An uncertain future: A preliminary study of offshore outsourcing from the manager's perspective

Abstract

Purpose

This is a preliminary study that explores the nature of decision making in the implementation process through an examination of environmental scanning and interpretation activities of project managers tasked with implementing offshore outsourcing activities.

Design/methodology/approach

The model utilized for this study suggests that individual scanning is filtered through distinct organizational types and control that will influence implementation efforts to find solutions to major issues associated with offshore outsourcing. The methodology uses a semi‐structured detailed set of interviews to gather data.

Findings

The preliminary findings suggest that project managers entrusted with implementing complex offshoring arrangements to achieve strategic short term cost reduction goals receive relatively little scanning information from senior management to guide them, must learn by doing, and are confronted with multiple external challenges centering on culture and communication with individuals performing work offshore that they were not initially prepared for.

Research limitations/implications

Suggestions for future research include expanding the study to complete comparative interviews with senior management scanning, comparisons between industries, comparisons between client and provider organizations and comparisons between organizational countries of origin.

Practical implications

Practical implications include a more accurate definition of decision‐making and implementation of offshore outsourcing by individuals and how this impacts organizations.

Originality/value

The study fulfills a void in organizational literature by examining scanning and interpretation as performed by mid‐level managers.

Citation

Clott, C. (2007), "An uncertain future: A preliminary study of offshore outsourcing from the manager's perspective", Management Research News, Vol. 30 No. 7, pp. 476-494. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170710759702