Mark Feldmann Dr. Karin Mendoza Intermediate English Composition (ENGL-2080-085) 7 March 2014 Is It Ethical to Outsource Jobs?

Critical Preface: Outsourcing is a huge issue that ultimately has an impact on almost every American citizen. One of the biggest aspects of outsourcing is doing so in order to cut cost and provide cheaper products to the American public. As a result of outsourcing, many products that Americans buy regularly are less expensive than they would be if they were made in the United States. However, this topic has seen a lot of attention in recent years; many argue that the only reason companies outsource is because of the massive amount of red tape that they would be dealing with if operations occurred in the United States, when in reality they could produce the product at the same cost here if the red tape was not so much to handle. Some say that the facts point to the United States government as being the responsible party. Others say that companies have no morals and only care about operating at the lowest possible costs, which they claim they can only find overseas. As an Industrial Management major out of the Lindner College of Business, outsourcing is a matter of concern for me. The business world is a huge target for this, so learning as much as I can about outsourcing is going to greatly benefit me down the road. What are the root causes of companies outsourcing and what are the ethical thoughts on why outsourcing ir or is not appropriate? Finding the answers to these questions is the real goal that I hope to discover through this research opportunity. This annotated bibliography will allow me to look at 10 sources that range from scholarly articles, YouTube videos, and other popular sources. Through the research that I will be conducting, using Google and the resources provided by Langsam Library, over the next two days, February 19th and thth, and the variety of sources I will compile, I will be able to begin to form a strong opinion on this issue. Annotated Bibliography Engardio, Pete, Michael Arndt, and Dean Foust. "The Future Of Outsourcing." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 29 Jan. 2006. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. This article did not take a particularly strong stance in either approval or disapproval towards the idea of outsourcing as a whole. Rather, it put into perspective how much, in terms of dollars, outsourcing your business processes can save you and how much those contracts can be worth. These savings can reach into the billions of dollars. "Ethics of Outsourcing." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This video was put together for a Business 101 class in order to help demonstrate just how much the business world has changed over the last fifty to sixty years. It provides some insight on the ethics of outsourcing to

countries overseas. It points out many different viewpoints, both positive and negative, bringing to light topics of discussion that I never really thought about. For example, I never considered the environmental concerns of outsourcing; countries with more outsourcing have proven to have lower environment standards and higher levels of pollution and degradation of the environment. Also, I never fully took into account the how rapidly outsourcing is increasing. According to this video, every year, outsourcing will increase at a rate of 20% until 2025. Thats an astounding rate, in my opinion. It is clear from this video that there are definitely two strong sides to this argument. However, it ends with the idea that we should not be asking the question Is outsourcing ethical? rather How can we outsource ethically? which I thought was an excellent idea. Through my research, it had become aware that outsourcing is something that is going to continue to happen, so maybe the argument shouldnt be one of whether it is right or wrong anymore, and more along the lines of how we can improve it. That idea is what I think offers the most value, both to me and to globally-wide companies. It is not necessarily wrong of a company to ship jobs overseas, but it is wrong for them to do so unethically, and I think this video does a very, very well job of demonstrating that. Kolbasuk McGee, Marianne. "Behind The Numbers: Outsourcing Hurts Employee Morale." Behind The Numbers: Outsourcing Hurts Employee Morale. Information Week, 24 June 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This article provides some insight into how outsourcing can potentially hurt employee morale. Specifically, it provides information obtained through an Information Week survey over the entire IT department of a company. The survey asked questions to the participants on how they felt about outsourcing, if their company was outsourcing, if they felt threatened by outsourcing, etc. The results led inconclusively to the fact that the idea of a company outsourcing its jobs in the future undoubtedly hurts the morale of the current employees Nsehe, Mfonobong. "Meet Morocco's Outsourcing King, Karim Bernoussi." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This article, published in Forbes Magazine for a more business-minded audience, talks about a man, Karim Bernoussi. Karim has found ways to successfully outsource from his country, Morocco, to others overseas. After realizing that the Moroccan economy was not going to thrive just because it is costly advantageous, he knew that his company would need to add more value to their clients; they have done this by giving them more options to complex projects and increasing the positive impacts on their clientele. This commentary also points out how he hopes that the companies anchored in the United States can learn a bit from his strategies. He made it clear that expansion, once a company has reached the ability to do so, is the easiest way to increase profitability and capital, and that it is not an entirely negative idea to do this through outsourcing. To be honest, this source added more value just by providing an example of a successful business man, not so much about the issue of outsourcing itself. However, I will point out that it indirectly has helped me formulate my opinion by pointing out that the issue of outsourcing does not always have to be a negative one.

