Angelika Zimmermann

Interpersonal relationships in transnational, virtual teams: Towards a configurational perspective

Previous research has observed that strong interpersonal relationships are especially important for the functioning of transnational, virtual teams (TNTs), but are at the same time particularly hard to achieve in these teams. This article reviews and integrates the transnational and virtual team literature to provide an overview of examined cognitive, behavioural and affective relationship aspects. By demonstrating the interrelations between these relationship aspects, the article deviates from the prevalent, linear inputprocessoutput models of team functioning and makes a first step towards a configurational perspective on relationships in TNTs. It further reviews how several characteristics of the team structure, organizational context and socio-political environment may facilitate or inhibit relationship aspects. Through a synthesis of previous research, the article develops two examples of likely relationship configurations and their driving factors. The review concludes by recommending methods for future empirical research on relationship configurations in TNTs.

Formal and relational governance in IT outsourcing: substitution, complementarity and the role of the psychological contract

This study aims to contribute to the literature on IT outsourcing governance by advancing our understanding of mechanisms of substitution and complementarity between formal and relational governance. Our study illustrates certain conditions under which substitution and complementarity can occur and depicts a two‐way causal relationship between them. Our examination further provides a more in‐depth assessment of relational governance by using the concept of the psychological contract. Our results demonstrate that the psychologically binding nature of the psychological contract makes it a particularly forceful substitute to formal governance, while its associations with other relationship aspects make it a forceful complement.

Vendor Opportunism in IT Outsourcing: A TCE and Social Capital Perspective

Academic researchers have paid significant attention to the drivers of opportunistic behavior, yet our understanding of how opportunistic behavior can be mitigated remains relatively fragmented. Our investigation will focus on the social context and more specifically on the role of social capital in the deterrence of opportunistic behavior. On the basis of two qualitative case studies in the financial sector, we will illustrate how the structural, cognitive and relational dimensions of social capital can reduce internal and behavioral uncertainty between the outsourcing partners, thereby facilitating the mitigation of opportunistic behavior. In our study we combine the theory of transaction costs with social capital theory and demonstrate how they can usefully complement each other to enhance our understanding of mechanisms that can deter opportunistic behavior.

Offshoring attitudes and relational behaviours in german-indian offshoring collaborations: reflections from a field study

Offshoring arrangements have become a common setting for intercultural collaborations. There is ample evidence that the success of these offshoring arrangements is influenced on the relational behaviours between offshore and onshore colleagues. However, it has not been questioned whether and how the attitudes that onshore colleagues hold towards offshoring affect their relational behaviours towards offshore colleagues. This paper draws together the literatures on offshoring and transnational teams, to argue for the importance of offshoring attitudes. It presents a qualitative case study examining the offshoring attitudes of German IT developers working with Indian colleagues in an Indian subsidiary of the firm. The inquiry revealed that respondents offshoring attitudes were associated with their relational behaviours towards Indian offshore colleagues, namely whether Germans treated their Indian colleagues as fellow team members or as mere suppliers, how much effort they spent in communicating and transferring knowledge, and whether they supported or avoided the transfer of tasks to India. Importantly, these relational behaviours also had a reverse effect on the Germans offshoring attitudes, creating vicious and virtuous circles of offshoring attitudes and relational behaviours. Certain departmental context factors were identified to explain the differences in offshoring attitudes and resulting vicious and virtuous circles. The findings demonstrate that researchers and practitioners have to pay more attention to offshoring attitudes in order to better understand relational behaviours between onshore and offshore members, and thereby achieve more successful offshoring collaborations.

