Leading Self-Organizing Teams in the Evolutionary Development of Software Projects: The Effects of Shared Leadership, Power Distance, and Constructive Controversy on Collaborative Software Process Tailoring

Software process tailoring (SPT), which involves continuously adjusting development to accommodate project dynamics, has received increasing attention in modern software projects. In self-organizing software teams, SPT often involves conflicts, thus leadership and power dynamics are especially important. Drawing on social interdependence theory, we propose a model to examine how shared leadership, manager-based and member-based power distance, and constructive controversy influence SPT performance. Moreover, we utilize social exchange theory to explain how shared leadership affects the newly identified member-based power. The results show that shared leadership reduces both manager-based and member-based power distance, fosters constructive controversy, and ultimately enhances SPT performance.