...Outsourced, the Movie Intercultural Communication at its Best Outsourced is an excellent film to introduce its audience to Indian culture by showing certain customs and behaviors in the country. As Bisoux (2009) says the film’s realistic, documentary like portrayal provides the audience a window into a global environment such as: cross-culture conflict, shock and adjustment. From the moment Todd Anderson arrives in India, the audience lives through the new experiences that he confronts. The film’s visual detail and soundtrack featuring Indian style music combine to transport the audience into the Indian culture. Once in India, Todd faces a chaotic transportation system, having to jump onto a crowded moving train, and later chasing after his suitcase which is thrown into a small auto-rickshaw, or as Todd calls it, “one of those taxi go-cart thingies.” He immediately observes different customs, beginning with a man urinating by the side of the road and continuing to the street boy who pesters him and later snatches his cell phone. At the small, above-ground bunker-like building that has been built to house the new call center where Todd will work, a cow appears in one of the offices in one scene where Todd stands surprised, while his Indian counterpart, Purohit ‘Puro’ N. Virajnarianan, remains unfazed by the cow’s presence. In the film, Todd experiences extreme mental and physical symptoms due to culture shock. Culture shock is defined as a “sense of confusion, discomfort...
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...Name: Ahmed Abdelaal Ahmed "Outsourced Movie" In Light of the Movie Discuss the Following Questions: Explain Hofstede cultural dimension and how it is clearly manifested? Below is a brief explanation of the cultural dimensions and examples from the film that represent each of the dimensions. Individualism and Collectivism Individualistic cultures “offer their members a great deal of freedom, the belief being that this freedom makes it possible for each person to achieve personal success” . Members tend to “put their own interests and those of their immediate family ahead of social concerns” In contrast, members of collectivist cultures “have tight social frameworks in which members of a group . . . feel primary loyalty toward one another and the group to which they belong” . · Todd has his own apartment in Seattle, he lives alone, and he is ambitious and consumption-oriented. As he explains to Puro: “In my world, it just makes sense to work your ass off and go into credit card debt just so you can have that 50-inch plasma.” · Todd also does not see his parents often, even though they live only two hours away from him. This news stuns Puro, who also cannot understand why Todd continues to work for a company and a boss he dislikes. Todd and Puro are at opposite ends of the individualism-collectivism continuum. A series of events at the beginning of the film also highlight the contrast between individualist and collectivist cultures: · When...
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...Luke Einsweiler Prof. Stormy Stipe Research Paper December 17, 2014 U.S. farmers have been said to be the backbone of America ever since pilgrims came to America. However, our backbone may be moving overseas because now more than ever we are outsourcing our farm products. Large farm operations and food producers in the U.S. are now turning to outsourcing their products in order to increase profits. This tactic however is not good for our society. Having food produced overseas makes it hard to trace food-borne illnesses and contaminations within the food, and it is hurting the U.S. economy. The U.S. must stop this and produce its own food in this country. Large farm operations in the U.S do have valid reasons for wanting to outsource their jobs and products to foreign countries because it makes more sense financially. The main goal of a business is to make money. In order to make the most money, businesses want to cut costs and have a lot of revenue. These farm businesses are moving their production overseas because it has cheaper labor and cheaper cost of input materials. They are able to produce more food for a cheaper price and then sell it in the U.S. and make a huge profit. Outsourcing foodstuffs has been happening for a long time but not on such a large scale. NAFTA, or North American Free Trade Agreement, was supposed to help domestic farmers because they would be able to trade excess products freely. However, NAFTA proved to serve the opposite and made it easier...
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...Film Analysis „Outsourced (2006) Introduction In the film “Outsourced” Todd Anderson works as a call-centre manager, also called order fulfilment manager with the Seattle based company „Western Novality“. As they outsource their office to Gharapuri, India Mr Anderson has to travel there and train his replacement. During the film there are a lot of misunderstanding concerning cultural differences. As the film goes on Mr Anderson starts to accept the Indian culture and the Indian worker engage more in the American culture. In this paper I am introducing two scenes from the film that hold misunderstanding and analyse and explain them. „The missing glass“ and office scenes As we first see the office of Mr Anderson in Seattle (00:58) we can monitor that each worker has his own big cubicle, which offers a lot of private space and the boss Dave has his own closed office with even more space for private enclosure (01:14-03:38). Compared to the Indian office we can observe that the employers have a lot less space for themselves and they interact with each other more frequently and also enjoy doing that (18:47). Even the office of the supervisor lacks privacy because of the missing glass (19:06-19:08). As a recurring motive we see Mr Anderson making comments about the missing glass. First he askes nicely when the glass is coming and Puro, his replacement he has to train answers „presently“ (25:48-25:54). At another occasion Mr Anderson askes again when the glass is coming and...
