...Is Offshore Outsourcing of Medical Business Practices Ethical? Abstract The healthcare industry is one of the largest in the United States. The United States spends an estimated $2 trillion annually on health care expenses, more than any other industrialized country (Johnson, 2010). The growth of this industry is expected to continue well into the future. However, today more than ever, healthcare providers are faced with many financial pressures. Offshore outsourcing offers companies substantial savings on costs which improves profitability. Managed care organizations and healthcare providers realize how outsourcing business processes to experts allows them to focus on their core business without worrying about back-office functions (Namasivayan & Bell, 2006). Despite the cost savings, it is important not to overlook some of the issues that may be associated with outsourcing. Is Offshore Outsourcing of Medical Business Practices Ethical? The healthcare industry is one of the largest in the United States. The United States spends an estimated $2 trillion annually on health care expenses, more than any other industrialized country (Johnson, 2010). The growth of this industry is expected to continue well into the future. As the baby boomer population gets older and medical treatments become more and more advanced, those needing medical care will increase exponentially giving rise to an already growing field. Yet, despite...
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...Research Essay 3000 words Globalisation presents significant opportunities and challenges for business around the world. Are the environmental challenges and ethical dilemmas Fisher & Paykel currently face outsourcing manufacturing to a developing country beneficial to Australia? Globalisation can be described as the intertwining processes of the world. It is not only an economic process, which involves rising communication and integration of all countries’ economies through the growth in international trade and investment, but also the rapid cultural, social, technological and industrial exchange between nations (IYP, 2002, p. 11). Globalisation presents significant opportunities, as well as many challenges, for business around the globe. Many companies are currently making the decision to move production offshore to lower expenditure and increase profits. However, there are numerous environmental challenges, as well as ethical dilemmas involved with outsourcing. Throughout this essay I will show how globalisation is connected with the present issue of New Zealand’s ‘Fisher & Paykel’ (F&P) Brisbane plant outsourcing manufacturing of their whitegoods to Thailand. Shown by exploring the reasons and challenges involved both in the business environment and ethical arena. Such ethical issues under scrutiny at present are the loss of Australian jobs and the replacement of low wage employment offshore. After the analysis of various sources of information, it will be clear that the...
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...Ethical Impact of Outsourcing Will Pearsall June 17, 2010 MGT/216 Vicki Dixon Ethical Impact of Outsourcing Over the last few years it seems almost impossible to read a newspaper, turn on the TV or call a customer service representative without noticing one of the most growing trends in business, the outsourcing of jobs overseas. Due to its political and economical ramifications we witness numerous debates on the topic. Although it makes economical sense for companies to contract the cheapest labor, the movement of jobs to other countries presents an ethical dilemma. In this paper I will discuss the impact of outsourcing across cultures as well as the consequences faced by companies that decide to employ it. According to Credo reference (2004), “outsourcing is the term used to describe the practice of subcontracting certain services to an organization or company outside of the parent organization or company.” Subcontracting of specialized jobs has been a common theme in the US and has positively impacted our economy. It allows companies that are not adequately skilled in a specific task to hire a company that is. It is common in industries like health care, manufacturing, and information technology. However, with the explosion of globalization over the last decade, we have witness this trend shift to negatively affect our domestic workforce. With growing competition and increased pressure from stakeholders and shareholders to increase profit margins, companies are compelled...