Sourcing in or out: Implications for social capital and knowledge sharing

The sharing of knowledge between a firm and its internal or external service suppliers has become an important element of contemporary sourcing arrangements. Moreover, the knowledge based view (KBV) has long suggested that due to stronger cognitive links within firms, internal compared to external service provision creates better conditions for knowledge sharing. Empirical evidence for this claim is however scarce, and the KBV does not explain the mechanisms for more knowledge sharing in internal sourcing in detail. Moreover, there is now some evidence to suggest that firms’ relationships with external sourcing partners are becoming more similar to those with captive centres, which represent a less traditional form of insourcing setting. To scrutinize the possible knowledge sharing advantages of internal sourcing in more depth, we turn to social capital (SC) research. There are some theoretical claims that SC and knowledge sharing are stronger within than between firms, and there is ample evidence that SC facilitates knowledge sharing. Our survey results suggest that the extent of knowledge sharing and SC are indeed stronger in a captive than in an external sourcing mode, and that structural (tie strength), cognitive (shared understanding), and relational (trust) aspects of SC mediate the effect of sourcing mode on the extent of knowledge sharing. By contrast, network stability (a structural aspect) mediated knowledge sharing only indirectly, by reinforcing the other SC aspects. We highlight important contributions to research and practice of IS outsourcing and social capital.

Interpersonal relationships in transnational, virtual teams

Transnational, virtual teams play a key role for international organizations in achieving local responsiveness as well as global integration. Team members in different countries can contribute their local knowledge and ideas to a transnational team, whilst team members located at headquarters ensure that the firm’s global requirements are met. Transnational teams are, therefore, able to create organizational knowledge that can be applied on a global scale. Over the last decade, research on transnational teams (TNTs) has grown from a small, specialist area into a major stream of interest covering several disciplines. TNTs have been investigated by social psychologists as well as experts on international business and information systems. This has led to the first literature reviews (Berg, 2006; Connaughton and Shuffler, 2007; Podsiadlowski, 2002; Stahl et al., 2007) and an edited book on the subject (Shapiro et al., 2005). Given that TNTs are often geographically dispersed, many TNT studies include issues of virtual collaboration. Due to the importance of transnational, virtual teams for international organizations, many researchers have focused on what makes these teams effective.

What Client Firms Want and Are Willing to Do to Achieve Innovation from Their Suppliers: Insights from the Nordic, Italian, and British Outsourcing Sectors

So far we have established in this book that nearly any client firm is now taking interest in the following question: how can we achieve innovation from our suppliers? Interestingly, it has also emerged that, while innovation has become a common practice within the firm, the road to achieving innovation from external suppliers is still bumpy. There are numerous open issues that make innovation in outsourcing a true challenge. Let us pick out four major ones emerging from the previous chapters. Firstly, innovation is defined and understood in different ways by the client and the supplier. Secondly, as innovation is delivered via an external party, the implications for the way innovation will be governed and delivered as part of the outsourcing engagement are not clear for many practitioners, though the evidence from the previous chapters gives a strong steer. Thirdly, many still debate whether the contract is an enabler or an inhibitor of achieving innovation. Fourthly, many practitioners remain unclear whether good relationships are the ‘holy grail’ of innovation, or whether contracts can substitute for ‘relationships,’ making good relationships just another contributing factor.

Towards a strategic understanding of global teams and their HR implications: an expert dialogue

Abstract Drawing on initial insights emerging from a panel at the EIBA 2016 Conference in Vienna, here discussants and expert panelists engage in a follow-on conversation on the HRM implications of global teams for international organizations. First we set out how HRM can enable global teams and their constituent members to overcome the new and considerable challenges of global teams. These challenges span levels of analysis, time and space. Next we debate global teams as a strategic response to the dual pressures of global integration and local adaptation. We consider what HRM is needed for global teams to successfully resolve this dilemma, challenging practitioners to move beyond the ‘best practices’ and ‘alignment’ dichotomy. Lastly we look to the future to consider implications for research. We propose a rich research agenda focused on the complexities of the global team context.

Services offshoring: a microfoundations perspective

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the link between services offshoring strategy and its outcomes for the firm by developing a theoretical framework for examining the role of employee motivation in the implementation of services offshoring strategy. Our framework is built on two conceptual foundations: the Microfoundations view of strategy and Goal Framing theory. We analyze services offshoring in terms of (a) the attributes and (b) the outcomes of firm level offshoring strategies, and (c) the micro-level processes that are essential for realizing the outcomes. As part of these micro-level processes, we focus particularly on employee motivation for services offshoring strategy implementation. We argue that our framework should constitute the basis of future empirical research in services offshoring, as it aims to contribute a greater theoretical understanding and practical recommendations for the refinement of services offshoring strategies.

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

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.