Bcom 275 - Rebuttal Article: Outsourcing

Rebuttal Article: Outsourcing

BCOM/275

January 16, 2012

Rebuttal Article: Outsourcing

"Outsourcing is a U.S. job creator; not a job killer," an article by John Sumansky, where he states, "It's a simple business action engaged in by private, for-profit businesspeople who are trying to obtain resources and raw materials at the lowest possible cost to them" (Sumansky, 2011, para. 3). Sumansky also believes that instead of complaining about outsourcing businesses should encourage it as a way to cut production costs and keep prices the most competitive in the world (Sumansky, 2011). One fallacy that he states, "Jobs should not be thought of as lost, but instead 'freed up' for more productive uses" (Sumansky, 2011, para. 8). My experience over the last six years once a job moved overseas was lost forever, not opening up a higher level position for an American worker.

Although some of this may seem true for some American manufacturers in some industries like the computer and technology industry, outsourcing can cause many other issues like a drop in customer satisfaction ratings. Tax revenues for local, state, and federal governments also are lost. There are less payroll taxes collected, and less Social Security and Medicare contributions.

When outsourcing customer service the problem can be it creates a negative word of mouth. Customers do not want to spend tons of time communicating with a company who is in a different country and cannot speak English effectively. Many businesses either fail to see or refuse to take seriously that valuing short-term profits at the expense of meaningful customer service risks sacrificing long-term profits, resulting in damaging the company's reputation (Weinstein, 2007). In today's world of social media this risk is even higher, and it is harder to repair a poor image than to maintain a good one.

Not only do customers get frustrated but also employees in the United States also have to spend a large amount of time communicating with employees in another country. Extra time and effort has to be spent with these employees to explain project details, job duties, business process, and other company culture processes. This can cause delay in projects, which in return can cause a loss in company's bottom line.

For the past five years my employer has outsourced to Manila. In 2006, the outsourcing started as additional resources to the company. The additional resources were for data entry of product information on computer products. By 2011 jobs for additional resources became replacement of current resources for the employees in America. The job in the United States once replaced in Manila was lost permanently. Even