Negotiating and Spanning Boundaries in Offshore Outsourcing: Indian and Danish Perceptions of Intercultural Collaborations

Much research of geographically distributed teams has taken its point of departure in Western MNCs and addressed headquarter concerns with managing employees at distant locations. In this single case study we look deeper into how vendor staff members in a virtual captive center perceive intercultural collaboration with managers and staff at the outsourcing client´s site. We also raise the question: Who and what motivates them to stay at work in this Indian IT development context where many Western clients have experienced serious challenges with outsourcing due to high attrition rates? The single case is studied through company documents, semi-structured interviews with managers and employees from both the client and the vendor organizations, and participant observations of intercultural encounters. Since observations and interview accounts gave the impression that virtual team collaboration went fairly smooth, we further explored the specific conditions and organizational practices that seem to have fostered benefits: information and communication technologies, culture guidelines, and not least managers and staff who acts as boundary spanners and establishes common ground. Finally we highlight the power struggles between client and vendor
about HR issues related to the chosen organizational setup of a virtual captive center.