Multisourcing conflicts : what does a manager focus on? : a system dynamics based analysis

Abstract

Multisourcing has its own set of challenges. With more people from different organizations on board, conflicts are bound to arise. The complex nature of these conflicts calls for specialized resolution strategies, which means more effort for the client managers. in order to look at the key conflicts and their resolution strategies in information technology projects, a case study approach for a single company making extensive use of multisourcing was adopted. After studying the previous literature on this subject and conducting extensive research through interviews of managers, the key conflict factors identified were power struggles, working in silos, knowledge and understanding gaps, withholding information and finger pointing. The resolution techniques adopted by managers were client moderated knowledge transfer sessions, client escalation, developing team motivation, effective communication and building personal rapport. The factors were found to be in line with the ones identified in the literature research. Once these factors were rated in terms of their significance and occurrence (by means of surveys), system dynamics was chosen as a modeling tool to capture the causal relationships that the conflict and resolution factors have with the system. System dynamics was chosen as it explicitly defines the cause effect relationships, interdependencies and feedback mechanisms. Based on this, simulation runs were done and sensitivity analyses for the individual impact of all the conflict and resolution factors were carried out. it was found that the descending order of criticality for the conflicts in the case of the company was knowledge gaps, withholding information, finger pointing, working in silos and power struggle. The descending order of the available resolution options was effective communication, personal rapport, client moderated knowledge transfers, motivation and client escalations. This sequencing can help the managers at the company to address the key conflicts in order of priority. They can then devise their strategy by combining multiple resolution options and gauging the impact of their strategy (vide the system dynamics model constructed in this thesis) as is pertinent to their organization.