Sounds as though the software engineers are displaying behaviors of technology determinists. Have you taken a look at the literature that is available in organization sciences that explores socio-technical systems in organizations? If not, this is a good starting point for exploration of the engineers behaviors. You might also want to take a look at the growing body of literature relating to knowledge management and organizational learning in business organizations. I've included several citations that might be of interest to you. My academic interests revolve around organization behaviors associated with the adoption of ICT in support of organizational learning. Feel free to contact me off list via email if you want to explore some ideas. /Gail Appelbaum, S.H. (1997). Socio-technical systems theory: An intervention strategy for organizational development. Management Decision, 35(6), 452-463. Bhatt, G. D. (2001). Knowledge management in organizations: Examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(1), p. 68 Cooper, R.B. (1994). The inertial impact of culture on IT implementation. Information & Management, 27, 17-34. Kling, R., & Lamb, R. (1999, September). IT and organizational change in digital economies: A socio-technical approach. Computers and society, 17-25. Mumford, E. (2000). A socio-technical approach to systems design. Requirements Engineering, 5, 125-133. Pasmore, W.A. (1995). Social science transformed: The socio- technical perspective. Human Relations, 48(1), 1-21. ***************************** Gail D. Taylor, M.Ed. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student Educational Psychology Teaching Assistant "We can't just have mainstream behavior on television in a free society. We have to make sure we see the whole panorama of human behavior." -- Jerry Springer