HSD: Intercultural Knowledge System Dynamics in Complex Services Outsourcing

复杂工程服务的全球化是更广泛的服务全球化趋势的一个组成部分，它对工作实践、劳动力、经济和社会产生了深远的影响。离岸外包，或通常所说的离岸外包，涉及聘请美国以外的公司来执行原本由美国客户组织完成的工作。据估计，美国占进口外包服务市场的80%。最近，美国客户工程公司已经开始将范围更广、复杂性更高的服务外包给国际服务提供商。外包这种多面设计工作的复杂性，加上工程团队之间的文化差异，可能导致知识系统冲突。知识系统冲突是跨工作组在专业知识、见解和惯例方面的分歧或不兼容。复杂服务离岸外包中知识系统冲突的结果具有不可预测性，是本课题研究的重点。本研究计划在三个石化工厂设计专案期间，纵向检视知识系统冲突，以了解并建立跨文化知识系统动态模型。随着越来越多的美国客户工程公司向复杂工程服务的离岸外包发展，这项研究的结果将解决理解上的一个关键差距。这一点尤其重要，因为许多跨文化知识系统冲突的影响不受监管标准的约束，可能造成效率低下和不安全的设施。这项研究将对美国工程公司和专业人士的政策、优先事项和投资产生广泛的影响。

The globalization of complex engineering services is a component of a much broader trend in the globalization of services which has far reaching impacts on work practices, workforce, economy, and society. Offshore outsourcing, or offshoring as it is commonly described, involves engaging firms outside the United States to execute work that would otherwise be completed by a U.S. client organization. By some estimates, the United States represents as much as 80% of the market for importing outsourced services. Recently U.S. client engineering firms have begun to outsource services of much broader scope and higher complexity to international service providers. The complexity of offshoring this multifaceted design work combined with cultural differences across engineering teams can lead to knowledge system conflicts. Knowledge system conflicts are disagreements or incompatibilities in the expertise, insights, and routines across a working group. The outcomes of these knowledge system conflicts in the offshoring of complex services are unpredictable and provide the focus of this research project. This research project examines knowledge system conflicts longitudinally over the duration of three petrochemical plant design projects to understand and model intercultural knowledge system dynamics. The findings from this research will address a critical gap in understanding as more U.S. client engineering companies are evolving toward the offshore outsourcing of complex engineering services. This is particularly critical since the impact of many intercultural knowledge system conflicts are not governed by regulative standards and may create inefficient and unsafe facilities. This research will have a broad impact helping shape the policies, priorities, and investments for U.S. engineering firms and professionals.