Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introducing the phenomenon of global software work
- 2 Globalization and global software work
- 3 GlobTel's GSA programme in India
- 4 The GlobTel–Witech relationship: a ‘standardization’ perspective
- 5 Global software work: an identity perspective
- 6 The GlobTel–MCI relationship: the dialectics of space and place
- 7 Managing the knowledge transfer process: the case of Sierra and its Indian subsidiary
- 8 The case of Gowing and Eron GSA: power and control
- 9 Cross-cultural communication challenges: GSAs between Japanese and Indian firms
- 10 Reflections and synthesis on theoretical insights
- 11 Managerial implications
- Index
- References
8 - The case of Gowing and Eron GSA: power and control
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introducing the phenomenon of global software work
- 2 Globalization and global software work
- 3 GlobTel's GSA programme in India
- 4 The GlobTel–Witech relationship: a ‘standardization’ perspective
- 5 Global software work: an identity perspective
- 6 The GlobTel–MCI relationship: the dialectics of space and place
- 7 Managing the knowledge transfer process: the case of Sierra and its Indian subsidiary
- 8 The case of Gowing and Eron GSA: power and control
- 9 Cross-cultural communication challenges: GSAs between Japanese and Indian firms
- 10 Reflections and synthesis on theoretical insights
- 11 Managerial implications
- Index
- References
Summary
GSW: a power and control perspective
In this chapter, we examine the role of power and control in shaping the process of a GSA relationship over time. In society and also in an organization, issues of power and control are intrinsically inter-connected with culture. Power has an influence on how cultural norms are collectively defined. The exercise of this power must be based on existing cultural values and assumptions. The exercise of power also enables the production and reproduction of cultural values. The process of globalization that defines the working of a GSA introduces new dimensions of power. Power structures that have been historically shaped – for example, through relationships between developed and developing countries – come into play in different ways and levels when firms from these countries are drawn together in a GSA. MNCs typically situated in the developed world have the economic and political power to make investments in infrastructure required for running GSAs. This economic power is also translated into cultural values, such as the norms of communication and conventions of meetings, etc. However, the introduction and stabilization of power- and culture-related values are always contested, especially in GSAs where the linkage between the firms is through the aspect of ‘knowledge’.
Power and knowledge are also deeply inter-connected, a point made emphatically by Foucault (1991). Three key strands in Foucault's analysis relate to power, knowledge and discourse.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Global IT OutsourcingSoftware Development across Borders, pp. 155 - 175Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
References
, and (1984). A flexible approach to information systems development, MIS Quarterly, 8, 69–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1987). Big brother and the sweatshop: computer surveillance in the automated office, Sociological Theory, 6, 87–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baskerville, R., Travis, J. and Truex, D. (1992). Systems without method: the impact of new technologies on information systems development projects, in K. E. Kendall, K. Lyytinen and J. I. DeGross (eds.), The Impact of Computer Supported Technologies on Information Systems Development, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 241–69
Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, London: Sage
Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell
(2000) Globalisation and identity in the network society: a rejoinder to Calhoum, Lyon and Touraine, Prometheus, 4, 109–223Google Scholar
Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (from 1 April 2001 an integral part of the UK Office of Government Commerce) (1990). structured systems analysis and design methodology Version 4 Reference Manual, Oxford: NCC Blackwell
Checkland, P. (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Chichester: Wiley
Child, J. (1984). Organization: A Guide to Problems and Practice, London: Paul Chapman
Faulkner, D. (1999). Survey – mastering strategy: trust and control in strategic alliances, Financial Times, 29 November, http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html
Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison, London: Penguin
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society, Cambridge: Polity Press
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press
Hall, S. (1991). The local and global: globalization and ethnicity, in A. D. King (ed.), Culture, Globalization and the World System, London: Macmillan, 19–40CrossRef
Hampden-Turner, C. and Trompenaars, F. (1993). The Seven Cultures of Capitalism, New York: Doubleday
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work Related Values, Beverley Hills: Sage
Kern, T. and Silva, L. (1998). Mapping the areas of potential conflict in the management of information technology outsourcing, in W. R. J. Baets (ed.), Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Information Systems, Euro-Arab Management School, Granada, 612–27
Lacity, M. and Hirschheim, R. (1993). Information Systems Outsourcing: Myths, Metaphors and Realities, Chichester: Wiley
Latour, B. (1996). Aramis or the Love of Technology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Law, J. (1986). A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, London: Routledge
(1983). Power, politics and MIS implementation, Communications of the Association of Computing Manufacturers, 26, 6, 430–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, W. (1995). The Global Information Society, Aldershot: Gower
Mead, M. (1951). The study of national character, in D. Lerner and H. Lasswell (eds.), The Policy Sciences, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 70–85
Morgan, G. (1986). Images of Organization, London: Sage
(1994). Virtual organization: a vision of management in the information age, The Information Society, 10, 267–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mumford, E. (1983). Designing Human Systems for New Technology: The ETHICS Method, Manchester: Manchester Business School
Peters, T. and Waterman, R. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best-Run Companies, New York: Harper & Row
(1983). A structurationist account of political culture, Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 414–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritzer, G. (1995). The McDonaldization of Society, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization, Social Theory and Global Culture, London: Sage
Roland, A. (1984). The self in India and America, in V. Kavolis (ed.), Designs Of Selfhood, New Jersey, NJ: Associated University Press, 170–91
(1999). The role of trust in outsourced information systems development projects, Communications of the Association of Computing Manufacturers, 42, 2, 80–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1997). Social structure and managerial agency in India, Organization Studies, 18, 3, 417–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinha, D. (1988). Basic Indian values and dispositions in the context of national development, in D. Sinha and H. Kao (eds.), Social Values and Development: Asian Perspectives, New Delhi: Sage, 31–55
and (1990). Role of social values in Indian organizations, International Journal of Psychology, 25, 705–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1983). Concepts of culture and organisational analysis, Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 3, 339–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1994). Virtual organisation: an alternative view, The Information Society 10, 289–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsham, G. (2001). Making a World of Difference: information technology in a Global Context, Chichester: Wiley
(1996). The fetish of technique: methodology as a social defence, Information Systems Journal, 6, 25–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1992). Putting Giddens into action: social systems and managerial agency, Journal of Management Studies, 29, 6, 693–711CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winner, L. (1977). Autonomous Technology: Technics-Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Zuboff, S. (1988). In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, New York: Basic Books
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.