Information


What is outsourcing?
Outsourcing is the movement of a function inside a company to an entity outside it.

Why is outsourcing important in terms of globalization?
Outsourcing is also widely practiced by small business but usually for slightly different reasons. Small companies do not have the scale to support full-fledged accounting, payroll, and computer systems staffs of their ownor, if their managers try to do these jobs as well, they have to work too many hours. These functions, therefore, are farmed out. So are, frequently, large but intermittent jobs. Outsourcing also has its disadvantages many of which are easily overlooked in the hurry of achieving the costs savings that appear to be possible

What are different types of outsourcing?
-Sweatshops
Sweatshops are work environments that possess three major characteristics long hours, low pay, and unsafe or unhealthy working conditions. Sweatshops may also have policies that severely restrict workers' freedoms, including limiting bathroom breaks and even conversations with fellow workers. At its worst, violence is used against sweatshop workers. Sweatshops have been a factor in the production of goods around the world for centuries, but the globalization of business has led increasing numbers of major corporations to take advantage of low-cost sweatshop labor in developing countries. Recent examples of sweatshop conditions in the garment industry have caused an international outcry by labor leaders, activists, and government officials. Although manufacturers tend to deny it, sweatshops still exist, even in the United States.
-Call Centres
Call centres are just as bad as people working in sweatshops, they can be in any place in the world dealing with you problem and question right here in Canada. The only requirement needed is to be able to speak English.

Outsourcing in Canada
The first labour organizations in Canada appeared in the early 19th century, but their growth and development really occurred in the early decades of the 20th century. During most of the 19th century labour unions were local, sporadic and short-lived. Moreover they were illegal, prohibited by strict anti-combines legislation, in view of the basic principle of the freedom of commerce and competition. From l872 they were allowed to exist by the Trade Unions Act, passed that year by the federal government. But union activities, such as demonstrations and strikes, were controversial until the 20th century.

Effects of Outsourcing
Outsourcing is also widely practiced by small business but usually for slightly different reasons. Small companies do not have the scale to support full-fledged accounting, payroll, and computer systems staffs of their ownor, if their managers try to do these jobs as well, they have to work too many hours. These functions, therefore, are farmed out. So are, frequently, large but intermittent jobs.

Possitives effects on Outsoucing
The driving force behind outsourcing, narrowly viewed, has always been and continues to be the desire to lower costsalthough it has additional benefits. In times of shrinking economic activity, it easier to buy less of something or to eliminate buying something altogether than it is to lay off employees and to close departments. It is easier to shop an activity around when higher quality or greater speed is the objective than to get an internal supplier to change its behavior. Any manager of a small division in a large corporation whose main supplier is another and larger division knows how unresponsive the internal vendor can be. The external supplier, which, presumably, also has other clients, can be the source of interesting innovation.

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Is outsourcing good for the U.S. Economy?
YES Outsourcing--sending manufacturing or services work abroad when it can be done there more cheaply-can be a tough sell in the best of times. It's even more of a challenge when jobs in the U.S. are already hard to final, and it's painful to think of precious jobs being shipped overseas. If only we kept the work at home, one might think, we could make a dent in unemployment.

NO Outsourcing may sound like a good deal for American businesses, bur in practice it's very bad for our economy. First, when workers lose jobs to outsourcing, they are likely to end up in new jobs with substantially lower pay, and possibly a lower quality of life. Second, outsourcing places downward pressure on U.S. wages in general: American workers who are in competition with workers in low-wage countries will have a tougher time earning enough to buy a home, save for retirement, or pay for a child's education. In other words, wages for many U.S. workers will no longer support middle-class lives.
Third, outsourcing reduces the job choices for Americans, anal we are losing a great deal of potential know-how as a result. Fewer young people are seeking training in certain technical and skilled-manufacturing careers because they see how many of those jobs are moving overseas: