International Economics - Outsourcing Research Paper

International Economics - Outsourcing - Research Paper Example The aim of offshore outsourcing is the transfer of services or goods between nations. Across, outsourcing has matured or grown and become an increasingly complex means of carrying out public services. The private sector has not been left behind in the practice of outsourcing. The origin of outsourcing is linked with the crude materialization of the 1980s when majority of the large-scale public segment outsourcing projects started to take place. In the 1980s, outsourcing occurred generally in the form of blue-collar tasks such as waste collection and grounds maintenance. Much emphasis was put on the lowest cost provider, and this is the individual who won the contract. In the United States, the off-shoring trend in the service sector became significantly prominent in the late 1990s. Between the year 1997 and 2000, various public services including the white-collar roles were exposed to serious competition. The notion of competition became dictated by the best value rather than just th e lowest cost. Best value is an equation, which includes both cost and service quality. It is worth noting that outsourcing was initially viewed as a way of reducing cost, passing clerical and low-level consumer contact duties to other businesses or nations. This happened at a time when industries had to go overseas to cater for the IT labor shortage caused by the excessive workload experienced in 2000, and the dot-com economy boom. This was enabled by advances in IT and influenced by the large cost savings, and thus, companies continued to offshore labor demanding IT services like low level coding and legacy software maintenance. At the moment, complex IT tasks such as XML, software management, software design, web applications development, and software architecture are going offshore. Additionally, an increasing number of United States companies are shifting their IT enabled business services (also referred to as Business Process Outsourcing) abroad. Insurance firms, credit card c ompanies, utility providers, airlines, mortgage lenders, and banks are among the companies that offshore outsource business practices such as low level processing, telemarketing, accounting, procurement, help desks, human resources, collections, customer call centers, and data entry. It is worth noting that concerns about job security had grown â€Å"due in part to increased global economic integration since the early 2000s, when off-shoring started spreading from the jobs of blue-collar manufacturing workers to those of white-collar service sector workers†. White-collar workers entail the majority of United States workers and most of them are employed in the service sector, which accounts for a major portion of United States jobs. This indicates that many people believe that their jobs are at a risk of being moved overseas if the organizations that they work for opt to offshore some of their services or activities. The Current Status of Outsourcing Along With Its Trends A ne w trend is emerging in the service industry; the increase in offshore outsourcing. Prior to the previous decade, it was not common for developing nations like India or China to export high-skilled or high-valued services. Researchers have offered several reasons for

Advise to Crumbly Caravans Ltd Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Advise to Crumbly Caravans Ltd - Coursework Example The Scottish Law of Contract, in regard to the law of agency, defines the relationship between a principal and an agent, as well as that between an agent and a Third Party, and gives clear guidelines on how each party should act towards each other, with clear stipulations of the duties and responsibilities of either the principal to the agent, agent to the principal and agent to the Third Party. The most fundamental duty of an agent towards the principal is that; the agent has a duty to follow the instructions issued by the principal to the agent fully, and perform them as instructed (Macgrego & Davidson, 2008 p17). Further, in addition to this duty, the Scottish Laws of Contract, in regard to agency also provides for the adherence to the commercial agents Regulations of 1993, which is related to the fulfillment of the European directive, requiring that a commercial agent should comply to, and perform reasonable instructions that are given by the principle (White & Willock, 2007 p22) . However, the most fundamental aspect of the duties of the agent to the principal is that; the Scottish law requires that the instructions issued by the principal should be clear and unambiguous, providing that an agent is not liable for any instructions that are not clear, or which the principal may have issued ambiguously.The ‘Crumbly Caravans Ltd.’ case, is a case of a Third Party affected by the relationship between the principal,and the agent,... The law provides that an agent must not disobey the reasonable and material instructions that have been issued by the principal, and in cases where the agent then violates this provision, then the agent becomes liable for any loss that might be suffered by the principal (Mcbryde, 2007 p77). The agent, in addition to the duty of following and performing the instructions issued by the principal, is required to perform the duty of skill and care towards the principal, where the agent must not act in a way that can cause loss to the principal (Macgregor, 1997 p272). Although the duty of skill and care may vary, it expressly requires the adherence and performance of the instructions given to an agent by the principal, in such a way as to avoid causing any loss on the side of the principal (White & Willock, 2007 p9). Nevertheless, the most significant rules applying in the Scottish law of contract in regard to the relationship between an agent and a principal are fiduciary duties, which re quires that the agent should always act in such a way, that his actions benefits the principal (Mcbryde, 2007 p72). Therefore, the agent is required to act in a way consistent with the requirement of the principal, especially regarding the duty of disclosure, where the agent is always required to disclose that he is acting on behalf of the principal (Macqueen & Thomson, 2007 p29). Another of the fiduciary duty of the agent to the principal is the duty to be loyal, and to negotiate appropriately with a Third Party where negotiations are applicable, however with a duty to conclude the deal in accordance with the instructions of the principal. Further, the agent is under duty to communicate all the information available to him to the principal