Matthew Butler
December 2nd 2014
Contemporary management
Professor Beehner M.P.A
Contemporary Challenge Essay
Outsourcing
“Outsourcing is the transfer of control of a process or product to an outside supplier”(Hasan).
For this assignment, please identify a contemporary management challenge (e.g. diversity, globalism, ethics & social responsibility, etc.). Then, identify a company or organization that you believe has been impacted by this contemporary challenge. Write a minimum four-page paper, with a cover page, and works cited page (in addition to the four-page minimum). The paper should address (1) the challenge faced by that company or organization, (2) how management is responding to that challenge, (3) a critical analysis of the management response, and (4) how you would have responded to that challenge. This paper should be written in MLA format. Include at least five outside sources, three of which should be scholarly journals (NOT Wikipedia or a generic Web site, but actual articles from journals like Journal of Business Ethics, Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management, etc.), and should demonstrate scholarly business critical analysis.
Outsourcing today is looked down upon by just about everyone, so it is no surprise that companies that partake in it, are publically called out and put under close scrutiny: the company Nike is no exception to that. “ Nike was an early target for the very reason that it 's been so successful. Its business model was based
Tegan failed to impart proper knowledge of its A/P system to Hrad due to lack of sufficient personnel and expertise in that area, as per the case, only one employee was there (Julia Jones) who was having the functional knowledge of the current system and was solely responsible to interact and review the low level designs (LLDs), which resulted in the backlog of reviews and thus Hrad was not able to iterate as required.
It is a concept that has evolved from a manufacturing perspective to a strategic perspective, which views the concept as a way for organizations to focus and be more competitive. The basic premise of outsourcing is that a specialist organization can perform a particular service more efficiently than can internal operations because a specialist organization has an inherent advantage in producing and delivering a service. Superior technology, management skills, or economies of scale may contribute to this perception. The type of sourcing relationship depends on whether a long-term or short-term need exists. To save funds used for benefits for regular employees, temporary workers are hired. In this case, the organization (outsourcer) provides all necessary resources except the workers, who are provided by the vendor. For long-term services, the vendor has full responsibility for delivering the service; the outsourcer provides only a liaison.
“Outsourcing refers to the practice of contracting workers outside of a company or business for work duties or services previously performed by company employees or “in-house”. This practice is also often referred to as offshoring due to the increasingly prevalent use of “non-U.S.” service providers for these outsourced duties. However, strictly speaking, outsourcing can and does refer to the use of contracted labor provided by individuals outside of an organization, but still within the U.S.; whereas when these same services are provided outside the U.S., it is both outsourcing and offshoring.”
the general population who lose their occupations should now locate another activity they may not be also fit the bill for as their old employment. these individuals will likewise have more budgetary issues for quite a while which will back off their spending on non-important things. this will hurt the economy in America and additionally bring down the personal satisfaction for Americans.
In an article for the Washington Post, Steven Pearlstein (2012) explains how outsourcing and offshoring has been a part of American History since the late 1800s. Today, well known organizations like Nike, Apple and UPS are known for being a major part of the outsourcing trend. Pearlstein (2012) suggests that the catalyst for offshoring began in the in the late 1970s as the U.S. firms were forced to find cheaper, yet efficient ways to conduct business as foreign competitors had an immediate advantage. Since the wave of outsourcing and offshoring, it appears that while big businesses have been able to cut costs and increase profits and revenues, the United States economy has suffered as jobs are taken away from citizens. Katherine Peralta (2014)
Before acquiring its current negative connotation, outsourcing referred to the practice of turning over parts of a business to a company that specialized in that activity. For instance, Cisco Systems, Brocade Communications, and other leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) outsource their manufacturing to Solectron Corporation, where I was a summer intern. By partnering with Solectron, OEMs can gain access to the latest equipment, process knowledge, and manufacturing expertise without making substantial capital investments. In essence, outsourcing to Solectron enables OEMs to focus on their core competencies of research and development and sales
Let’s move on to our two protagonists in this debate: Levi Strauss and Nike. Now that we’ve got the backdrop well in hand, and a reasonable person would agree that a massive systemic failure in the U.S. has allowed and promoted unchecked outsourcing of jobs, it’s time to discuss these two corporate giants and their respective behaviors here.
