Exploring Storytelling for Relationship Building in Offshore Outsourced Projects: An Action Research Investigation

Over recent years, more and more companies have come to recognise the utility of storytelling in the workplace. Stories are thought to be an effective means of sharing information and can fulfil a range of knowledge management functions. Furthermore, storytelling can contribute to social bonds between co-workers because stories allow the audience to create impressions about the attitudes and beliefs of the storyteller. The potential of storytelling in global virtual teams has received minimal research focus to date. In this paper we adopt an action research approach to investigate storytelling used as a knowledge transfer technique in offshore outsourced projects and observe the influence on team relationship development. Findings suggest that storytelling by recorded video can be an effective form of communication in the early stages of projects and helps overcome the challenge of relationship development in offshore outsourced projects.