Abstract
This study examines the ways in which perceptions of equity are socially constructed among contractors involved in global offshoring arrangements. A comparative case study of two global software organizations involved in offshore outsourcing reveals that global contractors across sites constructed different equity perceptions of similar foreign assignments due to a number of contextual factors. These contextual differences combined to produce social comparison processes that led to the construction of different equity perceptions. Drawing on a perceptual model of equity theory, we find that global contractors from one case felt stigmatized and treated inequitably as “second-class citizens”, while those from the other case felt empowered as “free agents.” Our findings contribute a context-sensitive explanation for the construction of different equity perceptions in global offshoring arrangements, with implications for global work design more broadly.
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