Managing I/S design teams: a control theories perspective
Management Science
A transaction cost approach to outsourcing behavior: some empirical evidence
Information and Management
The role of trust in outsourced IS development projects
Communications of the ACM
Survey of IT outsourcing experiences in US and UK organizations
Journal of Global Information Management
The role of software processes and communication in offshore software development
Communications of the ACM - Supporting community and building social capital
The Culture of an Information Economy: Influences and Impacts in the Republic of Ireland
The Culture of an Information Economy: Influences and Impacts in the Republic of Ireland
Portfolios of Control in Outsourced Software Development Projects
Information Systems Research
Managing cross-cultural issues in global software outsourcing
Communications of the ACM - Human-computer etiquette
Information and Software Technology
Agile distributed software development: enacting control through media and context
Information Systems Journal
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
In spite of the increasing trend of offshore outsourcing in the IT industry, there has been little attention given to control strategies for managing offshore IT development. This paper offers an analysis of the relationship between national culture and control mechanisms, which is particularly important in the offshore systems development context. Control is defined as an attempt made by an organization to ensure that individuals act according to an agreed upon strategy to achieve desired objectives. This paper uses four modes of control that have been previously applied to information systems development - formal (outcome, behavior) and informal (clan, self) - in the offshore context. The dimensions of national culture studied are based on Hofstede's work and include individualism (vs. collectivism), uncertainty avoidance, and power distance. The objective of this research is to address the effect of national cultural differences on control mechanisms. Propositions regarding the relationship between cultural dimensions and modes of control used in offshore-outsourced ISD project are presented. This work draws from three distinct research streams - control, outsourcing, and culture. This work proposes portfolios of control that contain a mix of control mechanisms which should be implemented depending on the cultural settings involved.