"Outsourcing to India - India Outsourcing." YouTube. YouTube, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This video is an advertisement aimed at encouraging executives of American companies to outsource to India. In the video it states how much cheaper the labor is in India, giving the companies that outsource an opportunity to really cut cost. For example, jobs that usually garner $30 to $40 and hour in the United States, can be completed for just $2.20 an hour in India. This source did a good job demonstrating this dramatic hourly wage change, but they somewhat failed in the sense that it was specific to SEO, SMO and PPC jobs only. This Youtube video advertisement offered me some value by making my consciously aware of just how much cheaper things can be done in other countries, an obvious deciding factor in the formulation of my opinion. Samuelson, Kristin. "Outsourcing, Offshoring: The Good, Bad and Ugly." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. This article, guided towards both businessmen and the every-day concerned American, provides some great information about the whole outsourcing process from experts in the field. I feel this article will be useful because it is in interview format. There are questions that are being asked and then responded to by experts in the area., and that is much more easier for me to understand than some overly-worded scholarly article. Some of the questions that were addressed range from the trends and benefits of outsourcing, to the benefits of onshoring. This editorial encompasses all areas of outsourcing and will be very useful to me, not only because it is in laymans terms, but because it really does cover all aspects of the topic at hand. Finally, I think that this interview would be beneficial on a global scale and to CEOs of all types of companies because it addresses how the economy is affected by offshoring, whether costs increase or decrease, how much a company can save through the process, and how tax breaks for companies that hire domestically can affect the bottom line and the public perception of a company. I would consider all of these things as a CEO. Sinclair, James. "The Wall Street Journal." The Accelerators RSS. Wall Street Journal, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This popular piece, guided more towards startup companies, provides an interesting viewpoint as to the options that they have. Sometimes outsourcing is the only choice. For example, the author points out that it might not always make sense to pay somebody else to do a job that one of their employees is more than capable ofd doing, but when considering the time saved, it can become beneficial to hire an off-shore advisor. Also, off-shore advisors are much easier to remove and cut the ties with than an inoffice employee.. When it comes down to it, a company must be profitable to be successful. Therefore, outsourcing some operations is a way to cut costs and help increase profitability, productivity, and efficiency. So, when facing the dilemma of not outsourcing and losing money, or outsourcing and being more profitable, , the solution is obvious. In this case, ethics cannot always be considered in the business mindset. This might have been the source that offered the most value to me; it really put the benefits of

