Merging management ideals in Swedish IT offshoring

•The Swedish management ideal was constructed as highly context sensitive.•The Swedish management style was problematic to assume outside of the Swedish business context.•The challenge with managing IT offshoring was described to be that the Indian employees were unfamiliar with Swedish management practices.•Swedish managers were encouraged to abandon key aspects of their management style in order to achieve efficiency in the transnational business setting.

This article explores management ideals in transnational business relations by drawing on interviews with 18 Swedish managers involved in managing IT offshoring from Sweden to India. Drawing on a critical discourse framework the analysis highlights how the managers interviewed discursively constructed the meaning of ideal management and tried to merge their familiar Swedish management style with the transnational business context, using different discursive practices. The Swedish management ideal was understood as highly context sensitive and the subject position constructed within the discourse was not unproblematic to assume outside of the Swedish business context. Instead, according to the managers interviewed, their management practices were inefficient in the transnational business context in which they were now operating. The article advances the discussion of contemporary management by examining how managers negotiate management ideals when faced with the challenges of effective management of offshore IT sourcing relationships. The managers argued for flexible management strategies that merged the Swedish management style together with the Indian business setting. Even if this entailed abandoning key aspects of the Swedish management ideal it was understood as necessary for securing and maximizing business efficiency.