Offshoring Digital Work, but Not Physical Output: Differential Access to Task Objects and Coordination in Globally Distributed Automotive Engineering and Graphic Design Work

When scholars and practitioners consider the implications of off shoring work, their primary concern is often the impact off shoring has on communication between people at different sites. When time zones and geographic boundaries separate employees, communication is limited, making it difficult for remote colleagues to form trusting and familiar relationships with one another. However, off shoring not only obstructs person-to-person interactions, it also impedes person-to-object interactions. This is potentially problematic as many organizations today still produce physical products, such as printed marketing collaterals, computers, home decor, or automobiles. Though organizations that create physical outputs may engage in digital work processes, people at these organizations may still rely on interactions with the physical objects that they produce in order to complete tasks. In this paper we investigate impeded person-to-object interactions at two offshore work sites representing two different occupations: automotive engineering and graphic design.