Boundary Spanners in a Global Software Development Project: A Qualitative Case Study of an Indian Service Provider's On-Site Managers

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    Abstract

    Western companies´ outsourcing of short-term projects with low cost tasks to third world countries are increasingly being replaced by strategic partnerships that require closer collaboration between client and vendor. The majority of contributions within offshore outsourcing look at challenges in virtual communication, trust building and knowledge sharing, seen from a Western client perspective. I adopt a less ‘West-centric’ stance by drawing on interviews conducted in an Indian MNC providing advanced IT services and strategic business solutions to its clients all around the world. In this paper I study some of the key boundary spanners, Indian managers in so called on-site teams, who are responsible for developing trustful and sustainable client relations and coordinating complex projects across cultures, languages organizational boundaries, time zones and geographical distances. In the interview analysis I focus on 1) how the Indian vendor prepares its employees for cross-cultural teamwork, 2) which cross-cultural challenges the Indian on-site management team experiences in collaborating with Western clients and coordinating off-shore development projects, and 3) which skills and competencies they draw on in their complex boundary spanning work in order to be able to deal constructively with multiple cultures (regional, national, organizational and professional). in their interorganisational and cross-cultural interactions?
    OriginalsprogEngelsk
    TitelProceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business : Local Contexts in Global Business
    RedaktørerKlaus Meyer, Tunga Kiyak
    UdgivelsesstedEast Lansing, MI
    ForlagAcademy of International Business
    Publikationsdato2014
    Sider140
    StatusUdgivet - 2014
    BegivenhedAIB 2014 Annual Meeting : Local Context in Global Business - Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, Canada
    Varighed: 23 jun. 201426 jun. 2014
    Konferencens nummer: 56
    http://aib.msu.edu/events/2014/

    Konference

    KonferenceAIB 2014 Annual Meeting
    Nummer56
    LokationWestin Bayshore
    Land/OmrådeCanada
    ByVancouver
    Periode23/06/201426/06/2014
    Internetadresse
    NavnAcademy of International Business. Annual Meeting. Proceedings
    Vol/bind56
    ISSN2078-4430

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