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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: June 16, 2004
Reviewed:
Latest Update: August 29, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Up Side of Outsourcing

1. Introduction Why I chose to share this reading.
2. Focus: Main point of this reading.
3. Reading Full identification of source for reading AND excerpt.
4. Concepts: Concepts and Key Words.
5. Discussion Discussion questions.
6. Conceptual Linking to Substantive Courses What this has to do with our class.

* * *

Introduction:

• Outsourcing is bringing with it a paradigmatic shift in the status of worker in the U.S. and the world. Most of our discussion has focused on the plight of the outsourced worker, in keeping with our study of oppression and the oppressed. But there is an upside to "outsouring." This advertisement (which we in NO WAY endorse) describes that upside in glowing terms. Oddly enough, the advertisement presents both sides of the argument, albeit in a superficial manner. Mostly, like all advertisements, it appeals to instrumental discourse to persuade you to buy its services.

Focus:

• After sharing these readings, I would like you to come away with the ability to take either side of the outsourcing argument, the harmed worker, the company that can lower its costs of production and raise its profits.

Concepts and Key Words:

• outsourcing - retaining responsibility for seeing that the task is competently completed, but using subcontractors to do the work
• privatization - outsourcing tasks that were once undertaken by government entitities and contracting with the private sector to do the same tasks; this usually results in lower training quality of workers.
• paradigmatic shift - a shift that changes the model of the way we do things
• enterprise liability - the cost of doding business - if railroads sometimes send off sparks that burn down houses, part of the cost of doing business is rebuilding those houses.
• cost of doing business - sometimes there are hidden costs to doing business, like the later discovery of toxic effects in some business products and chemicals.
• corporate management and leadership ethics - "We need managers who love their work, their organizations, and the people whose lives they affect. We need leaders and managers who appreciate management as a moral and ethical undertaking. We need leaders who combine hard-headed realism with passionate commitment to larger values and purposes." Bolman and Deal, at p. xvi.
• one-sided, two-sided argument - The one-sided argument is like sound bites, icons, batons, uniforms and costumes, slogans, something we can all get behind without deep substantive discussion. The two-sided argument is more complex. All the glamour aside, there are some real issues that are complex and involve multi-layered perspectives. The two-sided argument is harder to make.
• well-educated - During the American Soldier, Second World War, they discovered that the less well-educated were more effectively persuaded by the one-sided argument, and sometimes confused by the more complex two-sided argument. The definition of well-educated in the 40's was high school graduate. Somehow I don't think that would be an adequate definition of well-educted today.

Reading:

• How 56-year-old Michael Bellington Got Fired by Saddam Hussein A Web Advertisement on Outsourcing. It's the single biggest threat to American business.

  "This warning could save your family fortune... And make you very rich at the same time."

• The one-sided, two-sided argument in attitude and persuasion theory.

• Outsourcing Bureau of Labor Statistics

• The Effect of Outsourcing and Offshoring on BLS Productivity Measures Bureau of Labor Statistics. March 26, 2004

• Investment Scams / Stock Scam Fraud / Boiler Rooms: Crimes of Persuasion

  "Demographics

  In 1980, the number of Americans who owned securities, either directly or through mutual funds or indirectly through pension funds, was one out of eighteen. By 1999 the number was one in three.

  With the wider participation and acceptance of the public in the securities markets, the capacity for harm to the general public has increased. Now more than ever, the impact of securities fraud extends beyond just the wealthy."

Discussion Questions:

1. Doe this corporate advertisement present a two-sided argument?

   Two-sided arguments are most effective with those who are well-educated. Consider whether the average investor is "well educated." Consider in that issue what "well-educated" means in the dominant discourse of the twenty-first century. Consider that we have taken a turn towards "certification" instead of liberal arts education in the sense of critical analysis of many of the world's great learning achievements. You may have a degree, but are you "educated?" The story of Michael Billington is presented at the very start of the promotion, but from then on, the approach changes. Could you interpret this as the victim wasn't to blame, except that he didn't stay on top of what was happening, so I don't have to worry about that because I am on top of all this? Is that blaming the victim?

2. How many scam investment opportunities are available on the Web?

   2002 Internet Fraud Report: January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2003 The Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Executive Summary. LOTS.

Conceptual Linking to Substantive Courses:

• Agencies:
  Sample linking: What government agencies are responsible for understanding outsourcing and its effects on our labor market? Look at the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Criminal Justice:
  Sample linking: What effect is outsourcing having now and likely to continue to have that will affect which groups of people fall within our criminal population? Doesn't that depend to some extent on poverty, job attainability, and family support issues? But if we see that the standard of living of certain groups of people are being lowered by the loss of jobs to other countries, doesn't that mean that we need to prepare for how that is going to effect criminal activity in those groups? Doesn't that dictate a much greater focus on prevention and alternative sources of meeting standard of living expenses?

• Law:
  Sample linking: What role is the legal system playing at this point in time in outsourcing? What's the US Department of Labor saying. What's happening in Congress?

• Moot Court:
  Sample linking: How would you organize and plan an argument before a governance dicourse body on outsourcing? What statistics can be found for what perspectives, and will you use narratives and visual effects to better present your arguments?

• Women in Poverty:
  Sample linking: One of the problems of poverty is the lack of adequate jobs with any career potential. How is outsourcing affecting those presently caught up in poverty? How is it likely to affect the standard of living of those presently called the working poor?

• Race, Gender, Class:
  Sample linking: At present the two major providers of outsourcing are India and China. Both countries represent Third World minorities. Does that mean that in terms of race, gender, and class outsourcing is good? Consider the ultimate argument that corporations seek the best labor price, and move their work forces around the world to get it. What is this doing to the global economy and standards of living?

• Religion:
  Sample linking: Bolman and Deal talk about needing ethical managers and business leaders who see beyond the simple expedient of profit to their role in the community. What ethical issues are involved in outsourcing? When the cost of living is much lower in one nation-state than in another, is it ethical to take advantage of a work force that can have a higher standard of living simply because of the nation-state's poor economic development? At what point do we begin to think globally in ethical issues?

• Love !A:
  Sample linking: Creating an entire underclass of workers in the US as US corporations move to cheaper labor markets does not seem a very loving, sensitive, or caring thing to do as a community. Now we need to go back to Gordon Fellman and some of his pardigm shifts to mutuality. Tough to do in an acquisitive world that is still developing its globla identity. But awareness of the issues is at least a start.