Social IT outsourcing and development:theorising the linkageisj_12013 381..399
Shirin Madon* & Sandesh Sharanappa‡
*Dept. of Intl. Development/Dept. of Management (Information Systems), LondonSchool of Economics & Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK,email: [email protected], and ‡Dept. of Management (Information Systems), LondonSchool of Economics & Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK,email: [email protected]
Abstract. In recent years, a growing number of social enterprises have focusedtheir attention on harnessing the benefits of trade in software by involving under-privileged communities from developing countries in the production of informationtechnology (IT). The goal of this type of activity, known as social IT outsourcing, isnot only to provide employment and income to low-income individuals but also toaddress wider development priorities within the locality. This paper focuses onstrengthening our understanding of social IT outsourcing as a promoter of devel-opment. Based on research in Jharkhand, eastern India, we seek to understandhow social IT outsourcing activity is interpreted from the perspective of employeeswho provide data services for the market and from the perspective of the socialenterprise that balances its market orientation with its social development goals.Our findings generate new insights into the mechanisms at play through whichsocial IT outsourcing is able to provide a variety of developmental advantages torural poor communities leading to policy implications for governments and devel-opment agencies.
Keywords: social IT outsourcing, KGVK, social enterprises, India
INTRODUCTION
Global software outsourcing has no doubt contributed to India’s spectacular economic growthproviding employment opportunities to information technology (IT) professionals (NASSCOM,2010). This activity, however, has so far touched only a small segment of the mostly urbanIT professionals (Kambhampati, 2002; Carmel, 2003). Indeed, there is ample evidence tosuggest that India’s pro-growth IT industry has been accompanied by increasing inequalitybetween economic and social sectors, a rising urban–rural divide and widening regionaldisparities (Deaton & Dreze, 2002; Bhaskar & Gupta, 2007). More recently, facilitated byimprovements in broadband coverage throughout the country and with the escalation in urban
wages and real estate costs in cities, IT outsourcing activity has spread to rural parts of Indiain order to safeguard the country’s competitive advantage in the outsourcing market bylowering the costs of providing IT services. For example, several established business processoutsourcing (BPO) providers in urban areas have started subcontracting to smaller rural BPOs(MONITOR, 2011a).
Together with this business-driven rationale, the take-up of IT outsourcing activity in ruralareas in the developing world has also been influenced by an overtly social mandate. Thisactivity, known as social IT outsourcing, is the topic of this paper. The term social IT outsourcingwas first used by Heeks & Arun (2010) to signify an extension of the already-known concept ofsocial outsourcing. While social outsourcing refers to contracting out the provision of goods andservices to a social enterprise (for example in manufacturing or service delivery), social IToutsourcing refers specifically to the provision of information technology services to clientsby social enterprises. Heeks & Arun describe a particular model of social IT outsourcing whichhas been implemented for several years in Kerala in which the state government acts as anintermediary between clients and subcontracting social enterprises that had earlier been formedunder the label of Kerala’s Kudumbasree initiative.1 These social enterprises consist of below-poverty line women’s groups in which investment from members is matched with a governmentgrant and bank loan thereby enabling the cooperative to be registered as an IT-oriented socialenterprise. In the case described by Heeks & Arun, demand for IT services has occurred as adirect result of the state government’s IT policy to prioritise automation in the public sectorresulting in numerous social as well as economic benefits for the women employees.
The model of social IT outsourcing adopted in Kerala, however, is unlikely to work in otherparts of India let alone in other developing countries given this state’s particular institutionalhistory of strong government, vibrant civil society and a commitment to social developmentpriorities. Indeed, one could argue that social IT outsourcing in Kerala has flourished preciselybecause of Kerala’s strong public sector market for digitisation and training and due to thepolitical will in the state to allow this activity to be shaped by developmental goals. Elsewherein India, and in other parts of the developing world, social IT outsourcing activity has emergedthrough a different route. The catalyst has been the growing number of new intermediaries,particularly social enterprises, inspired by a prominent discourse in development thinking ofincluding the poor in market-driven development (Karnani, 2007; Kuriyan et al., 2008). Thesesocial enterprises purposefully employ and train people at the base of the pyramid whootherwise have limited opportunities for sustainable employment to provide high-qualityinformation-based services to domestic and international clients. Large projects are split intomultiple smaller tasks and sent through digital networks to local social enterprises in devel-oping countries which, after completion, are integrated together for the client without the needfor physical assembly. Apart from providing employment and skills to poor communities in thedeveloping world, these social enterprises are committed to pursuing local development
1The Kudumbasree initiative was set up in India by the Kerala State Poverty Eradication Mission in 1999 focusing initially
on the assisted formation of women’s self-help groups around the state. These self-help groups have been used to
stimulate the formation of more than 60 000 microenterprises throughout Kerala including IT-oriented social enterprises.
priorities within the community, for example, providing improved access to educational andhealth facilities.
