Embedded Knowledge and Offshore Software Development

Nicholson, B & Sahay, S. (2004) EmbeddedKnowledge Embedded knowledge and offshore software development, Information and Organization, 14, 329-365 Longitudinal Case Study Nicholson & Sahay (2004) use the unsuccessful outsourcing experience of a British based software company to consider the challenges of transferring embedded knowledge. They use Lam’s (2000) framework of levels of embeddedness: cognitive, organizational & societal. They provide two primary examples: 1) conceptions of time or “leakage” and 2) “conflict enabling creativity.” They found that Indian employees 1) believed deadlines were more important that hours spent on a project and 2) were very reluctant to question or challenge authority figures in the creative process. This study reminds me of the current performance analysis I’m conducting with ECS/Core for IT 7150 because it involves similar issues of communication between US and India teams. To take findings from the communication literature and frame it as embeddedness of knowledge will help me use of the info on that side that seems related to training. Creativity topic is particularly interesting to me and something I want to explore.