Should we buy or should we do it ourselves? That is a basic question that a lot of companies face when planning their strategy for their processes of production. There are arguments for and against using both strategies, although to provide services for another company that could have been done within the company itself, is widely common among companies nowadays. This strategy is called outsourcing. What defines outsourcing is that a firm allows someone else to have complete control over their production, it shall therefore not be confused with other business relations where the one party still has control, or tells the other party how to perform the work (Andersson, V. Grigoriadou, E. Quist, C. Ruhdin, C. 2002). A typical example of outsourcing
Outsourcing is a practice in which an individual or company performs tasks, provides services or manufactures products for another company. The term itself is often referred to as offshore outsourcing, for the purpose of this essay we will like to talk about the export of labor and manufacturing by Apple Inc, Nike and Walmart to companies outside of the United States. Outsourcing has three main advantages, let us talk about a few of the reasons why a company will decide to outsource verses insource.
Kamensky and Morales (2006, 45) define outsourcing as a management strategy that contracts out organizational activities to vendors or suppliers who specialize in these activities in order to perform them more efficiently and effectively. Outsourcing is defined as the practice of turning over entire business functions to an outside vendor that can supposedly can perform the specialized tasks better and less expensively than the organization choosing to outsource. Outsourcing differs from privatization in that outsourcing, the work load is shifted from in-house government providers to the private sector, but no transfer or sale of assets has occurred. Outsourcing needs the government to remain fully responsible for the provision of all services and management decisions. Other transactions include direct vendor delivery, hiring long term trained staff, etc.
Outsourcing has become an alternative for many major companies as a way to not only manufacture products in other countries, but also employ and develop jobs in other countries in which reality should be available in the United States. Outsourcing as it may seem beneficial to the companies that employ it, actually harms the economy by decreasing the job market that is present in the United states. Offshore outsourcing has a strong potential to affect a variety of jobs ranging from low paid low and skill jobs to high paid and skill jobs. A princeton economist had predicted that about thirty to forty percent american jobs can be offshored in the next ten to twenty years (Institute, 2015). Specifically, informational technology jobs is field that has been targeted to be outsourced in the past, present, and future. A study from the Center for Urban Economic Development found that U.S. imports of business, professional and technical services increased their outsourcing by seventy seven percent in the years of 1997 and 2002 (Offshoring vs Outsourcing, 2015). With the large number of jobs that could move offshore in the future, there is the potential for an increase in the number of jobs moving to other countries, specifically informational technology jobs. This in return would result in a negatively affecting United States jobs and its economy.
The concept of outsourcing originate from the American terminology “outside resourcing”, meaning to get resources from the outside.1
3). With all the personal and confidential information being processed overseas, identity theft can be big factor. "Last year a disgruntled Pakistani worker upset about back pay threatened to divulge data about patients at a San Francisco hospital" (Schwartz, 2004). She goes on further to say that these countries lack consumer privacy laws. Medical privacy does not really mean anything to them. Things are in the works to require written authorization from consumers themselves so they are aware their data is being shipped overseas and can make a choice if they want that or not. So what can we do about this?
Outsourcing in a strong economy does not encounter similar level of option and political pressure as compared to a weak economy. As the economy unraveled in 2007-2009, the outsourcing of American jobs generated huge discussion and resistance. Notably, before the economic distress public discussions and debate basically revolved around the exportation of third world labor force and child labor. Since the global recession, discussions and debates regarding outsourcing and off-shoring have primarily focused on bringing back jobs to the country in attempts to lessen the high rate of unemployment. For instance, Apple Inc. is being pressured to bring the manufacturing of their computers back to the United States due to the paradigm shift.
The outsourcing is when businesses need expertise or skills that they don't have within their organization, they often turn to outsourcing to solve their problems.