To date, however, despite the increasing prevalence of social IT outsourcing, this topic hasreceived little attention by scholars with the exception of the Heeks & Arun’s (2010) studyreferred to earlier providing a strong motivation for further research on this phenomenon indifferent contexts. In this paper, drawing on the experience of social IT outsourcing in therelatively backward state of Jharkhand in eastern India, we aim to provide greater insights abouthow this market-driven activity can provide social development benefits for poor communities.In the next section, we draw on theoretical and empirical literature in order to develop aconceptualisation of social IT outsourcing. Following a description of methodology, we presentour case study of KGVK Rural Enterprises Limited2 – a social enterprise located in Jharkhand,eastern India. Our main objectives are two-fold. First, to identify employees’ perspectives onhow their lives have changed as a result of participating in social IT outsourcing activity. Second,to identify the mechanisms put in place by KGVK for developing capacity to promote localcommunity development. Our concluding section points to emergent theoretical insights derivedfrom the case study broadening the discussion to propose some implications for policy.
CONCEPTUALISING SOCIAL IT OUTSOURCING AND DEVELOPMENT
We begin by presenting a review of arguments in the Information and Communication Tech-nologies and Development (ICTD) field about IT outsourcing from the perspective of develop-ing countries. This is followed by a review of recent empirical literature on social enterpriseinvolvement in IT outsourcing. We then present our conceptual framework for studying socialIT outsourcing linking ideas from our literature review with broader arguments about the roleof ICTs in promoting development.
IT outsourcing
IT outsourcing from a developing country perspective constitutes a prominent stream ofliterature in the ICTD field. The dominant view taken is that involvement in global softwareoutsourcing is a purposeful strategic endeavour intended to reap competitive advantage bymastering software production techniques and adopting business models. Most studies havefocused on identifying factors that lead to relative advantages among developing countries thatare competing for the lucrative markets of industrialised countries (Heeks & Nicholson, 2002;Carmel, 2003). An alternative conceptualisation of IT outsourcing in the ICTD literature focuseson understanding the broader social processes within which this activity is embedded. Thissocially embedded perspective has inspired two kinds of inquiry. One group of studies is
2The full name of KGVK is Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra Rural Enterprises. KGVK is the corporate social responsibility
arm of the Usha Martin Group which is today the world’s second largest steel wire rope manufacturer. See http://
www.kgvk.com.
Throughout this paper, we use KGVK to refer to the full name of the social enterprise which is KGVK Rural Enterprises
concerned with identifying the micro-societal processes that are implicated in the practices ofglobal software services. For example, Krishna et al. (2004) highlight tensions in cross-culturaloutsourcing relationships between clients and vendors, while d’Mello (2006) studied howthe work arrangements implicated in global software outsourcing conflict with local issuesof gender in Indian society. Other studies are concerned with identifying broader institutionalforces that affect the trajectory of the industry, for example, in terms of supporting an export-oriented software industry or nurturing the domestic market (Commander, 2005; Nicholson &Sahay, 2007). For example, Nicholson & Sahay studied the policy effort of the Costa Ricangovernment to promote an export-oriented software industry highlighting the influence ofhistorically formed vested interests in the country’s power structures.
While addressing a range of important issues related to economic growth, cultural factors andpolicy bias, so far there has been little explicit engagement in the literature with how IToutsourcing activity is implicated in processes of developmental transformation beyond eco-nomic indicators (Carmel, 2003). A more critical approach regarding the impact of IT outsourcingon overall development has been taken by some scholars based on evidence that the benefitsfrom a thriving software export industry will not necessarily trickle down to all echelons of society.At a country level, D’Costa (2003) identifies the Indian IT outsourcing industry as coexisting withstagnating sectors such as heavy industry thereby perpetuating inequality and differentialgrowth rates among regions and within cities. Similarly, at a city level, Madon & Sahay (2001)showed how the impact of Bangalore’s booming software outsourcing industry on the socialfabric of the city was felt in terms of attracting both affluent professionals and the very poor wholive in slums on the borders of the city and seek work at the margins of the official economy.
