Title: Task complexity and rapport in outsourced system development

Authors: Neeraj Parolia; Yuzhu Li; Stella Tomasi

Addresses: Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson MD 21252, USA ' University of Massachusetts – Darthmouth, 247 OldWestport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA ' Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson MD 21252, USA

Abstract: Little work exists to study the impact of context on offshore development teams for information systems development (ISD) projects. This study examines the role of rapport and the impact of task complexity to influence cohesion within offshore ISD project teams and their implications for project performance and work satisfaction from a social capital and interdependence perspective. Five hundred surveys were sent to randomly selected IS team members in India from IS outsourcing vendors located in India. A total of 194 responses were used in the PLS analysis. The empirical results show that task complexity and rapport had a positive and significant effect on task cohesion while task cohesion had a positive and significant effect on project performance and work satisfaction. This study demonstrates that the interdependence between task complexity and rapport among team members that can lead to shared understanding of the problems and approaches the team adopts, which eventually leads to successful outcomes.

Keywords: rapport; task cohesion; task complexity; work satisfaction; project performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2018.093209

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2018 Vol.10 No.1, pp.80 - 97

Received: 17 Nov 2017
Accepted: 20 Apr 2018
Published online: 13 Jul 2018 *

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