Transactive Memory and the Transfer of Knowledge between Onsite and Offshore IT Outsourcing Teams

Ilan Oshri (), Julia Kotlarsky () and Paul Fenema ()
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Ilan Oshri: Rotterdam School of Management
Julia Kotlarsky: Warwick Business School
Paul Fenema: Netherlands Defence Academy

A chapter in Information Systems Outsourcing, 2009, pp 327-350 from Springer

Abstract: Knowledge transfer has become a key issue for globally distributed work, such as global software development projects (e.g. Kotlarsky & Oshri 2005), global Business Process Outsourcing (e.g. Feeny, Lacity, & Willcocks 2005), and Infrastructure Management (e.g. Beulen, van Fenema, & Currie 2005). In these novel organizational forms, success depends on the rapid transfer of business and technological knowledge from and to offshore facilities. This transfer of knowledge may improve knowledge integration across various sites and products, and may contribute to successfully coordinating complex projects (Grant 1996). Globally distributed projects, consisting of two or more teams working together from different geographical locations to accomplish project goals, face major challenges in transferring knowledge across remote sites. For example, these teams confront cultural differences that may include, but are not limited to, different language s, national traditions, values and norms of behaviour (Carmel 1999; Carmel & Agarwal 2002). To overcome geographical distances and time—zone differences such teams mainly collaborate through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and occasionally meet face-to-face to discuss project matters.

Keywords: Knowledge Transfer; Transactive Memory; Virtual Team; Zone Difference; Offshore Location (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-88851-2_15

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