The Role Of Individual, Family-Related, And Organizational Factors In Shaping WLC In Offshoring Contexts: A Study Of European And Indian IT Professionals

Today, we o perate in a networked world, where organizations frequently resort to offshoring, such that work gets accomplished by a globally distributed workforce, whether inside or outside the organizational boundaries. Much of the past research on offshoring has focused on economic rationale and benefits as well as risks associated with offshoring. Offshoring leverages human capital in different parts of the globe, and the issues of WLC (WLC) faced by offshoring workforce issues can have substantial impact on the effectiveness of the offshoring arrangements. In spite of this, WLC in the context of offshoring has not received the attention it deserves. In this paper, based on responses from global software development (GSD) professionals based in Europe and India, we examine the key individual-based, family-based, and orga nization-based factors that can potentially have an impact on IT workers’ WLC. Further, we investigate the impact on WLC on outcome variables such as the workers’ job satisfaction as well as valence regarding working in offshoring environments in the future. Some interesting differences in factors relevant to workers in Europe and India emerge from our analysis.