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...Operations Management 1 Operations and Productivity 1 Global Company Profile: Hard Rock Cafe 2 What Is Operations Management? 4 Organizing to Produce Goods and Services 4 Why Study OM? 4 What Operations Managers Do 7 How This Book Is Organized 7 The Heritage of Operations Management 8 Operations in the Service Sector 9 Differences between Goods and Services 10 Growth of Services 11 Service Pay 12 Exciting New Trends in Operations Management 12 The Productivity Challenge 14 Productivity Measurement 15 Productivity Variables 17 Productivity and the Service Sector 19 Ethics and Social Responsibility 20 Summary 20 • Key Terms 21 • Solved Problems 21 < Self-Test 22 • Internet and Student CD-ROM/DVD Exercises 22 • Discussion Questions 22 • Ethical Dilemma 23 • Problems 23 • Case Studies: National Air Express 24; Zychol Chemicals Corporation 25 • Video Case Study: Hard Rock Cafe: Operations Management in Services 25 • Additional Case Study 26 • Bibliography 26 • Internet Resources 26 Developing Missions and Strategies 34 Mission 34 Strategy 35 Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Operations 36 Competing on Differentiation 36 Competing on Cost 37 Competing on Response 37 Ten Strategic OM Decisions 39 Issues in Operations Strategy 42 Research 42 Preconditions 43 Dynamics 43 Strategy Development and Implementation 43 Critical Success Factors and Core Competencies 44 Build and Staff the Organization 46 Integrate OM with Other Activities 47 Global...
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...Ethical Dilemma Wilbert Thacker CMGT/575 December 1, 2014 Gordon Hodgson Ethical Dilemma Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser. Ethical dilemmas assume that the chooser will abide by societal norms, such as codes of law or religious teachings, in order to make the choice ethically impossible (Your Dictionary, 2014). As a project manager it is their job to manage and get to know their team. The CIO has informed the project manager that his/her team will be released and the department will be outsourced. In this situation the first step that should be taken is gathering all of the facts. The CIO has informed the project manager that their department would be outsourced and their team would be released but there was no reason provided. As a concerned project manager it is almost their obligation to research to what led up to this decision. A decision this drastic couldn’t have possibly be made over night. The main ethical issue here is it has to be a trust issue between the company they are providing the service for and the project management team. Most of those issues revolve around project management teams not completing a service on time or a service not meeting expectations. Many people will...
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...Outsourcing has been considered by many businesses because it allows them to reduce labor costs by moving operations or production abroad particularly to developing countries. Outsourced jobs include lower level manufacturing jobs to higher-level jobs, which requires specialized skills and education. Businesses are incentivized towards this decision because it increases their competitive advantage through reduced cost and improved capabilities and specialization. The goal of this research project is to determine whether or not outsourcing to an overseas corporation would be the best move for the company. The research team has developed a strategy that ensures that the management dilemma will be resolved, and answers in the most economical way, and with valid, reliable, stable, and practical information. Research Problem and Purpose The most prolific management dilemma that modern businesses encounter is identifying innovative ways to reduce costs. A way businesses can reduce costs is through changing the organizational structure. It is the function of management to organize the resources, locations, and authority within the organization to ensure optimal use of resources, manpower, money, capital, and equipment. The purpose of the research study is to determine whether outsourcing to an overseas corporation will provide enough cost savings to maintain their competitive advantage. Clarifying the Research Question Research questions are open-ended questions, with the...
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...distrust between employees and new Clerk Stan Accord. The organization has the opportunity to make the changes necessary to meet the desired end-state goals through mediation, scheduling changes, and outsourcing of computer data and storage. The organization can realize these changes with minimal emotional response by employees and management through careful meditation of the situation that has not occurred to this point. County residents will find the new organization provides more services than before in a more flexible format. Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification Throughout the scenario the idea of discrimination comes into play with multiple parties. Discrimination is perceived between Stan and Dennis, Stan and Dan, as well as perceptions of female employees. The next issue is Dennis taking a competitive stance against Stan believing he can perform the functions with a better understanding of the needs of the community. The final issue at hand deals with the lack of mediation or arbitration used between the parties. Instead the parties decided to handle issues publicly and with high emotional tolls on both sides. Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas The stakeholders in the scenario each have unique situations they are faced with and ethical considerations based on those situations. Stan Accord for instance believes that modernization and a greater physical presence in the county offices is the solution when dealing with Dennis Munger...
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...International Legal and Ethical Issues In the “Addressing Legal and Ethical Issues Simulation” a number of issues were addressed. The most complex issues were surrounding the proposed jurisdictions of the courts where legal disputes would be argued. The central issues were the time and expense involved in the resolution of potential disputes. At issue were the distance (time and expense) of litigating in US courts versus the immediacy of litigating in the courts of Candore. The enforceability of any judgment was questionable. In the opinion of the Team, non-binding arbitration subject to international law could be the best solution for this question. The recent acceptance of Candore into the WTO should encourage compliance with decisions made in non-binding arbitration and would expedite resolution in a timely and less expensive to both parties and in the event of continued disagreement the parties would have recourse in international law. The alliance between CadMex Pharma and Gentura has been a successful one and both companies have cross-licensing agreements for several other drugs and techniques. CadMex and after 5 years of doing business with Gentura is now facing a dilemma due to the change in political system in Candore a new government is now in place also the country is in the midst of an viral epidemic affecting more than 1% of the population, ViroBlax is a drug CadMex licensed Gentura to market is one of the drugs used in the treatment should CadMex allow Gentura...
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... To address this issue, Global Communication is planning to introduce new services to its small business and to globalize. This business initiative was created by Global Communications senior leadership team and approved by the board. However, conflict exits between Global Communications and Technologies Workers Union following the release of this strategic plan to outsource part of the domestic call centers to India and Ireland. (University of Phoenix eResource, https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/campus/tampamain/student/homepgage.asp, p1-3). In order to identify the gap analysis of this situation, a good understanding of the situation must be gained through the evaluation of issues, opportunities, stakeholder perspective and ethical dilemmas. Issues and Opportunities Identification The main issue that Global Communications faces is the increase competition through expansion of services throughout the telecommunications industry. More players have entered the market with broader services. What once was multiple markets because deregulations, has became a single market with multiple services. While it was almost impossible in the past for long distance carriers to be local distance carriers and vice versa, this is no longer the case in the current market. The same issue has created an enormous opportunity for Global Communications to reach business objectives by expanding into a global market....
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...This paper describes the situation at the United States (US) based company, Global Communications (GC) in the telecommunication industry. Different challenges and opportunities at GC are discussed. The paper continues by discussing the different stakeholders' perspective/ethical dilemmas and continues by framing a problem statement for the Global Communications situation. An expected end state situation is then described for GC scenario. The paper continues by analyzing different alternative solutions to the Global Communications situation , the risk for each solution is described and an optimal solution from a numbers of alternative solutions is selected. An implementation plan for the selection solution for the Global Communications situation is described and a metrics to monitor the plan is presented. This paper concludes by reviewing the selected solution to the situation and discussing the expected result. Issue and Opportunity Identification As a result of competition from cable companies, the United States based company, Global Communication (GC) is losing market share and profitability in the telecommunications market. The traded stock value has dropped from $28 to $11 in a two year period and stockholders are receiving diminishing returns (University of Phoenix, 2006). The stockholders have lost confidence in the management. Management is under pressure to renew stockholders confidence by increasing returns on the stock and the traded stock value. Senior management...
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...create success. To help assist in figuring out multiple dilemmas in Global Communications workplace, many thoughts are taken into consideration. Throughout the following paper, research will explain the issues, opportunities and ethical dilemmas that Global Communications has encountered. Along with alternative solutions, the possible risk involved and the optimal solution chosen. Global Communications end-state goal, evaluation and implementation plan will all be addressed throughout the paper. Situation Analysis Issue and Opportunity Identification The Global Communications scenario offered three considerable factors that lead to the outsourcing of job employment overseas. After further analysis the lack of sufficient technology and advanced integration, the Global Communications scenario states that “lead to the tremendous economic pressure bemoaning of stockholders on diminishing returns and further speculation about industries ability to rebound and further stock trade deprecation”. The aggressive behavior of the company in compensation, stock options coupled with poor allocation of funds, has put global communication in the situation they are in now. Aggressive compensation packages, improper allocation of funds that should have been used towards competing with technology ultimately impacted the directions stockholders took to off set expenses and ship employment overseas. Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas The various stockholders include the employees, management...
