Outsourcing Software Jobs :: Globalization

Outsourcing Software Jobs Introduction Henry is an experienced programmer for a large software company in Silicon Valley. Despite dedicating 10 years working for the company, he recently received notice that he will soon be laid-off. Before leaving, however, the company instructs him to train his replacement -- a programmer overseas. The software company realized that Henry's job duties can be achieved by overseas workers earning significantly lower wages for the same (or better) quality of work. Unfortunately, Henry is faced with the difficult decision of training his own replacement. Based on Henry's values, must he dutifully perform his instructions and train the overseas programmer? Why did the company choose to outsource the job if Henry is capable of the job's requirements and neglect his loyalty and contributions to the company? This particular example introduces the ethical issues involved with outsourcing software jobs. For the past two decades, U.S. companies have been experiencing an era of tremendous economical growth, largely due to the rapid developments in technology. Consequently, to ensure survival in a capitalistic market, U.S. companies have tried to keep pace with technological changes and competitive pressures by various means, including outsourcing software jobs. With increasing competition both domestically and internationally, U.S. companies have sent many software jobs outside the United States. This paper focuses on the outsourcing of software jobs and analyzes the "Global Workforce" -- a growing trend among U.S. companies to not only do business globally, but also employ people globally. Trends in Outsourcing Software Jobs The Internet glory years as we closed the decade (infamously known as the "Internet Bubble") could not get enough of software engineers. New graduates from American colleges and universities found themselves having multiple job offers even before graduation. Today, that phenomena is long gone. The degradation of the U.S. economy, the "lack" of supply of new American engineering graduates, and the positive impacts of outsourcing have forced U.S. companies to look overseas to enhance company talent and maximize cost efficiency. Many studies have shown that U.S. companies, especially the high-tech industry, have been outsourcing software jobs overseas to countries such as India and China. For instance, IBM, the largest computer company in the world, recently announced that they would move up to 4,730 programmers from U.S. to India [3]. According to a November 2003 report [8] by the American Electronics Association, the United States lost 540,000 jobs in the high-tech industry in 2002.