Trust in global software alliances: understanding the role of power and control within and between organizations

Abstract

Global alliances have been promoted as interorganizational relationships that will permit organizations to deal with the increasingly turbulent global markets. Whatever the specific nature of the alliance, trust is seen as an essential constituent of successful relationships. However, most studies neglect the role of power and control in the 'manufacture1 of real or apparent trust in such arrangements. The few that do address such issues treat organizations as single entities, and neglect the interplay among power and control within organizations, and also do not include the influence of values and interests in the study of power and control. In this paper, we examine the global software outsourcing arrangements between a large North American telecommunication organization and its four relatively smaller Indian software vendors to present a more complex relationship among trust, power and control, and values and interests.