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...to the change in the market value and the possible solutions. Secondly, being in the telecommunications industry, there are several competitor companies. So in an effort to keep their competitive edge, Global Communications was faced with the problem of determining how to keep up and compete against competitive companies. This in itself presented a conflict, because difficult decisions had to be made in regarding the overall marketability of the product being represented by the company and the overhead in producing and keeping up with supply and demand. Additionally, Global Communications had to face the difficulty of the newly implemented cutbacks of educational and health benefits and the backlash of the impending downsizing and outsourcing plans. Although this move is forecasted to save the company...
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...and sell it cheaper than what it would cost us to produce it. Both sides are profiting from the trade. There are many positives and negatives to outsourcing labor to other countries. The biggest positive is that its cheaper labor for companies. The other big positive is most people like paying cheaper prices and by outsourcing it costs less to produce so you can sell it cheaper also. The biggest negative obviously is that jobs are taken away from people in America. The other negative which doesn’t necessarily affect the business but most other countries don’t have child labor laws and people are paid practically nothing. The mainn reason Walmart would be against trade restrictions is because the money they lose out on by not expanding to these other countries. They would also lose out on charging cheaper labor in these other countries. Next would be cost of production, it costs less to produce things in other countries plus they would have to ship orders and pay an import tax. The other reason could be the taxes or tariffs that they have to pay. I believe ethics are very important to how you live your life. Some of the most important things to me are integrity, honesty, being responsible and treating others fairly. An ethical dilemma is a complex situation that involves a conflict between different morals. An ethical dilemma could be covering for a buddy who is cheating on his wife/girlfriend. Another could be serving alcohol to a pregnant woman. I believe going green...
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...Global Communications Problem Solution Paper and Defense Problem Solution: Global Communications (GC), once riding the telecommunications boom of the 1990's, now has a plummeting stock price and very nervous board of directors. The future of the company depends on its ability to benchmark and outsource operations while effectively communicating the strategic plan in an ethical way. Like many of their competitors in this volatile industry, profit margin is shrinking, competition is intense, and the whole industry seems to be a losing bet on Wall Street. GC has fallen behind the telecommunication industry. GC feels the pressures of the industries and trying to keep up with its competitors while watching its stock prices fall. Yet the investors are giving GC pressure to correct the problem. GC needs to offer better or a new services than what their competitors are not providing to their customers. Simply put, Global Communications is not where it needs to be in terms of globally viable business opportunities and general profitability. Our paper will present the problems currently confronting Global Communications (GC) and the solution of implementation of an aggressive approach to be a truly global resource. This paper will discuss the alternative solutions to their existing problems, risk assessment for the suggested alternative solutions, the optimal solution, and lastly the implementation plan to deal with the problem. Issue Identification GC has...
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...Problem Solution: Remington Peckinpaw Davis Inc. Remington Peckinpaw Davis began more than 35 years ago as a trading firm. RPD has since been a Wall Street force to be reckoned with. The company was founded by legendary Wall Street buccaneer Sam Remington, who was instrumental in shaping the stock market as it exists today. RPD was successful by targeting the 2% of American families who hold 80% of the country’s assets. This strategy that served the company well through the early 1990s was not faring so well by the mid-1990s. A new layer of wealth was created which in turn created new target audience for RPD and for their competitors. In 2005, RPD developed their first attempt at an online trading site called eRPD. The site has had major issues and a multitude of customer complaints. The following paragraphs, and accompanying tables, will review the problem RPD is facing and offer a potential solution for its executive leadership team. Describe the Situation Issue and Opportunity Identification RPD started over 35 years ago. It has since focused on America’s richest families however, the progress of the internet and the recent real estate booms, there has been a lot of change and RPD must also change if it wishes to remain successful. RPD has hired many ambitious employees who, with their knowledge and understanding, can help RPD move forward in its next challenge: eRPD. RPD wants to take this new idea for eRPD and create an internet site that will allow their customers...
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