Social and Philosophical Considerations of Outsourcing

Abstract

Outsourcing and in particular offshoring has received a lot of media attention, usually driven by the fear of local jobs going overseas or because outsourcing is seen as a way of cutting costs which is perceived to impact quality or compliance (such as the recent BP oil spill). Certainly the fear of job losses is one that needs an urgent policy response, when unemployment in the developed economies rises and the security of domestic economies is brought into question. However, when it comes to job losses, the media hype may have been slightly more exaggerated than experience has shown to date.