A Presentation of the Issues and Solution in "Restoring American Competitiveness" in by Pisano and Shih

Do you work at the same company your father does? Does your father work at the same company your Grandfather did? Few companies employ multiple generations these days. Have you wondered what happened to all the jobs? One reason for the decrease in jobs could be attributed to outsourcing. Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines outsourcing as the procurement by a corporation from outside and especially foreign or nonunion suppliers of parts it formerly manufactured. To American workers, the definition means, you are unemployed. This paper will look at some economic and social effects that job outsourcing have

Many businesses in United States manufacture their product overseas. This involves manufacturing products outside United States where the labor cost is cheaper. Because of cheap labor, it is often more economical for a U.S. company to manufacture overseas and pay the shipping costs than to manufacture in the United States. For a company, the savings may be substantial. However, there are negative impacts on U.S. employment, as many jobs in the United States are being outsourced and replaced by overseas positions. The manufacturers outsource production projects to save time, money or resources. The manufacturing is outsourced so as to remain competitive and maintain a steady work flow. Without outsourcing, manufacturing costs could escalate to the point at which no product would sell and all employees would have no work. Outsourcing comes

     The exporting of American jobs is an issue that is important and will become increasingly so as more and more white collar jobs are shipped overseas. American companies in the past few decades have been sending American jobs overseas paying residents of other countries pennies on the dollar what they had paid American workers to do. This saves the companies millions of dollars on labor costs but costs Americans precious jobs.

Many people may compare outsourcing to hashtags or selfies, a waste of time and pointless. Also, people may say that outsourcing hit America in a huge tidal wave that is now uncontrollable. Ehrenreich exemplifies this when she writes,”I should’ve seen it coming. In the eighties, US companies began outsourcing the manufacturing of everything from garments to steel, leaving whole cities to die” (609). Basically, Ehrenreich is saying that if outsourcing ruined us then, it will ruin us now; but clearly outsourcing has not ruined us that much because, of all of the jobs that we have outsourced in the last decade, we’re still standing strong. Zakaria contradicts this by saying,”Over the past twenty years, as globalization and outsourcing have accelerated dramatically, America’s growth rate has averaged just over 3 percent” (619). We’ve outsourced all of these jobs and yet our population has grown. The fact that we’re giving opportunities to other countries has not taken

How is the United States accomplishing this lap of luxury life? To begin with, we seem to outsource numerous jobs to peripheral nations. The cost of having products manufactured in other countries is minimal in contrast to the expenses billed for the same services here. These minimal costs, transfer added wealth into the pockets of the American owners. All comes at a cost to the American people. “This is particularly the case for studies on services outsourced from the United

For starters, the rise of Cooperate America has led to a hot button issue in every single election: the loss of jobs. For example, Nike pays 75,000 workers to manufacture their shoes, but those are all outsourced jobs. As such, the only positions left are a few thousand

A lecture was conducted at the Duke University by Chris Yura, who is the founder and president of the company called SustainU. SustainU is a company that recycles fabrics to manufacture apparel. Additionally, the manufacturing of the apparel for the company happens entirely in the United States. One of the main purposes of not offshoring the production of the goods is to bring jobs back to the American people. More specifically Yura notes that less than 2% of American clothing is currently made in the USA. This differs greatly compared to 1997, wherein 40% of American clothing was manufactured within our nation. The reason for the radical decrease in local production was due to offshoring and outsourcing, where American companies could manufacture their goods overseas and pay less for the production costs. While that is one benefit to maximizing the company’s profit margin, this took a lot of jobs away from American people. Yura notes that there are many advantages to manufacturing within the USA, such as quicker turn around

During the 1980s and 90s, outsourcing organizational activities became the standard for many organizations (Kahai et al., 2011). Outsourcing, as a part of an organization’s overall strategic plan, has been effective in helping achieve organizational goals and objectives (Kahai et al., 2011). Currently, many organizations incorporate outsourcing into the strategic plan, and this trend will probably increase in the future (Heikkila & Heikkila, 2010). Although outsourcing will not solve all of the problems inherent in attempting to achieve competitive advantages and organizational cost-reductions in an organization, the practice is increasingly part of an organization’s overall comprehensive strategy in the business world (Andreff, 2009). While

