The Ethical Issues Of Outsourcing Labor Essay

Outsourcing emerged on the financial arena during the 1980s and has since then been spreading. Outsourcing production was furthered with the process of globalization which provided a new component leading to the strengthening of resources, skill and labor specializations across the world. The process of outsourcing is using the skill and abilities of a third-party to accommodate society on the foundation of labor. As stated earlier, it was during the 1980s that the process kicked off mainly due to the efforts of corporations when they began to hire labor forces across the world. Even though outsourcing has come out from its developing stages, there are still following effects on the US economy.

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

In 2014, President Obama claimed, “For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities” (Office of the Press Secretary, 2014). What makes the United States the United States? Our country’s success and culture comes from the power of immigrants. But this is not to brag about our historical foundation, rather talk about immigration being a significant variable in our economy. First, immigration brings creative ideas to the American economy. Immigrants bring their culture from their homelands, and it strengthens the population by enriching their ideas (Kelly, 2013). In addition, it creates more jobs. The study, “Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs” by Professor Ottaviano of Bocconi University and Professor Peri of the UC Davis, notes that low-skilled immigrants usually fill gaps in American labor markets and generally enhance domestic business prospects rather than destroy jobs (Cowen, 2010). In addition, immigrants including the unauthorized people create jobs through their purchasing power and entrepreneurship. (American Immigration Council, 2015). According to the Economic Report of the President, immigration added roughly 0.2 percent to GDP: $31.4 billion (American Immigration Council, 2015). To sum it up, a study by the

There are multiple reasons why structural power has declined, times have changed and laws have changed accordingly. Jennifer Jihye Chun touches on a few of these reasons but, focuses on two main reasons for these shifts. First is the transnational outsourcing of labor. The workforce no longer has the same structural power they had in the days of assembly lines most jobs suffering from unfair labor practices are unskilled service jobs and are easily replaced. This is because “capitalists relocate production to lower-waged regions to weaken organized labor…” (Chun: 10). Though Chun does not make it a main point she mentions that the laws in place are pro employer/business owner and “the recognition that contested struggles over ‘rule of law’ directly shape the expression and efficacy of workers’ associational power.”(Chun: 12). Employers are allowed to bypass workers because it is “rule of law”. The second main reason Chun mentions is based on the classification of an employee and the employer-employee relationship. There are more nontraditional employee opportunity that blur the line of what an employee should expect. These jobs include, subcontracting jobs, independent contracting jobs, and temporary employment jobs. These blurred line affect benefits, rights to bargain and rights to be represented, to name a few. People in service jobs do not have as much structural power because they have fear of being replaced when the employers need to be the ones that fear a strike.

The dawn of the outsourcing era. Many large U.S. corporations cultivates outsourcing faster than we can imagine. The trend that began in the late 1970 and picked up speed in the 1900s with the opening trade with China, India, and Eastern Europe (“Outsourcing: What’s the true Impact”). In its broadest sense, outsourcing is simply contracting out functions that had been done in-house—a longtime U.S. practice (“Globalization: Threat or Opportunity”). Subsequently, outsourcing is an essential part of globalization; and it is the combination of markets through the cooperation of internalization, federal, and state governments with corporate companies to produce products on a reduce production cost, and offer services on lower labor cost. When a U.S. manufacture product, and buys material from an intermediate supplier from out of the country rather than producing them in-house, that is what is called outsourcing. Also, when U.S. corporation hires outside contractor out-of-the-country to do U.S. call center services for less labor cost that is outsourcing. When a company deals out its operational task, such as payroll, accounting, and software operations that is outsourcing. Obviously, all of these examples seem to benefit and in favor of the corporations. To get the clear understanding of outsourcing for major corporation perspective, I have interviewed IKEA’s U.S. Deputy Retail Country Manager Rob Olson about outsourcing—Swedish

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and come up with a reasonable conclusion on the effects of outsourcing in America. From overworking, to a decline in the manufacturing sector, a high wealth gap, and finally the contribution of corporate lobbying are prime examples of the by-product that were created by outsourcing. Although free trade is the root of the problem, outsourcing is the most prevalent issue that it has created. Since free trade is now a standard and cannot be eliminated we will look into how outsourcing, since it can still be controlled, has affected America.

