describe ethics of outsourcing human capital from the U.S.A.

Outsourcing of Human Capital : Is it Ethical

One recent economic phenomena would be Business Process Outsourcing (BPO , or the transfer of certain parts of a production line overseas The most common form of BPO is the outsourcing of Information and Communications Technology (ICT ) services to developing countries such as the Philippines , India , Russia and China . The United States is at the forefront of this trend , even at the expense of its own workers

Due to a troubled stock market , poor economic conditions and declining ICT spending by US businesses , US ICT companies are

br increasingly transferring their operations to underdeveloped countries where there is an abundance of cheap labor pool that is supposedly better trained than their American counterparts . A 2003 survey of 145 US firms revealed that 88 of respondents who have outsourced their ICT services abroad claimed to have gotten better value for their money while 71 said that offshore workers produced better work . The Information Technology Association of America , an industry trade group estimated in a February 2002 article published in Forbes .com that some 840 ,000 Information Technology (IT ) jobs would go unfilled in the US due to continued outsourcing growth . Meanwhile , the Indian BPO industry - which includes contact centers or call centers ' - will export some 21 billion to 24 billion worth of services by 2008 and employ more than 1 .1 million Indian workers . According to analysts , this would translate to the loss of more than 1 million jobs in the US

Cheap labor is the primary factor behind US ICT outsourcing . In the Philippines , for instance , the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (an industry group for suppliers of customer support call centers in the Philippines ) boasted that Filipino workers ' salaries are a fraction of what American workers receive . Filipino programmers earn around 250 to 700 a month , while their American counterparts are paid 1 ,600 to 3 ,600 . Project managers in the Philippines are paid 700 to 1 ,150 monthly American workers receive 3 ,600 to 7 ,100 . Although these are handsome sums by local or even Asian standards , the race to exploit the cheap labor pool of underdeveloped countries can only lead to lower wages , as enterprises struggle to retain their competitiveness in attracting foreign investors . China , for instance , is already teaching its high school students English and is undercutting competition in data encoding services

With the growth of the outsourced ICT industry , critics have raised concerns that its centers and offices might turn into sweatshops . In India , for example , not all facilities are air-conditioned , and many offices are cramped . Another apprehension is the night shift - outsourced ICT services conduct their operations at night to keep up with the respective time zones of their US-based clientele . Numerous studies have already proven that working at night poses severe health risks . These is also the issue of unfair labor practice - call center workers in the Philippines are employed on a contractual basis (good for five months , renewable for another five . They also do not...