The Behavioral Effects of Outsourcing in Film Project Management : A study of outsourcing to foreign productions in the film industry.

Abstract: The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral aspects that are affected among mid-level and lower-level team members when outsourcing to foreign countries in the film industry in a project management context. More specifically, we delve into how team dynamics, communication, and trust are affected within project teams. Previous research and theory are employed throughout the research process, including Hofstede's Six Cultural Dimensions, Stuart Hall’s Model of Encoding and Decoding, the Riley & Riley Model of Communication, the FIRO model, and Adler’s Optimal Levels of Trust. This research is inductive and qualitative, consisting of five semi-structured interviews with various professionals in the film industry. The analysis is triangulated amongst the interviewees and previous research to give further insight into the behavioral aspects affected by outsourcing in the film industry. Our findings emphasized improvement in team dynamics when open-mindedness and willingness to learn is present amongst team members. Guided by the leadership of mid-level management, the work environment became more desirable when adapting to thelocal crew’s industry standards, leading to quicker team bonds and higher levels of trust. This was also accomplished through allocating time for socialization between team members. Conflict may be avoided through successful knowledge transfer between original and native teams. Language barriers may require a translator or fixer to be hiredto bridge those gaps. Overall, outsourcing to foreign crews was found to be an extremely valuable experience, provided all aforementioned behavioral aspects were successfully met by team members. This research serves to add to the understanding of how foreign outsourcing has an effect on the work environment of a project team, as past literature has not explored these behavioral aspects within the film industry. Therefore, we found it necessary to provide further insight into this field.