Stakeholder views on the drivers and inhibitors of performance of IT outsourced employees

Abstract

Employee performance has become increasingly important due to increased competiveness and organisations are aiming to do more with less. IT Outsourcing is one of the options organisations use to reduce costs. However at the core of IT Outsourcing is the performance of the highly skilled knowledge worker. The IT Outsourced employees find themselves in a triangular relationship between the IT Outsourcing client company and the IT service provider company.The objective of this research was to empirically quantify the factors that drive or inhibit performance of IT Outsourced employees and compare the results between the IT Outsourcing stakeholders in a two phased research. The first phase of the research was a qualitative study that focused on the development of constructs which drive and inhibit performance of IT Outsourced employees. The second research phase had a quantitative focus. The sample consisted of 116 IT Outsource stakeholders.The study identified the key drivers and inhibitors of performance of IT Outsourced employees. The empirical evidence from this study shows that the key drivers of performance are intrinsic factors and leadership whilst the inhibiting factors are mainly related to poor leadership. Furthermore the study revealed that the IT Outsource stakeholders have misaligned perceptions on inhibitors and somewhat congruent perceptions with regards to drivers of performance. Moreover the study found that managers and poor performers’ perceptions of inhibiting factors of performance are significantly different, and that understanding the differences and reducing them could unlock outstanding performance. To this effect a model was developed to guide managers through this process.