Understanding contributor behaviour within Free/Libre/Open Source Software communities: A socialization perspective

<p>Attracting a large number of new contributors has been seen as a way to ensure the survival, long-term success, and sustainability of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities. However, this appears to be a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, as the well-being of FLOSS communities also relies on members performing behaviours that nurture and protect the community. Despite a large body of research on FLOSS communities, few studies have been undertaken to explore the influence of a participant’s socialization experience on their contribution behaviour. In addition, there has been relatively little research that has adopted a community-level view of FLOSS community participants’ contribution that goes beyond the mere notion of writing lines of code. The purpose of this study is to develop and rigorously test a socialization model that predicts contributor behaviour in the FLOSS community context. Drawing upon theories of socialization and citizenship behaviours from organizational behaviour research, this research develops and tests two separate but related research models. The first model proposes the direct impact of socialization factors on two performance-related dependent variables: task performance and community citizenship behaviours. The second model hypothesizes a mediating effect of two proximal socialization variables, social identification and social integration, between the socialization factors and the dependent variables. An exploratory study involving eleven FLOSS community leaders, managers, and experienced members was first conducted, to investigate the key variables that characterize FLOSS community newcomer socialization experience as well as the various instances of citizenship behaviours that are specific to the FLOSS community context. The analysis of the interview data revealed the existence of six socialization variables: task segregation, task purposefulness, interaction intensity, mentoring, joining structuredness, and supportiveness. Two sets of FLOSS community citizenship behaviours (CCB) were identified drawing on the citizenship behaviour literature. The first set, labelled CCB-I, comprised citizenship behaviours directed towards the benefit of individuals. The second set, CCB-P, included citizenship behaviours directed towards the benefit of the project. The findings were integrated in the two conceptual models. Subsequently, a research instrument was developed, following an extensive purification process that consisted of card sorting and expert review rounds, and a survey pretest. A pilot study assessed responses from 46 FLOSS contributors from two large FLOSS communities. Overall, the scales demonstrated high reliability and showed adequate construct validity. The analysis of the pilot study suggested the existence of a third CCB dimension, named CCB-C, that characterizes citizenship behaviours that are oriented towards the benefit of a project’s community. The main study was based on an online survey involving 327 respondents from twelve large FLOSS communities. Using Partial Least Squares (PLS), the collected data was used to test the two models. The results showed the overall superior predictive capability of the model hypothesizing the mediating effect of both social identification and social integration. Task performance was found to be directly predicted by task purposefulness as well as by interaction intensity and supportiveness through the mediation of social identification. Meanwhile, CCB was found to be impacted by the direct effect of task segregation and task purposefulness, and by interaction intensity and supportiveness through the mediation of both social identification and social integration. The existence of the third CCB dimension, CCB-C, was confirmed.</p>

Understanding contributor behaviour within Free/Libre/Open Source Software communities: A socialization perspective