Social enterprises and IT outsourcing
Over the past few years, a growing number of social enterprises have become involved in IToutsourcing activity targeting employment and skills towards particular disadvantaged groupssuch as rural poor women and those below the poverty line threshold. This trend is fuelled bythe increasing reputation earned by social enterprises as alternative drivers of developmentwith their focus on the impact on society rather than purely on wealth creation (Kerlin, 2010;Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011). Although different in terms of structure and organisational form,3 acharacteristic that binds all social enterprises is their commitment to reinvesting surpluses forthe purpose of social objectives through their immersion at the community level in order tounderstand the local context (Rotheroe & Richards, 2007). For example, in the health-caredomain, a social entrepreneur typically develops a close relationship with patients at the villagelevel in an attempt to integrate their local perceptions of health and overall well-being with thebenefits of vaccinations (Katzenstein & Chrispin, 2011).
In recent years, a growing number of social enterprises have identified low-income commu-nities in the developing world as potential producers of IT goods and services. For example,
3Social enterprises can be for-profit or non-profit. They can take the form of a cooperative, mutual, charity or social
Digital Divide Data (DDD) based in New York is one such social enterprise that has employedseveral hundreds of motivated but disadvantaged youth in Cambodia, Laos and Kenya throughits offices abroad equipping them with education and training to take on roles in the BPOindustry.4 Apart from providing employment, the DDD social mandate includes offering employ-ees a scholarship to attend university in the hope that this can enable them to break the cycleof poverty that has afflicted their household (MONITOR, 2011b). A second example isSamasource5 – a social enterprise based in San Francisco founded in 2008 and responsiblefor marketing and selling fair trade outsourcing work focusing mainly on US and UK clients.6
Once work has been acquired by Samasource, its proprietary Web application calledSamaHub breaks down projects into smaller units of ‘microwork’.7 reassembles these unitsand checks them for accuracy. Since its inception, Samasource has become an intermediarybetween companies like LinkedIn and Google that need simple computer-based tasks com-pleted and poor people in India, Pakistan, Haiti, Uganda, South Africa and Kenya. Over thepast 4 years, Samasource has been able to create employment work for 900 individuals andbuild human resource capital to fuel growth in the local economy through partnerships withsmaller local social enterprises in developing countries (MONITOR, 2011b).
Conceptualising social IT outsourcing and development
Despite the growing prevalence of social IT outsourcing, research on this topic has onlyrecently started to receive attention in the ICTD literature. This nascent discourse, initiated byHeeks & Arun’s (2010) study referred to earlier, focuses on assessing how poor communitiesin the developing world are able to ‘transform’ their lives by engaging in IT outsourcing activitywith terms such as ‘social’ or ‘developmental’ IT outsourcing used to describe this activity asopposed to commercial outsourcing (Heeks, 2012). However, there has been no furthertheorisation or critical engagement with this new ICT-based model of development leavingus with a poor understanding of how this market-driven activity is implicated in processesof developmental transformation. In part, this is a consequence of the need for improvedtheorisation of the role of ICTs in development (Avgerou, 2008; Walsham, 2010). The earlierstrategy of economic growth and global competitiveness identified ICT production as havingthe greatest impact in terms of creating jobs and generating export revenue based on theassumption that the developmental gains accrued would eventually trickle down to all echelonsof society. This policy focus resulted in increasingly significant trade in intangible servicessuch as software exports (Avgerou, 2003). Over time, however, the singular focus on thedeployment of ICTs for wealth-enhancing policies has resulted in a counter focus in which ICTshave been harnessed to promote social sector development. The Millennium Development
4http://www.digitaldividedata.org/5http://www.samasource.org6Part of Samasource’s ethical code of conduct for partner organisations is that they only hire workers who were earning
less than $3 per day and that they reinvest at least 40% of revenues in training, salaries and community development
programmes.7‘microwork’ can include tasks such as finding a phone number of a business Web site or tagging an image.
Goals (MDGs)8 have become a priority focus of development agencies for the application ofICTs in areas such as primary health care, education and poverty alleviation. For example, in2003 infoDev commissioned a detailed review of a cross-section of 17 ICT pilot projects it hadfunded since its inception focusing on the extent to which these projects have contributed toachieving the MDGs (World Bank, 2003). More recently, however, with growing evidence of thefailure of a large proportion of such projects, critics have reverted to earlier claims that thedevelopmental gains are far more likely to accrue from investment in the production rather thanusage of IT, and that these gains will eventually trickle down to all sectors of the economy(Heeks, 2005).
