Title: Perils and Paradoxes of Outsourcing: An Ethnographic Study Exploring Hopes and Dissonances Emanating from IT Employment in India

Author (s):: Joshi C.S.; Raman A.V.

Journal: Management and Labour Studies

Month and Year: June 2022

Abstract: This article intends to revisit the optimistic and pessimistic views on offshoring and investigate their contemporary relevance in the context of Indian information technology (IT) workers. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with 51 IT workers, this study argues that the nature and content of work are less relevant than circumstances, situational conflicts and social interactions in constituting work and its experiences. Thus, the study suggests that relocation of business activities or its expansion does not render work as utopian or precarious only by itself; it is also co-constructed as such by the offshore players. JEL Codes: L800, M540, L840. © 2022 XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources.

Document Type: Article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X221097808