::: IFMA HK Chapter :::

August, 2004

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NEWS & VIEWS

Offshore outsourcing debate continues

How many U.S. jobs are being outsourced offshore? Views differ from one study to another, just as the benefits and pitfalls are also debated. Ask a displaced IT worker and he/she will probably have a dim view, but a new study commissioned by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) says offshoring actually creates benefits for the economy at home. The study conducted by Global Insight found that global sourcing of computer software and services, while displacing some IT workers, will actually help create jobs--about 317,000 by 2008. Other benefits might include higher wages, contained inflation, expanded exports and growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

August luncheon CFO magazine's survey of 275 finance executives showed only 18 percent currently use offshore outsourcing, but 64 percent of those who currently do also plan to use more overseas workers in the next two years. CFO also reported in its June issue that as many as 14 million U.S. jobs, ranging from investment research to tax preparation, are at risk of being outsourced offshore. This projection from economist Cynthia Kroll of the University of California at Berkeley, is substantially higher than Forrester Research Inc.'s projection two years ago that 3.3 million service jobs would be sent overseas by 2015.

Public opinion leans toward the view that preventing companies from outsourcing abroad might hamper their ability to compete against foreign companies, according to a Harris online interactive poll conducted in March and highlighted in the June 21 USA Today Snapshots feature. Of 3,698 respondents, 43 percent said yes, it would be a hindrance; 32 percent said no; and 17 percent weren't sure.

Bad drive into the office this morning...?

Even the most docile employees sometimes bring the stresses of the roadway into the office with them. Dwight Hennessy, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, surveyed drivers and found that the more stressful their commute, the more likely they were to verbally abuse people at work and to sabotage productivity with backbiting, cutting remarks and passive-aggressive behavior. Other stresses may actually be good for you, according to an article in the July 19 issue of Time magazine. The article cited findings reported by the American Psychological Association, which show that short-term stresses, like giving a speech in public, are actually beneficial for health. In a meta-analysis, 300 studies involving 19,000 subjects were reviewed for threads of commonality by University of British Columbia psychologist Gregory Miller and Suzanne Sergerstrom of the University of Kentucky. They discovered that, depending on the length of stress and whether the end can be anticipated, some stress-inducing incidents trigger beneficial changes in the immune system. Source : IFMA Insider, July 23rd

THOUGHT FOR THE BOTTOM CORNER SPOT

If quitters never win, and winners never quit, then who is the fool who said, "Quit while you're ahead?"

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