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...Good Business Bad Business and Sustainability The coursework is to complete a discussion of an organisation, policy, or product and evaluate the ways in which the object could be regarded as ‘good’, and ‘bad’. You may choose a specific case to evaluate; or build a hypothetical case using suitable real world examples. A competitor firm has outsourced its production abroad. You could do the same. You are the major employer in the town where you are located. You have to decide whether also to outsource your production. Introduction The industry that my firm operates within is the winter clothing industry. The company supplies clothing to multiple clothing retailers across the U.K and selected areas of Europe mostly around the French and Swiss Alps. The company’s factory is based in Brackley and employs 2500 local employees. Our company has a strong ethical and moral feel and image due to a strong involvement in charity fund raising and organising events for under privileged children to get involved in sports and activities they wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to do. We are seen locally as an incremental part of the local infrastructure and through feedback sheets its apparent that on the whole our employees are happy and our staff turnover and productivity reflects this. The main issue we have recently encountered is that in October 2011 the minimum wage went up 15p to £6.08 an hour therefore increasing the cost of labour and due to the rise in oil prices to...
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...Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing for Outsourced Employee Iman Nuraprianto GLS 470 – 12TW1 Jennifer Zoller Southern New Hampshire University December 8, 2012 Abstract Outsourcing is contracting with an outside party (vendor) to do a particular function. Basically, the function being outsourced is considered non-core to the business. This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing for outsourced employee. The advantages of outsourcing are more experiences, opportunity to get expertise in particular job, and manageable time & planning to the next job. In contrast, disadvantages of outsourcing are low salaries, poor employee benefits and uncertainty for continuing job. This paper describes, even though outsourcing discriminates outsourced employee, there are some benefits for outsourced employee. Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing for Outsourced Employee What is the definition of outsourcing? According to Caruth, L. & Caruth, D., “Outsourcing is the process of contracting with an outside party (vendor) to perform company functions that were previously perform in-house” (2010). Outsourcing has been used by company in difference sector businesses, such as retail, manufacturing, information technology, banking & finance. Medforth argued that “outsourcing support a company to change magnitude in almost every aspects: increase in profits, productivity, business value, business performance...
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...affecting hotel outsourcing in Taiwan. A series of two studies was performed. In study 1, content analyses of senior hotel manager interviews were conducted to explore factors determining hotel outsourcing, including jobs requiring capabilities and skills that may be difficult to afford with the hotel’s tight or limited resources, a hotel’s resources and its business scale, transaction costs, and jobs with standard operation procedures. A questionnaire survey was used in study 2, and results indicated that the percentage of current outsourcing and desired outsourcing for international tourist hotels in Taiwan was very low, showing that strategic outsourcing has not received much attention among Taiwanese international tourist hotels. The most outsourced hotel departments were housekeeping, security, maintenance, and information systems. The findings of study 2 also showed that only hotel’s resources influence the outsourcing decision-making. The effect of predicting outsourcing was not significant for transaction costs. The results of this study provide both hotel management and outsourcing service providers with insights of hotel outsourcing in Taiwan. Keywords: Hotel outsourcing; transaction costs, valuable resources; asset specificity; international tourist hotels Introduction Due to economic globalization, market maturity, technological change, and fiercer competition, as well as the need to respond to the customers’ increasing demands, today’s business environments...
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...independent contractors, the people who complete the outsourced projects, pay their own withholding, social security, and other taxes. This can add up to substantial savings. Some businesses choose to take their outsourcing one step further by choosing a vendor, located in another part of the world. Doing so typically saves them more money because they end up paying a much lower wage than would be necessary in their home country. The disadvantage is that these vendors may not understand English and communication is more difficult. Many times, outsourcing speeds up production time. Since the third-party vendor will only be concentrating on one specific task, instead of numerous office duties, actual production time can be greatly increased. Outsourcing gives a business the flexibility to change third-party vendors whenever necessary. This process is not as time-consuming as the normal employee hiring process, because they are not screening individuals, they are considering established companies with proven track records. An excellent example of this is customer service. When a business outsources its customer service department, it does not have to hire and oversee thirty individual operators. Instead, it can hire one call center, which will perform all needed tasks. Recent studies show that information technology-related tasks are outsourced more than anything else. Other common department functions that are outsourced include human relations, training, accounting and...