<p>Attracting a large number of new contributors has been seen as a way to ensure the survival, long-term success, and sustainability of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities. However, this appears to be a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, as the well-being of FLOSS communities also relies on members performing behaviours that nurture and protect the community. Despite a large body of research on FLOSS communities, few studies have been undertaken to explore the influence of a participant’s socialization experience on their contribution behaviour. In addition, there has been relatively little research that has adopted a community-level view of FLOSS community participants’ contribution that goes beyond the mere notion of writing lines of code. The purpose of this study is to develop and rigorously test a socialization model that predicts contributor behaviour in the FLOSS community context. Drawing upon theories of socialization and citizenship behaviours from organizational behaviour research, this research develops and tests two separate but related research models. The first model proposes the direct impact of socialization factors on two performance-related dependent variables: task performance and community citizenship behaviours. The second model hypothesizes a mediating effect of two proximal socialization variables, social identification and social integration, between the socialization factors and the dependent variables. An exploratory study involving eleven FLOSS community leaders, managers, and experienced members was first conducted, to investigate the key variables that characterize FLOSS community newcomer socialization experience as well as the various instances of citizenship behaviours that are specific to the FLOSS community context. The analysis of the interview data revealed the existence of six socialization variables: task segregation, task purposefulness, interaction intensity, mentoring, joining structuredness, and supportiveness. Two sets of FLOSS community citizenship behaviours (CCB) were identified drawing on the citizenship behaviour literature. The first set, labelled CCB-I, comprised citizenship behaviours directed towards the benefit of individuals. The second set, CCB-P, included citizenship behaviours directed towards the benefit of the project. The findings were integrated in the two conceptual models. Subsequently, a research instrument was developed, following an extensive purification process that consisted of card sorting and expert review rounds, and a survey pretest. A pilot study assessed responses from 46 FLOSS contributors from two large FLOSS communities. Overall, the scales demonstrated high reliability and showed adequate construct validity. The analysis of the pilot study suggested the existence of a third CCB dimension, named CCB-C, that characterizes citizenship behaviours that are oriented towards the benefit of a project’s community. The main study was based on an online survey involving 327 respondents from twelve large FLOSS communities. Using Partial Least Squares (PLS), the collected data was used to test the two models. The results showed the overall superior predictive capability of the model hypothesizing the mediating effect of both social identification and social integration. Task performance was found to be directly predicted by task purposefulness as well as by interaction intensity and supportiveness through the mediation of social identification. Meanwhile, CCB was found to be impacted by the direct effect of task segregation and task purposefulness, and by interaction intensity and supportiveness through the mediation of both social identification and social integration. The existence of the third CCB dimension, CCB-C, was confirmed.</p>

How relationship quality, autonomous work motivation and socialization experience influence the adjustment of self-initiated expatriates in China

PurposeThe continued expansion of organizations outside China's planned economy due to the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) is expected to increase recruitment of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). Drawing on social capital, motivation and socialization theories, this study examines the experiences of SIEs in China, which is considered one of the most difficult locations for foreigners to work. While previous research has focused on the impact of individual characteristics on adjustment, this study explores the interplay among relationship quality (trust and shared vision), autonomous work motivation, socialization experience and adjustment.Design/methodology/approachBased on the developed theoretical framework, hypotheses are proposed and tested using data collected by surveying 274 SIEs in China.FindingsRelationship quality with host country nationals (HCNs) was positively associated with adjustment, and autonomous work motivation fully mediated this relationship. Socialization experience moderated the association between relationship quality and autonomous work motivation. Specifically, SIEs' socialization experience strengthened the associations of trust and shared vision with autonomous work motivation. However, socialization experiences failed to moderate the mediated effects of trust and shared vision on adjustment via autonomous work motivation.Originality/valueThis study answers repeated calls for more research on SIEs' adjustment and SIEs working in non-Western countries, especially China. The findings underscore the importance of studying SIE-HCN work relationships and the theoretical value of autonomous work motivation as an underlying mechanism by which the quality of an SIE's relationship with an HCN colleague influences adjustment.

Jump-Starting the Socialization Experience: The Longitudinal Role of Day 1 Newcomer Resources on Adjustment

We examine the newcomer adjustment patterns of 985 new hires at a Fortune 500 technology organization across their first year on the job. Data were collected from newcomers, their managers, and company records from organizational entry (employee’s first day) to the end of the first year of employment. We examined, first, whether newcomer resources (material, personal, social, and status resources) related to early newcomer adjustment levels (role clarity, task mastery, and acceptance) and rates of adjustment and, second, how newcomer resources and the rate of adjustment related to manager ratings of newcomer adjustment at 9 and 12 months post-entry. The average of every adjustment variable was higher at the latest data collection point, indicating that time was on newcomers’ side and was related, overall, to higher adjustment levels. Finally, we explored which resources related to the three newcomer adjustment indicators and the shapes adjustment trajectories took depending on resources at organizational entry. Results indicated that personal resources (proactive personality, optimism, and organizational knowledge) were related to early adjustment. Regarding material resources, having a work station ready the first day on the job was related to adjustment. For social resources, meeting one’s manager the first day on the job was related to early social acceptance. For status resources, greater newcomer job level was unexpectedly not related to early adjustment. We found partial support for the direct relationships between early adjustment levels or adjustment rates and manager ratings of adjustment at 9 months but limited support for manager ratings of adjustment at 12 months.

