The Need for Boundary Spanners in an Offshore Insourcing Strategy

This paper presents research on the need for boundary spanners in organizations that has an offshore insourcing strategy for the IT-function. The research question addressed was: How does an offshore insourcing strategy influence the need for having boundary spanners? Empirical data was collected using a case study in three phases, including semi-structured and structured interview in a multinational company. Boundary spanners is often presented as being of great importance when the IT-function is outsourced. The main conclusion is that boundary spanners that has the capability to communicate over the borders in this kind of organizations is also of high importance. This capability is likewise important in an offshore insourcing case as in the offshore outsourcing case.