outsourcing on the forefront. It seems that the cons of this issue are apparent to almost everyone, but it is a little bit harder to come across the pros, and that is what I really took out of this article. Torgan, Mary. "Outsourcing Our Future." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2004. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This scholarly article is clearly guided toward a Democratic audience, and is sided heavily against outsourcing. It criticizes the companies that outsource, stating that they are only doing it to cut the overall cost and doing so without any pride or morals. It also takes aim at the fact that it can actually hurt the American economy and that, instead of outsourcing, they would like to see salary decreases from companies top executives. The piece also provides some testimonies from people who lost their jobs to overseas workers. In my opinion, whenever someone is researching a new topic it is good to get sources like this, ones that are heavily sided one way or the other. It shows the true negative sides of an issue, although these arguments are probably built up to be a little worse than they actually are. Thats just the nature of one-sided arguments. This is the value I found from this article. I do not think that it would prove to be beneficial to a CEO if they were deciding to outsource or not, but to the average American, like myself, it was helpful. Whitaker, Jonathan, M.S. Krishnan, and Claes Fornnell. WHITAKER, JONATHAN, M.S. KRISHNAN, and CLAES FORNELL. "How Offshore Outsourcing Affects Customer Satisfaction." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 13 Sept. 2008. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. This Wall Street Journal popular editorial, gives the every-day average American reader an overview of outsourcing as a whole. It mentions why companies outsource, to reap lower labor wages, and also looked at where companies are going wrong with outsourcing. They found that of the 150 North American companies that they researched who had outsourced their customer service departments saw a significant decrease in their corresponding ACSI scores. This also corresponded to a 1% to 5% decrease in the capital of the company. In conclusion, the article states that companies do not always need to forgo the savings they can reap from outsourcing, but if they are going to do it, they need to do it right, by providing overseas services with full customer service profiles, handbooks on how the company wants issues handled, and give them full authority to handle issues. This article really helped me to start formulating my opinion because it was the first to open my eyes to the economic disadvantages that outsourcing can sometimes carry. I also think this article could prove to be useful on the global scale for this same reason and because it establishes a clear set of standards that companies should follow when handing over their customer service duties.

What I Learned: I learned more about all of the decision that encompass the totality of outsourcing. It is much more than a decision of whether or not you want to save money. There are so many things to consider. There are also so many parties that

play into outsourcing. Outsourcing goes further than just the business and the company they want to outsource to. The United States government plays a huge role as a deciding factor, often throwing so much red tape into the process that it makes it almost impossible to do business in the country. I also now have to consider the viewpoints of other countries.From a few of my sources I was able to conclude that these jobs are not a burden on them, like many of them are here in the United States. In fact, in other countries these jobs have actually become competitive job markets, and people in the other countries want to have them.What Will I do Next: Next, I will expand upon what I have learned by taking the ideas that I have gained from the information these sources provided and forming more of an opinion of my own.. When I am finally able to do this, I can conduct more extensive research and tailor it to whatever outlook I establish. I noticed that many sources were biased, leaning towards one side or the other of the argument. Also, very few, if any, of the sources that I found discussed the threats outsourcing may pose to customer security and confidentiality, or the loss of managerial control that I would have to assume occurs. So, I would like to research more into these and fill those gaps. That will allow me to refine my opinion even further and, ultimately, take a final stance on the subject. Since this topic has a lot to do with the major that I am pursuing and the career that I will ultimately undertake, I would like for this further research to be completed by my next co-op rotation, which starts at the beginning of summer semester. In order to achieve this, I will conduct more research throughout the month of March, so that I can have a final opinion formulated by the end of the month, well before the store of my next rotation. Works Cited Engardio, Pete, Michael Arndt, and Dean Foust. "The Future Of Outsourcing." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 29 Jan. 2006. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. "Ethics of Outsourcing." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Kolbasuk McGee, Marianne. "Behind The Numbers: Outsourcing Hurts Employee Morale." Behind The Numbers: Outsourcing Hurts Employee Morale. Information Week, 24 June 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.

Morici, Peter. "Outsourcing, China and the Presidential Campaign." Fox News. FOX News Network, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Nsehe, Mfonobong. "Meet Morocco's Outsourcing King, Karim Bernoussi." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. "Outsourcing to India - India Outsourcing." YouTube. YouTube, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.

Samuelson, Kristin. "Outsourcing, Offshoring: The Good, Bad and Ugly." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Sinclair, James. "The Wall Street Journal." The Accelerators RSS. Wall Street Journal, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Torgan, Mary. "Outsourcing Our Future." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2004. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Whitaker, Jonathan, M.S. Krishnan, and Claes Fornell. "How Offshore Outsourcing Affects Customer Satisfaction." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 13 Sept. 2008. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.