation relative to another group. We conducted an ethnographic study of a cross-national software department with members in Denmark and the Philippines. We found that “culture” was invoked by employees in the Danish office to explain failed collaborations, but not by employees in the Philippines. Filipino employees formulated other explanations for problems, and actively resisted cultural explanations. We argue that employees in the Danish office used a “rhetoric of culture” as an act of closure, and we focus on technology choices and behavior as they were impacted by closure.