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...Management Accountant Date: 28 February 2012 Review of issues facing Jot Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Terms of reference 3.0 Prioritisation of the issues facing Jot 4.0 Discussion of the issues facing Jot 5.0 Ethical issues and recommendations on ethical issues 6.0 Recommendations 7.0 Conclusions Appendices Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5 Appendix 6 Appendix 7 SWOT analysis PEST analysis Selection of new outsourced manufacturer for products YY and ZZ VP “own brand” proposal Inventory valuation Calculations for outsourced manufacturers P and Q for licensed action figures Email on the key criteria for the selection of outsourced manufacturers 1.0 Introduction Jot is a small unlisted company which designs and outsources the manufacture of a range of children’s toys. It has grown rapidly since it was established in 1998. It is currently experiencing manufacturing problems due to an earthquake affecting 2 of its outsourced manufacturers and also quality problems with another outsourced manufacturer. The quality of the company’s products, upon which its reputation is based, must not be compromised. The Jot brand name is known for quality toys but it is important that its products appeal to cost- conscious retailers and price sensitive customers. Jot can use the cost-leadership strategy, using Porter’s generic strategy framework, to select the minimum cost in its choice of manufacturers...
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...System has significant risks that can sometimes become detrimental to the outsourced organization. According to the Commission on Government Outsourcing, "when outsourcing an organization exposes itself to significant risks in terms of security, accuracy, and completeness of information (Holroyd City Council, 2008)". Comprised in the rest of this document is an exclusive examination of four different outsourcing activities and the associated risks that an organization needs to be aware of. Let me begin with the use of an external service provider for data storage for an organization. This situation is mostly attributed to midsized and few large business with less capital to develop and operate a databases of their own. They may neither have the finance to purchase and operate a database adequately nor the additional funding to hire a skilled IT team to manage a database in-house. In an attempt to effectively and securely manage their data at a lower and affordable budget, many of these organizations choose to outsource their data storage. Even though outsourcing of their database helps an organization to save on cost, there are many risk involve with outsourcing data to external service providers. Among the risks associated with outsourcing an organization's data is vulnerability of data. An organization's outsourced data faces several risks. Some of these includes unauthorized viewing of the outsourced confidential business information, theft and illegal sharing of confidential...
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...MarketLine Industry Profile Global Data Processing & Outsourced Services June 2011 Reference Code: 0199-2312 Publication Date: June 2011 WWW.MARKETLINE.COM MARKETLINE. THIS PROFILE IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED Global - Data Processing & Outsourced Services © MARKETLINE THIS PROFILE IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED 0199 - 2312 - 2010 Page | 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Market value The global data processing & outsourced services market grew by 3.2% in 2010 to reach a value of $601.1 billion. Market value forecast In 2015, the global data processing & outsourced services market is forecast to have a value of $854.5 billion, an increase of 42.2% since 2010. Category segmentation IT outsourcing (ITO) is the largest segment of the global data processing & outsourced services market, accounting for 48.6% of the market's total value. Geography segmentation Americas accounts for 44.2% of the global data processing & outsourced services market value. Market share IBM is the leading player in the global data processing & outsourced services market, generating a 3.7% share of the market's value. Market rivalry The market is fragmented despite the presence of large, international incumbents, who together account for 10.2% of global revenues. Global - Data Processing & Outsourced Services © MARKETLINE THIS PROFILE IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED 0199 - 2312 - 2010 Page | 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...
