Three faces of autonomy: Exploring configurations of high autonomy in software project teams

This article seeks to provide deeper insights into the concept of team autonomy within the software industry by investigating the combinations of autonomy and control modes that lead to high perceptions of team autonomy. Additionally, it examines the types of autonomy and control that are most effective for navigating complex environments.<br/>The study is grounded in the framework of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS), integrating interdisciplinary research on autonomy and control to develop a research design. Methodologically, the study employs survey data and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to address its research questions.<br/>The findings identify three distinct configurations of projects that achieve high team autonomy, demonstrating how the road to high team autonomy can be shaped in various ways in relation to the presence of different modes of control. Using the CAS framework to evaluate these configurations, the third configuration emerges as the most aligned with the framework and empirically the most successful. This configuration is characterized by the absence of control for safeguarding purposes, the presence of control for coordination purposes, and the presence of joint decision-making.<br/>The article concludes by discussing the fuzzy and contextual nature of autonomy and its inherent relationship with control. It emphasizes the importance of understanding autonomy within its specific context and highlights the value of applying the CAS framework to grasp the complexity of autonomy-control dynamics. This study contributes to the literature by offering a nuanced perspective on autonomy in teams and its role in addressing the challenges of complexity in projects.