Doi Moi and Vietnamese threat perception of Chinese economic growth

A growing body of literature has recently emerged establishing that political socialization influences foreign policy preferences of the public. But the empirical domain of this literature has been confined largely to American foreign policy and whether and how this empirical regularity holds in a non-democratic, non-western setting is unknown. Filling this lacuna, this research note studies the Vietnamese public attitudes toward Chinese economic expansion. I argue that Vietnamese citizens who grew up amid Doi Moi (renovation) had a political socialization experience very different from that of the birth cohorts who immediately preceded them. I demonstrate that the traditional ‘socialist brotherhood’ rhetoric that used to moderate otherwise hostile public opinions about China became insignificant through the course of the reform. This abrupt change led to markedly divergent views between the pre- and post-Doi Moi birth groups on China. Using the data from the latest Pew Global Attitude Survey, I demonstrate that Doi Moi increased the Vietnamese public's negative perception of Chinese economic expansion.

Pedagogical Conditions of Young Learners’ Social Competence Formation in the Educational Process of Modern Ukrainian Primary School

Up to date, there are growing appeals for the Ukrainians’ social security and protection under the conditions of increasing technogenic and growing informational load, leading to the risk of destroying personality. Previous studies have emphasized that social competence becomes more complicated as children grow older, and most intervention efforts for this age group target individual skills, the family, and the classroom setting. It is of critical value to nurture physically robust and socially developed full-fledged citizens, since there is a lack of the national rigorous study in the relevant domain. The aim of the research is to further extend and design social interaction research, the theoretical discourse and practical vision of fostering and improving primary schoolchildren’s social competence in the new Ukrainian school setting. Taking a broad view on different approaches to the concept of social competence, we consider it a person’s integrative capacity, formed in the process of his/her socialization experience. Thus, sharing societal norms and expectations, motives, values, emotional and practical skills, and knowledge, a person gains effectiveness of interaction with other people, independently finds constructive solutions to problems in real life situations, and rapidly adapts to new living conditions. Fostering and improving social competence in primary schoolchildren in the New Ukrainian School setting should become an indispensable part of school-parents’ partnership in designing a variety of strategies and practices for improving schoolchildren’s social knowledge and skills, and respectively making young learners balancing studies and social life.

Social Experiences of Adolescents with Mobility Disabilities in the Field of Education

This article analyses the socialization experience at school of 12–18-year teenagers with movement disabilities, and is based on the capital theory by sociologist P. Bourdieu and the concepts of field and habitus. It also deals with home schooling and the adaptation of environment at education institutions. It goes into depth of the effect the bullying has on the socialization process of an adolescent with a disability.

MULTILINGUALISM OF POST-SOVIET MIGRATION: FUNCTIONAL ASPECT

The article uses the results of a project aimed at studying the relationship between language and ethnic identity of non-Russian immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Western Europe. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the first-generation migrants «export» patterns of using L1 (ethnic language) and L2 (Russian language) formed in their native country. On the other hand, in a foreign cultural environment there is a transformation of existing and appearance of new functions and values of L1 and L2. Regarding L2 the author draws two main theoretical conclusions: 1) in a migration situation, the Soviet concept of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication receives its «second life», 2) L2 fulfills the functions of the inner language — the language used for «internal» purposes, that is, for communication with people from the post-Soviet space sharing a common past and socialization experience

What Determinants Affect Doctoral Students’ Career Plans? Main Findings from a 2018 Survey of Chinese Doctoral Students

The purpose of this study is to analyze Chinese doctoral students’ career expectations and determinants or factors influencing their career plans based on main findings from the national survey of doctoral students in 2017. Main findings include: firstly, the Chinese case indicates that becoming academics is still attractive to most doctoral graduates; secondly, female doctoral students are more likely to choose to work in universities than male doctoral students; thirdly, the social background of doctoral students did not have a significant impact on their academic orientation scores, but doctoral students with richer family culture capital (parents with college degrees) are even more reluctant to choose to work in the universities; finally, significant disciplinary differences and the correlation between their socialization experience and their academic orientation could be confirmed.