IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/manlab/v47y2022i4p448-469.html

Perils and Paradoxes of Outsourcing: An Ethnographic Study Exploring Hopes and Dissonances Emanating from IT Employment in India

Author

Listed:
  • Chandra Shekhar Joshi
  • A. V. Raman

Abstract

This article intends to revisit the optimistic and pessimistic views on offshoring and investigate their contemporary relevance in the context of Indian information technology (IT) workers. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with 51 IT workers, this study argues that the nature and content of work are less relevant than circumstances, situational conflicts and social interactions in constituting work and its experiences. Thus, the study suggests that relocation of business activities or its expansion does not render work as utopian or precarious only by itself; it is also co-constructed as such by the offshore players. JEL Codes: L800, M540, L840

Suggested Citation

  • Chandra Shekhar Joshi & A. V. Raman, 2022. "Perils and Paradoxes of Outsourcing: An Ethnographic Study Exploring Hopes and Dissonances Emanating from IT Employment in India," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 47(4), pages 448-469, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:manlab:v:47:y:2022:i:4:p:448-469
    DOI: 10.1177/0258042X221097808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0258042X221097808
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0258042X221097808?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. Demirbag, Mehmet & Mellahi, Kamel & Sahadev, Sunil & Elliston, Joel, 2012. "Employee service abandonment in offshore operations: A case study of a US multinational in India," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 178-185.
    3. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau & Devashish Mitra, 2020. "Consequences Of Offshoring To Developing Nations: Labor‐Market Outcomes, Welfare, And Corrective Interventions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(1), pages 209-224, January.
    4. Niccolò Pisani & Joan Enric Ricart, 2016. "Offshoring of Services: A Review of the Literature and Organizing Framework," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 385-424, June.
    5. Schmeisser, Bjoern, 2013. "A Systematic Review of Literature on Offshoring of Value Chain Activities," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 390-406.
    6. Peter W. Liesch & Peter J. Buckley & Bernard L. Simonin & Gary Knight, 2012. "Organizing the Modern Firm in the Worldwide Market for Market Transactions," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 3-21, February.
    7. Mats Alvesson & André Spicer, 2012. "A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1194-1220, November.
    8. Farok J. Contractor & Vikas Kumar & Sumit K. Kundu & Torben Pedersen, 2010. "Reconceptualizing the Firm in a World of Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High‐Value Company Functions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1417-1433, December.
    9. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s2:p:1417-1433 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Egger, Hartmut & Egger, Peter, 2005. "Labor market effects of outsourcing under industrial interdependence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 349-363.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Denis E. Matytsin & Valentin A. Dzedik & Galina A. Markeeva & Saglar B. Boldyreva, 2023. "“Smart” outsourcing in support of the humanization of entrepreneurship in the artificial intelligence economy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lahiri, Somnath & Karna, Amit & Chittaranjan Kalubandi, Sai & Edacherian, Saneesh, 2022. "Performance implications of outsourcing: A meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1303-1316.
    2. Niccolò Pisani & Joan Enric Ricart, 2016. "Offshoring of Services: A Review of the Literature and Organizing Framework," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 385-424, June.
    3. Nidthida Lin, 2020. "Designing Global Sourcing Strategy for Cost Savings and Innovation: A Configurational Approach," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 723-753, October.
    4. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Kumar, Satish & Pandey, Nitesh & Lahiri, Somnath, 2023. "Is offshoring dead? A multidisciplinary review and future directions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3).
    5. Zimmermann, Angelika & Ravishankar, M.N., 2016. "A systems perspective on offshoring strategy and motivational drivers amongst onshore and offshore employees," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 548-567.
    6. Weng, David H. & Peng, Mike W., 2018. "Home bitter home: How labor protection influences firm offshoring," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 632-640.
    7. Lydia Bals & Jon F. Kirchoff & Kai Foerstl, 2016. "Exploring the reshoring and insourcing decision making process: toward an agenda for future research," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 102-116, December.
    8. Valle, Sandra & García, Francisco & Avella, Lucía, 2015. "Offshoring Intermediate Manufacturing: Boost or Hindrance to Firm Innovation?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 117-134.
    9. Christopher L. Erickson & Peter Norlander, 2022. "How the past of outsourcing and offshoring is the future of post‐pandemic remote work: A typology, a model and a review," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 71-89, January.
    10. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    11. Peter J. Buckley & Nigel Driffield & Jae-Yeon Kim, 2022. "The Role of Outward FDI in Creating Korean Global Factories," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 27-52, February.
    12. Sousa, Carlos M.P. & He, Xinming & Lengler, Jorge & Tang, Linhan, 2021. "Foreign market re-entry: A review and future research directions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2).
    13. Martina Musteen & Mujtaba Ahsan & Taekyung Park, 2017. "SMEs, Intellectual Capital, and Offshoring of Service Activities: An Empirical Investigation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 603-630, August.
    14. Baier, Elisabeth & Rammer, Christian & Schubert, Torben, 2015. "The Impact of Captive Innovation Offshoring on the Effectiveness of Organizational Adaptation," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 150-165.
    15. Denitsa Hazarbassanova Blagoeva & Peter D. Ørberg Jensen & Hemant Merchant, 2020. "Services in International Business Studies: A Replication and Extension of Merchant and Gaur (2008)," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 427-457, June.
    16. Buckley, Peter J. & Craig, Thomas D. & Mudambi, Ram, 2019. "Time to learn? Assignment duration in global value chain organization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 508-518.
    17. Munjal, Surender & Bhasin, Niti & Nandrajog, Divya & Kundu, Sumit, 2022. "Examining the evolution of emerging market multinational enterprises’ competitive advantages: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 732-744.
    18. Celo, Sokol & Nebus, James & Wang, I. Kim, 2018. "The Role of Internal and External Complexity in Global Factory Performance: An NKC Application," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 65-83.
    19. Mashiho Mihalache & Oli R. Mihalache, 2020. "What is Offshoring Management Capability and How Do Organizations Develop It? A Study of Dutch IT Service Providers," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 37-67, February.
    20. Barbieri, Paolo & Boffelli, Albachiara & Elia, Stefano & Fratocchi, Luciano & Kalchschmidt, Matteo, 2022. "How does Industry 4.0 affect international exposure? The interplay between firm innovation and home-country policies in post-offshoring relocation decisions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:manlab:v:47:y:2022:i:4:p:448-469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.xlri.ac.in/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.