Beyond the domestic economy, outsourcing could mean better political and economic relations with foreign countries and possibly a brighter future for global diplomacy and policy. Many, however, still do not understand or believe in the international unifying ability of outsourcing, and some believe it will cause countries to become unstable or unable to rely on its internal infrastructure. For example, the well-versed international law firm of Morrison and Foerster asserts that “more than 200 [bills to restrict outsourcing] exist in 2004”, it is well known that this number has been steadily rising since 2004, and the American fear of losing jobs to outsourcing has grown alongside the increase in restrictive policy, but outsourcing can still create hope instead of fear (Technology Transactions). It is because of massive amounts of political policy, against something that could be beneficial to society, that people have begun to fear outsourcing, but if done properly, (not overused, or over-encompassing), outsourcing can bring major benefits to the government, society, and economy. While the benefits could lead to more peaceful foreign relations through commerce, the domestic fear of losing jobs and motivation in the workforce due to outsourcing can be seen as far back as Richard Nixon’s Labor Day address in 1971 where President Nixon states that going to work and energizing the American workforce will achieve “a new prosperity in a full

Outsourcing, and in particular offshore outsourcing, is absolutely necessary and helps our country 's economy. Outsourcing helps a company focus on those things it does best and hence increase its "top line" revenues while reducing costs. Outsourcing has provided organic growth to the United States corporations and enabled them to compete more effectively in global markets. This paper seeks to explore what outsourcing is, what the difference between outsourcing and offshoring is, what effects it has on individuals, firms, countries and the world as a whole, the controversy surrounding outsourcing, trends of outsourcing and the necessity for it.

In today’s modern society, outsourcing is common. Some common outsource jobs are manufacturing, recruitment, and web programming. Even though outsourcing is common, it has a positive and a negative effect to different people. Big businesses see outsourcing as a great opportunity. Apple, for example, outsources to multiple countries such as China, Mongolia, and Korea (“Apple’s iPhone”). Apple has different parts of the iPhone developed in different countries. In Mongolia and China, the company used raw materials such as Yttrium and Europium to create the iPhone’s color screen. Also, LCD panels and batteries are made in Taiwan (“Apple’s iPhone”). If Apple produced the iPhone in the United States, the price of the phone would be outrageous to

Executive management is increasingly recognizing that sometimes the disadvantages of outsourcing outweigh the advantages, even after an agreement has been signed. Many companies are canceling their outsourcing agreements, or deciding to hire their own staff to provide in-house services once again.7

Each company will try to pursue their supply chain to supports their competitive priorities and it will involve outsourcing at least for the initial input of their processes from other companies (Krajewski et al., 2016). Increasingly, the companies are no longer just outsourcing basic support, but they are outsourcing activities integral to their operations, including such things as, customer sales and support, information technology, integrated product design and manufacturing, logistics, human resources and financial functions. Sometimes, the activities being performed by the outsider are replacing in-house operations. In other cases, they are new activities tied to the company 's business growth and new markets. As organizations outsource more and more of their operations, it is the relationship itself that becomes the new strategic asset. Outsourcing relationships demand the same care and attention to sound management principles and practices as do in-house operations and valued employees. Managed well, continuous improvement, increasing value, and constant innovation can be expected. Managed poorly, the services and overall relationship deteriorates resulting in higher costs, operational disruption and lost business opportunities.

Manufacturing has become the focus for critics when it comes to the free-trade debate. Many people blame trade for the reduction of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. People are angry because American companies invest and build manufacturing plants abroad instead of on American soil. They are angry because American brands are being labeled: manufactured in China,

Following the 2008 recession and a short period of declining demand, the outlook for outsourcing and off-shoring showed an increasing trend for the foreseeable future. As companies realign their strategies to better compete in the world stage, the projections indicate that this practice will grow over different dimensions including function, services and geographic locations (Deloitte, 2014).