Why They Do Not Understand -- A Model of Knowledge Discourse in the Transition Phase of Globally Distributed Projects

This paper contributes to the field by applying the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) for building a model, which improves the understanding of the role of project set-up and communication in the transition phase of projects involving global virtual teams. Although research has highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer in offshore outsourced projects, the literature says little about real-world knowledge transfer problems experienced by project managers and provides little guidance for developing solutions. In this paper, we investigate knowledge transfer problems in the transition phase of offshore outsourced software projects and how set-up of the phase influences unstructured knowledge transfer. Using the SSM, we identify relevant constructs and relationships and build a conceptual model. This highlights the importance of an appropriate communication inception as a basis for relationship building and defines a new construct, ´knowledge discourse´, which signifies the importance of two-way interaction for the transfer of unstructured knowledge.