In an attempt to transcend the ICT production vs. ICT usage schism that continues to pervademuch of the ICTD literature, D’Costa, (2006) proposes that both the production of ICT goods andservices and their local consumption are critical for achieving developmental transformation.D’Costa notes that substantial achievements have accrued in developing countries such asIndia involving export-oriented production of ICTs. At the same time, he draws special attentionto the emergence of new models to facilitate a parallel strategic focus on ICT usage in publicsector agencies to improve the quality of service delivery and to spur local economic activitiesleading to adaptation of technologies and even export competitiveness of higher value goodsand services. In this paper, following D’Costa’s argument, we propose that social IT outsourcingcan provide us with a unique opportunity to study how both ICT production and usage can beintegrated to promote developmental gains in rural poor communities. Our conceptualisation ofsocial IT outsourcing in Figure 1 distinguishes between the global IT outsourcing market and thenational boundary. While acknowledging that the global IT outsourcing market and governmentpolicy are important factors in sustaining social IT outsourcing, our focus in this paper is onstudying these gains in terms of the psychological, social and political processes of change thatare implicated at the micro level within which this activity is embedded as depicted in Figure 1.
RESEARCH DESIGN
In this paper, we adopt a case study design acknowledged as being an appropriate strategy inthe early stages of research on a topic in order to extend emergent theory (Eisenhardt, 1989).We studied a small start-up social enterprise in Jharkhand state in the eastern region of Indiawhich used to be called Usha Martin Rural Services (UMRS) but has since changed its nameto KGVK Rural Enterprises where one of authors had the opportunity to work closely withKGVK while carrying out an internship with Samasource. A qualitative research approach wasadopted consisting of a mixture of primary and secondary data collection.
Primary data were obtained through semi-structured interviews aimed at understandingchange at the community level through the perceptions and ‘stories’ of employees about theirlives in general and their involvement with IT outsourcing activity. Nussbaum’s (2003) list ofcentral capabilities served as a broad framework to guide our interactions with employees.
Fieldwork was undertaken in June 2010 and November 2011 commencing with a survey tounderstand the profile of KGVK employees in terms of education, work experience, income,physical assets, consumption, civic participation and health. Twenty-four employees took partin the survey in June 2010 and 31 employees in November 2011. A total of 37 employees whohad been employed for more than 6 months at KGVK and who constituted a representativesocio-economic profile were subsequently interviewed during the two periods of research.A two-stage interview process was adopted during each fieldwork period commencing withan informal discussion of 30–45 minutes to identify the capabilities employees valued. Thesecond set of more detailed and longer interviews were aimed at understanding the impact ofIT outsourcing work on the previously defined capabilities of employees.
Primary data regarding KGVK’s community development work was obtained through acombination of face-to-face interviews, telephone, email and Skype conversations and docu-mentation. One object of this phase of the research was to engage in discussions with KGVK’snon-profit organisation that is working towards achieving the eventual goal of providingintegrated and sustainable development in 350 villages in Jharkhand by 2018. Interactionscommenced in September 2011 with a series of email and telephone conversations between
the chief executive officer (CEO) of KGVK Rural Enterprises and one of the authors regardingthe interface between the rural BPO aspect of KGVK’s activities and its broader communitydevelopment work. This communication was then followed up with by face-to-face meetingswhich took place in November 2011 with the chairman of KGVK’s social enterprises systemthat includes the entity under study. Subsequent interactions took place between November2011 until May 2012, which included face-to-face interviews with the rural BPO CEO to discussthe development of IT-based models within KGVK for measuring and auditing its socialdevelopment work. A further series of interactions took place in July 2012 with the deputygeneral manager in charge of KGVK’s community development work. Secondary data sourcesused in our study consisted of KGVK annual reports, the KGVK Web site and internaldocumentation such as project listings, impact assessment proformae and cohort charts usedby the social enterprise for developing capacity among government agencies to implementsocial development programmes.
CASE STUDY OF KGVK, JHARKHAND
Although rich in natural resources, Jharkhand is an economically backward state in India witha high rate of illiteracy and only 11% of its population with access to institutional health care.Rukka village has a total population of approximately 1900 with an almost equal split betweenmales and females. The main occupation of the village and its surroundings is agriculture, andmost of the inhabitants come from the scheduled tribes9 and from socially and economicallybackward communities. KGVK, the non-profit arm of KGVK Rural Enterprises, has beeninvolved with overall community development for decades.