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...Future Trends of HR Considering the many stressors and factors effecting human resources and the workforce today, the future trends of human resources must be assessed. One of the largest dilemmas facing the workforce today is the generational differences between the current workforce and the newly hired. Presently, the baby boomer generation is of retirement age which leaves the workforce lacking of skilled labor and knowledge. Reports have shown an estimated 70 million baby boomers will soon retire from the workforce while only 40 million will enter leaving an extreme deficit in the workforce (“The Present & Future,” 2006). Therefore, stress factors affecting the labor market to compensate for this loss are increased work hours, greater workloads, and less pay increases. A current problem facing human resources in organizations is an increased turnover rate. Employees are looking for better work conditions and an increase in monetary compensation. Evaluating these conditions, future trends in HR illustrate a need for talented and experienced skilled labor and the workforce exemplifies a lack of qualified applicants. Organizations are looking at a higher cost for recruiting, training, and hiring. HR planning is imperative to future trends of human resources to include, but not limited to globalization, outsourcing, and technology. Globalization is the logistics that foster economic growth across geographical borders. Major US organizations have manufacturing...
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...2013 CASE STUDY www.cimaglobal.com/globalbusinesschallenge Jot – toy case study The date of the case is set at 1 November 2012 Industry background There is a large number of companies of various sizes which design and sell toys to retailers globally. Most toy companies outsource the manufacture of their toys and currently 86% of the world’s toys are manufactured in China. Most of the rest of the world’s toys are manufactured in other Asian countries, with only low volumes of products manufactured in Europe and the USA. The toy market is divided up into a variety of sectors, by children’s age range and the type of toy. There are different sectors with toys aimed for babies under one year old; children aged 1 to 3 years and pre-school children of 3 to 5 years. There is a further sector for children of school age of 5 years and upwards. Additionally the toy market is broken down into categories of toys. Research has shown that children aged 2 to 4 years old receive the most toys in quantity but that the most money is spent on toys for the 6 to 8 year age group. Toys sold in the market to those children aged between 9 and 11 tend to be more sophisticated. Some of these games need access to the Internet and most involve more complex programming. The other feature of this age group is that the ‘buyer’ tends to switch to the child from the parent. That is not to say that the child pays the money, more that the child drives the buying decision, always subject to the budget and...
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...Answer 1. Companies outsource production of their products for the following reasons: Lack of technical expertise, or expert labor in certain operations; reduce manufacturing costs due to the availability of cheap labor; make less investments in expensive equipment, staff and IT systems; optimize resource utilization and free up management time from outsourced routine supporting activities to focus on its core competencies; and when domestic manufacturing capacity is reached. Outsourcing is a good strategy for the following situations: Tasks that require specific manufacturing equipment and technical expertise can be outsourced to vendors who specialize in these fields to produce goods faster and of better quality. Outsourcing the supporting processes enables the firm to concentrate on its core business processes. Outsourcing also helps in risk sharing since the outsourced vendor is a specialist who can mitigate risks better. Outsourcing also helps a firm to decrease its operating risk by not completely relying on domestic suppliers; and reduces lead times in case of domestic supply shortage. Sometimes government in the foreign country provides incentives for foreign investment. Companies can sometimes access restricted market to sell their goods only if they purchase certain goods or services from the foreign country. Outsourcing helps a firm to increase its ability to operate 24 hours per day. A firm that sources from abroad may be able to exploit local competitive advantages...
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...9thblock-Jayanagar | Sri Annapoorneshwari Caterings | Kumar Swamy layout | Leela Caterers | 2ndphas-J.P Nagar | Svs Caterers & Tent house | Hanumath Nagar | OBSERVATION 1: Name of catering agency | No. of sales personnel | Customer GroupMin-Max | Outsourced Services | Service Charges (Per Plate) | Purnabrahma catering services | 20-80 | 100-1200 | Tent, utensils , ice creams | Rs.250-900/- | Distribution Channel 1: Inferences * The owner itself is order-taker for wedding purpose and office gatherings. * Two managers appointed one for Outsourcing and other for other services. * Average 30-40 people needed to execute one catering order. OBSERVATION 2: Name of catering agency | No. of sales personnel | Customer GroupMin-Max | Outsourced Services | Service Charges (Per Plate) | Govind Caterers | 35-65 | 120-1000 | Decoration, Tents, Water | Rs.200-750/- | Distribution Channel 2: Inferences * The firm has delegated their work into two parts Order Taker and Order Executor * The process to execute one catering order takes almost one week. * Approx 40 people needed in Average wedding order OBSERVATION 3: Name of catering agency | No. of sales personnel | Customer GroupMin-Max | Outsourced Services | Service Charges (Per Plate) | Sri Nandini caterers | 25-75 | 150-1500 | Transportation, Tents | Rs.180-950/- | Distribution Channel 3: Inferences * The Manager takes the...
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