In today’s society, outsourcing has become a very critical and controversial issue to companies and other countries. Outsourcing is known as offshoring as an organization’s use of an outside organization for a broad set of services. As technology continues to grow and advance more, outsourcing becomes more popular. Many American white collar jobs are being taken over by foreign countries around the world. Almost every occupation or career in the United States has some effect of the outsourcing. As a result, many Americans become unemployed and financially challenged; being that outsourcing can increase the United States unemployment rate. Employees who live in the US rather keep jobs in the country to create more opportunities. On the other hand, few stakeholders

It is also important to note that quite a number of multinational corporations have in the past setup operations in developing nations in an attempt to make cost savings especially in terms of labor and production costs. With a growing

Lower costs are the reason U.S.-based companies turn to outsourcing beyond their own borders. The cost of living and standard of living in India is less than in the U.S. which lowers the wage cost to the tax preparation and return preparation companies. The lower cost of the tax preparation and tax return means a lower cost to the consumer. To hire an American based CPA firm to do tax preparation and tax return is substantially higher than that of a company which outsources to India. When a company outsources to firms in India the prices are set; the individuals pay by the “number of source documents provided (Brody, Miller, & Rolleri, 2004). Do the lower costs outweigh the possibility of lost confidentiality?

The comic quickly presents a biased opinion that outsourcing is harmful to our health society and our views on what truly is ethical. Outsourcing is the economic practice of moving jobs into undeveloped countries because of the need to create more goods for a lower price. The comics approach to the issue raises a good point with the toxic materials going into the products made undeveloped countries but this practice allows for us to keep millions of people employed while keeping the toxic materials away from our environment. The critical drawing in question also proceeds to question whether or not we could move industries back into the developed countries and the answer to this is yes, but it would cause economic turmoil do to the unaffordable

Ethics is broad and shares several perception of right and wrong. In today’s society events are occurring that makes individuals question the actions or behavior of our citizens and organizations. Unfortunately, several events or situations may suggest that we live among a cruel humanity that lack morals or ethical values. And this may deprive from the ethical concept of normal behavior - what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. Meanwhile, the discussion of ethics leads to a case study concerning a manufacturing company in North Carolina, who has decided to relocate their production and products to a developing nation in Southeast Asia. The organization’s primary reason for this transition, is to lower labor cost which the company will

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the vast range of goods produced overseas and the often horrifying conditions under which workers labored to produce them. College students, activists, and certain scholars were quick to condemn “Sweatshops” and the multinational companies (MNC’s) that used them. However, this initial moral condemnation was based more on a natural sense of horror than moral reasoning, and critics often demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to both the underlying economic conditions that gave rise to the sweatshop phenomenon and to the beneficial consequences of sweatshops for both their employees and the broader economies in which they functioned. As a result, many economists quickly leapt to the

International business ethics challenges the corporate world to deal with questions of what to do in situations where ethical standards come into conflict as a result of the different cultural practices in the nation. Since, there is this dilemma that has progressively troubled the large multinational corporations, international business ethics has arisen to help address these adhesive subject matters. There are several international business ethics discussions on the question of how to act in the home country as opposed to the host country is at the central point of most international corporations. The argument in question is how companies should practice their business according

Another large ethical problem that the vast majority of outsourcing companies have is the low salaries for employees. Most employees are migrant workers and aren’t eligible for in house health care or education benefits. To most workers, the current wage seems very high because they are migrants, but in reality they can’t afford to pay for health care or a future education. Even the mid level factory workers can’t afford to buy a single iPhone that they spend 12 hour days putting thousands of chips in, on the assembly line.

Migration in every country leads to a change in the labour market. Countries like UK ‎grant immigration rights to the large numbers of immigrants every year and openly allow ‎immigrations from citizens of their former colonies. The attitudes of a country towards ‎immigration vary greatly on the particular employment patterns and needs at that given time, and ‎these attitudes may change over time. This paper will assess the changes in the labour market of ‎the UK due to the immigrations and its impact on the human resource management in