IT-labour goes offshore: Regulating and managing attritionin Bangalore

How can high rates of attrition persist in a specific IT-hub for years, and how do transnationallyoperating companies with different institutional backgrounds cope with this challengeorganisationally? The present paper addresses this question by presenting first results of acurrent SOFI-project on transnational (Indo-German) project-work in the field of softwareprogramming.Drawing upon literature, interviews with industry-experts and intensive casestudiesin one Indian service-company and one German product-company with developmentcentresin the South-Indian city of Bangalore, it will be argued that high rates of attrition areresulting from a complex regulatory field of force. It is shaped by the strategies of companiesand IT-professionals, but also by direct political intervention and an active policy implying a“privatization of standard-setting”, although this is denied by industry and staterepresentativesalike.[...]