IT outsourcing is a relatively new activity for KGVK which arose through recognition thatskills and quality of training in IT were relatively poor in Jharkhand compared to many of thesouthern states in the country. With the ambition to provide an alternative income source andnew skills for the community, in 2006, KGVK established a computer club in Rukka, a villagelocated about 20 kilometres from the town of Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state. The clubattracted around 375 youths to undertake training in basic computer operations in an informalsetting. Once the rural BPO was established in 2008, new investment was made to improve theinfrastructure including better internet facilities for IT and BPO activity in remote rural areas. Inits first year of operation, KGVK trained over 80 people, including girls and married women, ofwhich 60 were employed in various outsourced data work for large and small projects. Thenumbers of employees has increased over the years and today, the rural BPO operates twocentres employing around 125 people. Its employees constitute a very diverse group includingHindus, Muslims, men, women, parents, graduates, students and drop-outs. Over 300 peoplehave been trained since 2009 and while some of them are employed within KGVK, others havetaken up jobs outside KGVK or gone out to pursue further studies. The majority of trainingcarried out is undertaken by students from earlier batches thereby developing local capacity
9Refers to specific indigenous peoples whose status is formally acknowledged through national legislation.
to train further generations of educated youth. Apart from IT skills, the rural BPO invests innurturing good management skills and practices in order to comply with quality requirementsand to meet strict time deadlines. Since it began operations, KGVK has increased its workloaddramatically and has begun to operate a shift system to optimise the centre’s capacity and torespond to the growing demand for work that covers the lower end of non-voice IT services.
Perspectives of rural poor employees engaged in IT outsourcing work
In this section, we aim to capture the perspectives of employees who are engaged in KGVG’soutsourcing unit. From our investigation, we found three clusters of capabilities to be ofparamount importance: work and lifestyle changes, personal development and communityrelations.
Work and lifestyle changes
Many of the employees have seen an improvement in their cognitive abilities. At KGVK,computer skills and English language training together with the continuous exposure to newtasks have opened the minds of employees:
‘Constantly learning new tasks in the office has really helped me to understand thingsquicker and better.’
On many occasions, employees identified a more efficient way of completing a data digitisa-tion task. Employees were also developing an increasing capacity to look at the tasks availablefor completion and to ask their manager about prioritising tasks that reaped greater revenues:
‘Sir, why are we working on these 15 cent tasks?’
Their experience and exposure at work has also encouraged employees to reflect on thediversity of interpretations for completing a task:
‘I can articulate the issues and understand them pretty well. I also know clearly when to askfor help. I have learnt there are different points of view and how to work with others to comeup with different solutions.’
The employees believe that because of their position, they are perceived as more capablethan their friends and family members in thinking through issues and taking decisions:
‘When my parents have to decide on something, they consult with me. I also believe I canthink through and decide.’
There was a strong team spirit at KGVK resulting in employees spending a lot of their freetime during coffee and lunch breaks together. Employees generally seemed proud of what theydid and could readily identify the collective contribution they were making to the firm in terms
of revenue obtained from clients for tasks completed. New employees started with simplertasks but were quickly moved up to encourage knowledge sharing, cross-pollination and asense of collectiveness:
‘Nobody fights in our BPO.’
This strong team spirit has also encouraged employees to share creative and culturalactivities to refresh the mind. Many employees would routinely get together to listen to music,sing and take part in ‘rangoli’ – an Indian folk art form, and take part in religious functions. Ingeneral, employees felt that working at KGVK had helped them to reduce their anxieties aboutincome and thereby become more interested in creative pursuits:
‘I play football well – I use my creativity on the field to work better.’
Some female employees, however, faced discrimination in pursuing hobbies such assinging, dancing and playing games.
‘I have interests in singing, but my parents don’t allow me to learn because its not acceptablein my society for girls to sing.’
Personal development
Interaction with colleagues who are better educated and are performing well at work hasinspired many employees to work harder. Better performing colleagues who are designated as‘leads’ receive a bonus and are charged with imparting knowledge and skills to other employ-ees. Since working at KGVK, many employees have become increasingly conscious of thevalue of education to improve their lives and that of their children:
‘I want to study computer science and secure a good job. In the next few months I want towork here in the afternoon shift so that I can go to school in the morning.’
Working at KGVK has reinforced the importance of time management which is a criticalattribute to have given the diverse roles many employees have in their lives such as attendingschool, working at KGVK, coping with household chores and getting involved in agriculturallabour:
‘I have learnt about time management and I make use of my time efficiently – I work here,study and also help my family at home.’
Employees believed that the IT and communication skills they are acquiring in KGVK willhelp them benefit in their future careers:
‘I want to become a police officer and I feel this work will help in my work. I will maintain thecriminal records in excel and pass it onto juniors when I move out to another station.’
‘I want to be a teacher because I want to help kids. I will teach them computers which I amlearning here because I believe that can help them learn faster.’
Many employees commented that their work at KGVK has made them more critical of theirearlier bad habits and ways of living motivating them towards personal development, savingmoney and spending cautiously:
‘I used to go out in the night with friends and came to know that they had plans of stealing.I have now stopped going out with them.’
‘I interact with people at office and my community often. This has helped me know newthings and better my life and thoughts. For example, I now save and think twice beforespending on anything.’
