this emerging need. Our findings are
consistent with broader calls from
education scholars who have advocated (in response to recent waves of
technological change) emphasizing
“softer” skills (such as complex communication) 14 in the U.S. educational
system; for example, educators could
interweave existing material in the
IT curriculum with projects that promote teamwork, negotiation, and presentation skills.
In the future, this area of research
would benefit from improved offshoring data, including more fine-grain
measures of the task content of individual jobs. Data at the task level
would allow researchers to test more
nuanced models of which attributes
make a job vulnerable to offshoring
(such as those considering the modularity, codifiability, or information intensity of a worker’s task set). These
tests would also provide insight into
how jobs and educational programs
can be designed so U.S.-based workers maximize the value they provide
to the global economy. Furthermore,
although our survey data was unique
because it allowed us to capture fine-grain outcomes, a limitation of the
data was its reliance on self-reported
responses from employees and hiring managers that might be subject to
bias. Evidence from other data sources could therefore be useful in validating these results.
Finally, although our study focused
on job displacement, offshoring may
also affect workers through reduced
wages. A more comprehensive understanding of the full effects of offshoring on IT workers and the demand for
particular skills could therefore be
provided through analyses of job displacement and wage effects.
acknowledgments
We thank Peter Cappelli, Eric Clemons, Lori Rosenkopf, and three anonymous reviewers for their guidance and
comments.
References
1. amiti, M. and wei, s. Fear of service outsourcing: is it
justified? Economic Policy 20, (apr. 2005), 308–348.
2. apte, u. and Mason, r. global disaggregation of
information-intensive services. Management Science
41, 7 (July 1995), 1250–1262.
3. aspray, w., Mayadas, F., and Vardi, M. Globalization
and Offshoring of Software: A Report of the ACM Job
Migration Task Force. acM Press, new york, 2006.
4. blinder, a. How Many u.S. Jobs Might Be
over 30% of
respondents
reported offshoring
computer
programmers
and software
developers, but
only about half of
them, or 15.5%,
reported offshoring
systems analysts.
Offshorable? cePs working Paper no. 142, (Mar.
2007).
5. blinder, a. offshoring: the next industrial revolution.
Foreign Affairs 85, 2 (Mar./apr. 2006), 113–128.
6. carmel, e. and tjia, P. Offshoring Information
Technology: Sourcing and Outsourcing to a Global
workforce. cambridge university Press, cambridge,
england, 2005.
7. Ferrat, t., agarwal, r., brown, c., and Moore, J.e. it
human resource management configurations and
it turnover: theoretical synthesis and empirical
analysis. Information Systems Research 16, 3 (sept.
2005), 237–255.
8. george, t. report: it turnover high despite
concerns over job stability. Informationweek
(May 6, 2002); http://www.informationweek.com/
news/global-cio/compensation/showarticle.
jhtml?articleid=6502404
9. government accountability office. Current
Government Data Provide Limited Insight into
Offshoring of Services. gao-04-932. washington
d.c., 2004.
10. herz, d. worker displacement still common in the
late 1980s. Monthly Labor Review 114 (May 1991),
3–9.
11. Jensen, J. and Kletzer, L. Measuring Tradable
Services and the Task Content of Offshorable
Services Jobs. working Paper, 2007.
12. Kletzer, L. Job displacement. Journal of Economic
Perspectives 12, 1 (winter 1998), 115–136.
13. Lee, d.M.s., trauth, e., and Farwell, d. critical skills
and knowledge requirements of is professionals: a
joint academic/industry investigation. MIS Quarterly
19, 3 (sept. 1995), 313–340.
14. Levy, F. and Murnane, r. Teaching the New Basic
Skills: Principles for Educating Children to Thrive in a
Changing Economy. Free Press, new york, 1996.
15. Mann, c. what global sourcing means for u.s. it
workers and for the u.s. economy. Commun. ACM 47,
7 (July 2004), 33–35.
16. Mark, J. technological change and employment:
some results from bLs research. Monthly Labor
Review 110 (1987), 26–29.
17. Mithas, s. and Krishnan, M.s. human capital
and institutional effects in the compensation of
information technology professionals in the united
states. Management Science 54, 3 (Mar. 2008),
415–428.
18. Mithas, s. and whitaker, J. is the world flat or
spiky? information intensity, skills, and global
disaggregation. Information Systems Research 18, 3
(sept. 2007), 237–259.
19. Panko, r. it employment prospects: beyond the
dotcom bubble. European Journal of Information
Systems 17 (2008), 182–197.
20. Phillips, d. and clancy, K. some effects of ‘social
desirability’ in survey studies. The American Journal
of Sociology 77, 5 (Mar. 1972), 921–940.
21. ramasubbu, n., Mithas, s., and Krishnan, M.s. high
tech, high touch: the effect of employee skills and
customer heterogeneity on customer satisfaction
with enterprise system support services. Decision
Support Systems 44, 2 (Jan. 2008), 509–523.
22. slaughter, s. and ang, s. employment outsourcing
in information systems. Commun. ACM 39, 7 (July
1996), 47–54.
23. tambe, P. and hitt, L. Now I. T.’s ‘Personal’: Offshoring
and the Shifting Skill Composition of the u.S.
Information Technology workforce. working Paper,
2010.
24. Zwieg, P., Kaiser, K., beath, c. et al. the information
technology workforce: trends and implications
2005–2008. MIS Quarterly Executive (2006); http://
misqe.org/ojs2/index.php/misqe/article/view/104
Prasanna B. Tambe ( ptambe@stern.nyu.edu) is an
assistant professor of information, operations, and
management sciences in the stern school of business,
new york university, new york.
Lorin M. hitt ( lhitt@wharton.upenn.edu) is the class
of 1942 Professor of operations and information
Management in the wharton school, university of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.