Perils and Paradoxes of Outsourcing: An Ethnographic Study Exploring Hopes and Dissonances Emanating from IT Employment in India

Chandra Shekhar Joshi and A. V. Raman

Management and Labour Studies, 2022, vol. 47, issue 4, 448-469

Abstract: This article intends to revisit the optimistic and pessimistic views on offshoring and investigate their contemporary relevance in the context of Indian information technology (IT) workers. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with 51 IT workers, this study argues that the nature and content of work are less relevant than circumstances, situational conflicts and social interactions in constituting work and its experiences. Thus, the study suggests that relocation of business activities or its expansion does not render work as utopian or precarious only by itself; it is also co-constructed as such by the offshore players. JEL Codes: L800, M540, L840

Keywords: Ethnography; grounded theory; IT employment; offshoring; work experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:manlab:v:47:y:2022:i:4:p:448-469

DOI: 10.1177/0258042X221097808

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