Community relations
At the household level, our interactions with employees show that there has been a lot ofimprovement in the status of women who have taken up employment at KGVK. Most womenemployees indicated that interactions at KGVK have improved their status and respect at homewith their husbands and in-laws. In one case, a woman employee’s father-in-law who earlierhad showed no willingness to help with child care came forward to take care of her daughterafter she started working. Another married woman mentioned that she now has a say inmaking household purchasing decisions which was not the case earlier when she was notearning any income. The ability of women employees to help their children with studies hasalso contributed to boosting their self-esteem and confidence. Within their communities,women employees have been approached by other women to learn about their work at KGVKindicating their improved standing in the community. As one woman employee remarked:
I thought empowerment was only in books. A job really empowers you.
I used to get discriminated against earlier because I am a girl. I even had people telling menot to work because I am a girl. Now that I have worked for KGVK for a year, I have provedthem wrong and they are okay with it.
One woman employee joined KGVK against the wishes of her parents who initially did notwant her to travel more than 20 km. each way to work:
‘My parents did not want me to work here. I joined UMRS against their wishes. They are OKnow.’
In contrast, some women continued to experience a deterioration of familial and socialrelations as a result of their employment at KGVK. According to the social norms that exist inthe village, men are considered to be the sole bread winners with a stigma attached to the casewhere a man partly depends on his wife’s earnings:
‘Some women in my community speak sarcastically about my new job. My husband’s friendalso makes fun of him about my job.’
The strong team spirit within KGVK has created a sense of solidarity and confidence amongemployees to stand up for themselves. For example, one afternoon, the operations managercame back from lunch and was surprised to see a group of employees waiting to see him. Theywere unhappy about the performance incentive they had received that month. Similarly, a fewmonths earlier, a group of recently inducted employees demanded pay on par with senior teammembers on the grounds that both their performances were identical. They stopped attendingoffice as a protest. These employees mentioned that they could never have mustered thecourage to protest in this way a year ago before they commenced work at KGVK.
Apart from the management staff, all employees of KGVK are from the same region andexpressed strong feelings towards participation in political activity. Employees of KGVK areincreasingly eager to lobby against environmentally harmful economic activity such as wide-spread mining activity that takes place in Jharkhand and to show support for the rural BPOnot just because it provides them with income and skills, but also because it addresses widercommunity development concerns related to building capacity in key social sectors.
Perspectives on KGVK’ engagement with community development work
In addition to responding to market demand for software services, the non-profit arm of theKGVK Group is driven by a desire to put in place an integrated and sustainable model ofcommunity development in locations where it operates. KGVK has a long history of 40 yearsworking towards community development in the hinterlands of Jharkhand state through edu-cation, health care, agriculture, natural resource management, alternative income sourcesand market linkages. Having witnessed the failure of many silo-based community developmentinitiatives run by government, non-governmental organisations and other social enterprises,KGVK has evolved a more holistic and integrated Total Village Management (TVM) approach.The TVM concept supports the building of capacity within existing structures enabling thevillage community to plan, implement and audit development interventions in the village usingparticipatory rural appraisal techniques.10 Rather than creating parallel structures for promotingdevelopment, wherever possible KGVK works to strengthen the functioning of existing gov-ernment structures such as school management committees and village development coun-cils. This involves substantial effort to create entrepreneurship within sectors, for exampleto enhance the breed of livestock and to generate more productivity by providing access toexpertise and resources such as market linkages (KGVK, 2010). This strategy is directedtowards enabling the community to generate additional income from the numerous govern-ment programmes and schemes available (KGVK, 2010). TVM was initially piloted in 2008 byKGVK in five villages in Ranchi district with each village focusing on developing best practicein one sector such as education or watershed management. Since then, the TVM approach
10Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is a tried and tested approach to empowering poor and marginalised communities
through seeking their participation. The first step in KGVK’s use of PRA is to share the philosophy of TVM with community
members motivating them to participate in planning exercises such as resource and seasonality mapping for their village.
has been incrementally extended to 130 villages in Jharkhand with best practices replicatedacross clusters of villages to offer integrated support across key social sectors in partnershipwith the government.
