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2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Offshoring White-Collar Work: An Explorative Investigation of the Processes and Mechanisms in Two Danish Manufacturing Firms

Authors : Dmitrij Slepniov, Marcus M. Larsen, Brian Vejrum Wæhrens, Torben Pedersen, John Johansen

Published in: The Offshoring Challenge

Publisher: Springer London

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Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: to explain why white-collar service work in manufacturing firms is increasingly subject to offshoring and to understand the effects of this process on work integration mechanisms. The empirical part of the study is based on two case studies of Danish manufacturers. First, the chapter finds that drivers of white-collar work offshoring in many respects are parallel to those of the earlier wave of blue-collar work offshoring, that is, cost minimisation and resource seeking. Second, due to the interdependence of white-collar tasks with the rest of the organisation, our results suggest that white-collar offshoring in manufacturing firms poses higher requirements to the organisational configuration and capabilities compared with blue-collar work. We conceptualise the effects of white-collar work offshoring in a framework relating white-collar work to integration mechanisms companies instigate to manage it on a global scale.

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Title: Offshoring White-Collar Work: An Explorative Investigation of the Processes and Mechanisms in Two Danish Manufacturing Firms
Authors: Dmitrij Slepniov
Marcus M. Larsen
Brian Vejrum Wæhrens
Torben Pedersen
John Johansen
Publisher: Springer London
Book: The Offshoring Challenge
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4907-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4471-4908-8

Copyright Year: 2013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4908-8_7