Offshoring attitudes and their consequences for relationships in transnational teams. Reflections from a field study of German information technology developers

Abstract

With reference to the literature on offshoring and on transnational teams (TNTs), we present a qualitative study of 30 German IT developers’ attitudes towards the transfer of tasks to an Indian subsidiary. Respondents reported contrasting attitudes concerning offshoring consequences for the organization, TNT performance, as well as German employees’ workload, tasks, jobs, and intercultural learning. These offshoring attitudes affected some Germans’ relational behaviors towards their Indian colleagues, in terms of forming subgroups, pinpointing mistakes, communicating, transferring knowledge, and avoiding task transfer. The findings are interpreted from a configurational perspective, leading to recommendations for managers and suggestions for future research.