In recent years, KGVK is increasingly involved in strengthening its community developmentwork through the application of IT-based interventions in local government agencies in thelocality where it operates. At the time of the first field visit in June 2010, more than 50%of KGVK’s projects were sourced through Samasource for international clients. Today, asidefrom outsourcing contracts coming from servicing other large BPOs and private domesticcompanies, the public sector has emerged as an important client for the social enterprise. Forexample, KGVK has recently won a tender and executed a project to build and operatean online shopping portal for the Department of Industry in Jharkhand. Over the past one andhalf years, KGVK has moved away from a traditional BPO model to become more of a ruralknowledge and services entity that builds capabilities not only for the global market but alsoto enhance its integrated rural development framework through enhanced data managementsupport. The rural knowledge and services entity, known within KGVK as rural knowledgeprocess outsourcing (KPO), involves conducting field baseline surveys, mapping, preparationof cohort charts for development agencies and other data work for TVM including impactassessment. For example, in the domain of health, KGVK works with primary health centresto develop computerised cohort registers which can be used to track health and nutritionservices provided to the community and to validate the data they collect with institutionaldatabases.
KGVK is also currently in the process of defining its own methodology for measuring impactcalled ‘social return on interventions’ (SROI), and its rural BPO has been identified as anappropriate party to oversee the exercise as it is not directly involved in programme interven-tion. The methodology involves working closely with specific groups from the community suchas farmers, livestock owners, community health workers and other frontline government villagedevelopment workers to identify relevant measures for assessing ‘success’ in programmeimplementation. An emphasis is placed on development workers themselves identifying rel-evant criteria for impact measurement so as to ensure that those who implement programmessee value in keeping track of the data and using it for planning. Currently, KGVK is involved inover 15 rural KPO projects – an excerpt from the current listing of ongoing and planned ruralKPO project is provided in Table 1. Experience with these community development initiativeshas enabled KGVK to build credibility in offering these services to external development-oriented agencies through a business relationship. For example, recently KGVK has under-taken quite a lot of work for external agencies like the World Bank, UNDP (United NationsDevelopment Programme) and the World Vegetable Center. Over time, KGVK has developedexpertise in a range of marketing, sales and back-end business services for rural developmentand is rapidly emerging as a major provider for ICT-based applications for the social sector asgovernments and international organisations increasingly looking to outsource these functions.Most importantly, the rural KPO concept has had the effect of diversifying the mindset of itsown rural BPO employees by creating a stronger affinity between completing tasks for market-driven IT outsourcing projects and using IT skills for promoting community development.
EMERGENT THEORETICAL INSIGHTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Our objective in this paper has been to improve understanding of the developmental benefitsbrought about through social IT outsourcing in terms of addressing the local priorities of thecommunity where this activity is embedded. We earlier conceptualised the developmentalbenefits from this activity in terms of rural poor employees who produce IT services for themarket and in terms of the social enterprise that engages in community development efforts.The scope of this section is to draw attention to emergent theoretical insights from our studythat can help to augment the existing body of knowledge on social IT outsourcing. We discussour findings against the backdrop of Heeks & Arun’s (2010) study of social IT outsourcing inKerala – the only other academic study on the topic. While recognising differences in contextbetween Kerala and Jharkhand, juxtaposing the two studies in this final section provides anopportunity for theory building in an area which has so far received little academic interest. Westructure our discussion by focusing on three critical issues: (1) what type of developmentaltransformation is being sought by social IT outsourcing, (2) who benefits from this activity, and(3) the extent to which this activity can be sustained over the long-term through policy andinstitutional support.
Both studies are similar in that they set out to investigate the developmental benefits of socialIT outsourcing on poor communities and adopt a context-specific ‘inside’ view of this activity andits impact. While both studies adopt a multidimensional view of development beyond incomeand skill generation, they differ in terms of theoretical approach. Heeks & Arun draw on theSustainable Livelihoods framework11, to investigate the extent to which social IT outsourcing asa specific livelihood intervention leads to an increase in physical and non-physical assets ofpoor communities and a concomitant reduction in vulnerability. As an alternative to Heeks &
11The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework is a popular conceptual model which considers the multidimensional nature of
poverty.
Table 1. Representative listing of rural KPO functions within KGVK
Project name Services
Baseline surveys for TVM Field staff training, village-level surveys, MIS reporting
SROI Audit Targeted surveys, MIS reporting
Registration of farmers for crops Marketing, registration/contract, payment collection, ongoing data services
Rukka Hospital Registration, data entry, reporting
RSBY enrolment (free health care to
below poverty line people)
Household enrolment, data consolidation
Power plant survey Field staff training, village-level surveys, survey management, MIS reporting
Arun’s utilitarian approach to development, our paper takes a more opportunities-based andqualitative approach to gain an understanding of employees’ perspectives on how IT outsourc-ing alters their life choices recording sentiments expressed in their own words about changesin work culture, lifestyle, personal development and community relations. Both studies considerdevelopmental impact beyond income gains and skill acquisition with participation and empow-erment seen as equally important drivers of development. However, the studies differ in termsof how developmental impact is assessed. Heeks & Arun’s study measures the percentage ofwomen who spend their earned income on the acquisition of different types of assets such asfurniture and investment in education, or the percentage of women who feel that this activity hasgiven them more confidence in their dealings with work colleagues, family members or othermembers of the community. In contrast to a measurement-based approach, our aim was toidentify the processes through which employees themselves realise the relevance of theirengagement with IT outsourcing for their everyday lives and start imagining new ways of livingand functioning to improve their overall sense of well-being. For example, through this type ofqualitative inquiry, we learned that the opportunities for learning new skills, for self-improvementand for improving one’s social standing in the community triggered an overall increase inemployee motivation towards IT outsourcing.
