Cross-status Communication and Project Outcomesin OSS Development A Language Style Matching Perspective

TL;DR

This paper investigates how language style matching between different social status members in OSS projects affects communication effectiveness, productivity, and quality, highlighting the importance of linguistic alignment in project success.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of cross-status linguistic differences in OSS communication and links these differences to project outcomes, offering new insights into social dynamics in open source development.

Findings

Linguistic similarities correlate with better project outcomes.

Cross-status communication often exhibits style mismatches.

Language style matching can enhance project productivity and quality.

Abstract

The success of an open source software (OSS) project requires effective communication among its members. Given that OSS projects often have established social status systems, much communication may happen between individuals of different statuses, particularly, elite developers who have project management privileges and ordinary project contributors. Since sociolinguistics literature and our prior work have found that groups in different status would be likely develop different language styles, which may hinder critical cross status communication, and hereby influence the outcomes of the project. We seek to develop an understanding of cross status communication, as well as its impacts on the outcomes of an OSS project in terms of productivity and quality. The anticipated results describe the linguistic similarities and differences of cross status communication and reveal the relationships between these linguistic similarities and differences and project outcomes.