Outsourcing

Karlene H. Roberts & Daniel S. Wong

Outsourcing is typically the domain of trade economists, whereas nonstandard work arrangements are the province of labor economists. Temporary work is one aspect of nonstandard work arrangements just as are part-time work, contract work, and other work forms. Although there are many polemics on the positive and negative results of outsourcing and nonstandard work on productivity and personal well-being, industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists have paid scant research attention to either. In the early 1980s outsourcing referred to the situation in which firms expanded their purchases of products (such as automakers buying car seat fabrics) rather than making them themselves. By 2004 outsourcing had taken on a different meaning. It referred to the specific segment of the growing international trade in services. This segment consists of arm's length or long-distance purchase of services abroad. Thus X-rays made in Boston can be transferred to Bombay for reading, and call centers in Deli can ...

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