The Perceived Impact of Outsourcing on Organizational Performance

Dean Elmuti, Eastern Illinois University

Introduction

In todays world of ever increasing competition, organizations are forced to look for new ways to generate value. The world has embraced the phenomenon of outsourcing and companies have adopted its principles to help them expand into other markets (Bender 1999). Strategic management of outsourcing is perhaps the most powerful tool in management, and outsourcing of innovation is its frontier (Quinn 2000).

Outsourcing is a management strategy by which an organization delegates major, non-core functions to specialized and efficient service providers, or as Corbett (1999). President of Michael F. Corbett and Associates asserts, Outsourcing is nothing less than the wholesale restructuring the corporation around our core competencies and outside relationships. The traditional outsourcing emphasis on tactical benefits like cost reduction (for example, cheaper labor cost in low-cost countries), have more recently been replaced by productivity, flexibility, speed and innovation in developing business applications, and access to new technologies and skills (Greer, Youngblood, and Gary 1999; Bacon 1999).

The market for providers of outsourced services of all types is growing rapidly. In 1996, American firms spent over $100 billion in outsourced business activities (Casale and Overton 1997). Other estimates place the total U.S. market for outsourcing at more than $300 billion by the year 2001 (Dun and Bradstreet 2000). Globally, outsourcing usage grew 35 percent in 1997 and the total market for outsourced services is expected to increase to $200 billion by the year 2001 (Greer, Youngblood, and Gray 1999). A recent study was conducted by Yankelovih Partners indicated that two-thirds of companies world-wide already outsource at least one business