Relocating Routines: The Role of Improvisation in Offshore Implementation of Software Processes

Offshored Software and IT-enabled Services have grown spectacularly over the last decade, particularly from India (McKinsey & Nasscom, 2005; Nasscom, 2007). In western economies, while domestic outsourcing won acceptance from 1980s, off-shored outsourcing has assumed increasing importance since the late nineties (Hirschheim, Heinzl, & Dibbern, 2006). Global outsourcing could be regarded as a component of the ongoing phenomenon of globalization (Friedman, 2005). Global outsourcing or offshoring involves transfer of work from its original locale within organizational boundaries or at a domestic firm, to a location at a considerable distance. In a general sense, such transfers are a core component of Globalization. The well known sociologist Anthony Giddens, for example, considers time-space distantiation and disembedding mechanisms as the major features modernity and globalization (Giddens, 1990). Such process transfers however, need to confront significant complexities since they involve work transfers across differences or gaps in five dimensions — geographical distance, time zone differences, governance differences, cultural differences and infrastructural differences (van Fenema, 2002). Because of these complexities, disembedding processes from locales where they have earlier been performed to new locations is not in itself an uncomplicated and routine process. There could be considerable risk of failures. We argue in this paper however, that a creative and effective use of resources of the new environment provides scope for major improvements and gains. High levels of quality and productivity reported from India (McKinsey & Nasscom; Nasscom, 2005) point to the fact such gains have been obtained in many cases. We consider Improvisation, which may be defined as creative problem solving that is grounded in the realities at hand, as essential for successful work relocation. In this paper we present two cases of global companies setting up centers in India. While creativity as a value is prized by both organizations, in confronting a new context, organizational approach to improvisation differs leading to different outcomes. We review the literature on Improvisation in Sect. 2. Research approach is outlined in Sect. 3. We present two cases — one of a British and the second of an American multinational commencing work in their Indian software subsidiary in Sect. 4. Of these, while one succeeds in the venture and its subsidiary goes on to achieve outstanding performance amongst global centers of the firm, the Indian subsidiary of the other firm fails to meet expectations of the parent and had to fold up. In the final section we contrast the two approaches and consider key organizational factors that facilitated appropriate improvisation and contributed to the outcomes.