Organizational Continuities and Discontinuities and the Job Satisfaction of Global Contractors

Abstract

Global outsourcing arrangements have become a key strategy for international staffing, especially in the software industry. However, global contractors are likely to experience identity challenges that create role ambiguity for them and reduce their job satisfaction. Drawing on survey data from 193 global contractors from an outsourcing firm headquartered in Eastern Europe, we test a model grounded in Organizational Discontinuity Theory and find that organizational continuities of team identification and shared vision are both linked to greater job satisfaction. On the other hand, organizational discontinuities (geographical dispersion, lack of face-to-face dependence, cultural diversity, and dynamic structure) have no association with job satisfaction. Our findings suggest that organizational discontinuities may have become normalized such that they are not problematic in and of themselves, and that continuities at the team level may be beneficial for global outsourcing organizations in providing global contractors with greater job satisfaction and helping them feel connected to their employing organization.