Interorganizational Boundary Spanning in Global Software Development: A Case Study of an Indian Vendor´s Collaboration with Western Clients

Western companies´ outsourcing of projects to emergent markets are increasingly being replaced by strategic partnerships that require closer collaboration between client and vendor. Existing research on global teamwork has primarily focused on the challenges, limitations and difficulties related to virtuality and cultural diversity. This paper, which draws on a case study of collaborative work in a global software development project, focuses on key boundary spanners in an Indian vendor company, who are responsible for developing trustful and sustainable client relations and coordinating complex projects across multiple cultures, languages, organisational boundaries, time zones and geographical distances. It looks into how these vendor managers get prepared for their complex boundary spanning
work, which cross-cultural challenges they experience in their collaboration with Western clients, and which skills and competencies they draw on in their efforts to deal with emerging cross-cultural issues in a way that paves ground for developing a shared understanding and common platform for the client
and vendor representatives. A framework of boundary spanning leadership practices is adapted to the offshore outsourcing context and used in the analysis of narrative interviews with the Indian vendor managers. The authors also contribute with a more context sensitive understanding of the inter-organizational boundary work that these managers are involved in. By applying Bourdieu´s concept of capital (economic, cultural, social and symbolic) in the analysis of imbalances of power between the vendor and the client, they highlight that power and politics need to be taken into account when studying collaborative partnerships in a global context.