10. Managing Globally Distributed Teams

Globally distributed work is an integral part of offshore outsourcing and offshoring. The 2020–2022 Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the offshoring of IT and business services as the rush for the IT talent needed to promote digital transformations has led companies to increase their offshoring investments in India, China, and Eastern European countries (https://​www.​businesstoday.​in/​magazine/​industry/​story/​why-india-still-rules-it-outsourcing-and-how-to-sustain-it-313502-2021-12-03). Offshore outsourcing often requires the client and supplier teams to work together in a globally distributed fashion. In such cases, some teams will be based onshore, at either the client’s site or the supplier’s onshore site, with others based offshore. In a similar vein, when a client firm sets up offshore facilities, it divides work between onshore and offshore locations. Such distributed work generally requires close collaboration between members of globally distributed teams. Globally distributed teams consist of two or more (sub-) teams working together from different geographical locations to accomplish joint goals. These teams face major challenges on various fronts, including cultural differences (Brooks et al., Journal of Information Technology, 35(3), 232–250, 2020) relating to national traditions, values, and norms of behaviour, as well as language barriers and time-zone differences. This chapter therefore focuses on the following topics: