Anxiety and Psychological Security in Off-shoring Relationships

Kelly, S. & Noonan, C. (2008) Anxiety and psychological security in offshoring relationships: the role and development of trust as emotional commitment. Journal of Information Technology, 23, 232–248.

18 month period in Irish firm (NetTrade) during which a decision was made to outsource the development of a replacement for their core technology  to the offshore facilities of a large Indian software vendor (IndiaSoft).

The article gives us a clear insight into the relevant theories on globalization, risk, anxiety, and the production of trust before going into the case study details, these include the following:

Gidden's two types of trust:

1. Trust in abstract systems - based on faceless commitment (e.g. banks; as a customer we may not fully understand the "backstage" operations - access points with knowledge experts represents and establishes our trust in that system, e.g. financial broker. Emotional trust is based on our continuous  interactions with these representatives, until the trust becomes habitus.
2. Personal trust - based on facework commitments

Mayer et al.'s characteristics of trust:

1. Ability - the skills, competencies, and characteristics that enable a party to have influence within a specific domain.
2. Benevolence - the extent to which a trustee is believed to want to do good to the trustor. 
3. Integrity - the trustors perception that the trustee adheres to a set of principles that the trustor finds acceptable

Zucker's three key modes of establishing trust:

1. Process based - based on personal experience either through direct informal interaction or by formal indirect mechanisms based on reputation.
2. Character based - based on labeling or stereotyping based on certain characteristics. These characteristics are used as an index for trust.
3. Institutional based - based on person specific (e.g. certificates representing credibility) or intermediary mechanisms (insuring against loss e.g. insurance)

Courtship (establishing trust)

1. Process based

• Direct - recommendations from friends, initial negotiations with Indiasoft
• Indirect - The economist, reference clients

2. Institutional based

• Person specific - certificates

3. Characteristic based

• Integrity - well aligned values (humility)
• Benevolence - care & attentiveness (reassurance they wouldn't be lost within the grander scale of things), allowed them to pay in small installments
• "Good vibes" - emotional commitment - main determinant

Cohabitation (constructing a stable collaborative order)

1. Signalling

• Praising one project team member over another - causing removal of the unfavorable one

2. Brokering

• Boundary Spanners - individuals who facilitate sharing
• Eased anxiety when communication was failing - had someone in "both camps" -  Stephen
• Complicated when boundary spanner develops close ties e.g. Indian broker Sunil told by superiors not to share code - awkward moment telling John (conflicting loyalties)

3. Third man

• Outside third party - no relation
• Aggresive questioning of Sunil (who was displeased) - this was uncomfortable for John and would not have taken place without the third man.

Following the reading of this case it led me to think about the definition of trust and how it is established: