Knowledge Sharing in Globally Distributed IT Outsourcing Arrangements

In spite of its pervasiveness and centrality, knowledge issues in globally distributed arrangements remain scarcely explored and under-theorized. This is largely due to the high degree of complexity involved in understanding the underlying dynamics and many facets of knowledge. The vocabulary of practice-based studies seems particularly appropriate to investigate knowledge management in outsourcing ‘as it happens’ by looking at everyday work practices of the team players. The purpose of this research is two-fold: It firstly investigates how the collaborative competency in knowing-how to effectively manage knowledge across global boundaries contributes to the process of enhancing outsourcing performance. Secondly, it investigates how this practice of organizing enhances organizational knowing and learning by studying the knowing-how that is enacted through the everyday, ongoing work practices of the team members. Based on empirical investigations at an offshore vendor site, this research further examines how similar practices synchronize, connect and converge into interwoven textures, and how diverse, improvised practices can be re-negotiated and re-configured (in practice) to enhance organizational competency.