While employees are identified as the key beneficiaries of social IT outsourcing in bothstudies, in the Jharkhand case we consider the wider community as an equally importantbeneficiary of this activity. We were interested in understanding how the KGVK social enter-prise was able to harness IT skills developed in the rural BPO for improving planning,decision-making and monitoring of social development programmes. Apart from providingemployment, income, skills and other benefits to rural poor members of the community, thesocial enterprise acts as an important intermediary for the transfer of skills in informationhandling, analysis and monitoring from the rural BPO employees to local development agen-cies. Rather than creating parallel structures, KGVK has worked in close collaboration withthese agencies and with existing community structures to improve capacity for local decision-making and monitoring. The social enterprise has evolved its own unique rural KPO modelthrough which data tasks are outsourced to the rural BPO in order to strengthen execution ofthe TVM model and to develop expertise in rural data processing that can be outsourcedthrough the market to other clients. Figure 2 summarises our case study findings by showingthe mechanisms through which business and social welfare objectives can be brought togetherthrough social IT outsourcing.
Social IT outsourcing has delivered sufficient benefits to warrant greater policy attention bygovernments and development agencies. Both case studies support previous arguments inthe literature that identify the important role of government in the IT industry as a key issue forthe attainment of broader development goals (Saraswati, 2008). In the Kerala study, Heeks &Arun describe how social IT outsourcing has enjoyed institutional support from the Kerala StatePoverty Eradication Mission which has been a critical intermediary in facilitating IT contractsfrom public sector clients to Kudumbasree social enterprises. In our Jharkhand study, we haveseen how KGVK has received strong backing from the state government in Jharkhand toapproach public sector agencies for developing IT applications. Both studies acknowledge that
an important aspect of institutional support for the sustainability of social IT outsourcing activityrelates to a willingness by the government to facilitate growth of the rural BPO sector throughsubsidies for social enterprises and to allow data processing work for local developmentagencies to be supported by social enterprises engaged in rural BPO activity rather thaninternally through its own government machinery. Finally, at the level of strategic policy, ourcase study of social IT outsourcing suggests that the debate about whether governmentsshould invest in ICT production or ICT usage is an unnecessary distraction as both areimplicated in processes of developmental transformation.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, social IT outsourcing is a relatively recent spin-off from India’s prominent positionin the global software outsourcing market that offers hope for a more equitable form of
IT outsourcing market
Social enterprise in
developed country
Partner social enterprise in
developing country
market opportunities
contracts
Rural poor
employees as
producers of IT
Income, skills,
employment, human
capabilities
Public sector agencies
as users of IT services
Social mandate,
resources
Government
IT products &
services
Resources, policy
Capacity
-building
IT services for planning,
analysis, monitoring of social
development programmes
Figure 2. The developmental benefits of social IT outsourcing through the experience of KGVK, Jharkhand.
development. Our objective in this paper was to strengthen our understanding of this activityas it is currently being implemented and reflect on its wider developmental implications. Thefindings of this research cannot be generalised as they are based on a single case study ofKGVK Rural Enterprises in Jharkhand, Eastern India. Each model of social IT outsourcingactivity will no doubt work out its own variant of innovation building on its existing strengths andconstrained by the historically accrued limitations of the local context. Moreover, it is difficultto address the long-term developmental gains from social IT outsourcing without undertakinglongitudinal studies to revisit the village over a period of several years as local innovation willbe shaped incrementally through experience. Notwithstanding these limitations, our paper hasproposed a framework to conceptualise the linkages between the emergent social IT outsourc-ing phenomenon and the micro-level developmental transformation of individuals and localcommunities. Eventually, it is through studying the actual experience of social enterprisesengaged in IT outsourcing that we can begin to understand new ways of linking this market-driven activity with social development objectives. We hope this paper will encourageresearchers to study similar initiatives in various geographic, social, economic and politicalsituations both in India and in other developing countries.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to KGVK and Samasource for facilitating this research.
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