Rise and Fall of an Information Technology Outsourcing Program: a qualitative Analysis of a Troubled Corporate Initiative

 
 

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Rise and fall of an information technology outsourcing program: 
A qualitative analysis of a troubled corporate initiative 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 
 
Abstract
............................................................................................................................ 
vi 
 
Introduction
..................................................................................................................... 
1 
Chapter One: A Brief History of Information Technology Outsourcing
.................... 6 
Early Information Technology Outsourcing........................................................... 7 
Staff Augmentation and H1-B Visas....................................................................... 8 
Offshoring and Re-shoring...................................................................................... 9 
Current State of Information Technology Outsourcing.......................................... 10 
Normative Research and Theory............................................................................. 12 
Tensions and gaps in outsourcing diffusion literature................................ 14 
Chapter Two: The Social Theory of Information Technology Outsourcing
............... 18 
Organizational Culture and Power.......................................................................... 18 
Bourdieu—habitus, capital, and field......................................................... 18 
Lincoln—cultural taxonomy, anomaly, and rituals..................................... 21 
Jackall—bureaucratic ethic and morality of corporate managers................ 25 
Harvey—the Abilene Paradox..................................................................... 27 
Moral Careers in Information Technology............................................................. 29 
Goffman—moral career.............................................................................. 29 
Goffman—impression management........................................................... 30 
Braverman—technical labor commodification and deskilling................... 30 
Brown and Duguid—infocentrism.............................................................. 32 
Organizational Paradigms....................................................................................... 34 
Kuhn—the structure of scientific revolution............................................... 34