Immigrant managers as boundary spanners on offshored software development projects: partners or bosses?

Authors:
Natalia Levina;Aimee A. Kane
Affiliations:
New York University, New York, NY, USA;New York University, New York, NY, USA
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2009 international workshop on Intercultural collaboration
Year:
2009

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Abstract

A growing trend to source complex software development projects to lower-cost (offshore) locations has created a need for effective collaboration across cultural boundaries. One way of addressing this need in practice has been to nominate onshore immigrants to manage projects being sourced to the immigrant's country of origin. The assumption is that these managers will enable effective collaboration by drawing on their dual identity. We report findings of a qualitative study involving offshore software providers and onshore project managers (both immigrant and non-immigrant) investigating consequences of this practice. We then use social identity theory to explain our findings.