Reflective Journal: Analysis of Outsourcing in Business Functions

This reflective journal examines the student's understanding of business outsourcing, its dynamics, and potential advantages and disadvantages. The report focuses on the student's contribution to a business project centered on outsourcing, highlighting the advantages of cost saving, the importance of understanding the downsides, and the ethical considerations involved. The student reflects on the definition of outsourcing, the shift from fixed to variable costs, and the significance of quality control. The journal also emphasizes the role of strategy, communication, and cost analysis in making informed outsourcing decisions. The student gained insights into the complexities of outsourcing, including the need for careful management and the importance of balancing cost savings with the potential risks associated with outsourcing business functions. The report references several academic sources to support the analysis.

Assignments 4
Reflective Journal
Name:
Subject:
Lecturer: Shikha Luchman

Contents
Reflective Report.............................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
My Contribution to Business Project...............................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................6

Reflective Report
A reflective report helps the researcher to highlight own understanding of the topic and state the
learning details as well highlight how the details have changed the prior understanding of the
topic. It is important that the researcher reflect on topics because researching over the topic and
analyzing the findings is not just the job of the reader but also the researcher because it helps in
widening if the ideas. Thus, making a subject area more rich and informative than it was before.
Hence, I present this reflective journal , highlighting my contribution, for the same reason.
Introduction
A reflective report is quite an important document as it sums up the entire research and findings
of the researches as well as it helps in further developing the ideas which may lead to more
richening of the field. The topic selected for the three assignments were outsourcing in business
function and understanding its dynamics along with ways its loopholes could be filled and how
more advantage over the existing advantages can be added. A crucial part of the research study is
also to bring to limelight the ethical compromises that made in the outsourcing process that
organizations practice.
The reflective report that I sought to form was an amalgamation of the week 1-12 and also the
Business Research Project.
My Contribution to Business Project
Due to outsourcing, there major advantage is that of cost saving. Due to the advantage of
outsourcing, the companies do not have to hire the employee or permanently enter a contract
with the supplying entities in the supply chain. Also, as supply requirements are met at a lower
cost and at a faster rate, the organization will have the greater probability of the showing growth
(McIvor, 2016).
The area of the research that I had taken was to understand the downside of the outsourcing.
While a business strategy can be attractive and lucrative because of its advantages, it could

become the reason for loss. Hence, it was important that we had highlighted the losses that one
may face when deciding outsource (Lacity and Willcocks, 2017).
Amidst this, it was also important that that the definition of outsourcing was understood well.
Often we try to research everything about a topic but the basics are unclear. In simple terms it
can be defined as the contracting of the business activities to a third party. These are primarily
done with the non-primary activities. If a company is relying on the third part for its primary
activities then it is definitely taking a big risk which, in case of breakdown, may lead to major
loss (Liu and Deng, 2015).
The learning of the downside of the outsourcing could not have come to me by not learning the
upside of it and finding a relation between the both. This is because the business functions as one
whole and both the facts are going to be in action when the organization is trying to make its
place in the competitive market (Smith and Smith, 2017).
Outsourcing may look like an easy way out but it also involves risk. Due to this business project
I got the chance to contribute to the whole idea of outsourcing in business and the learning has
indeed widened by thought and ideas about outsourcing and business (Hiles and Hon, 2016).
A long time back, a successful business was supposed to be matter of luck resources but now
time has changed and business are becoming global not just with luck and resources but by
employing the right strategy at the right time. Outsourcing also is a strategy that business
corporation employ because of certain motivating which are highlighted in the assignment 2 as
Cost, Strategy and Political View. Among these, cost is quite important as it is for the sake of
cost that business report to outsourcing. If, for every requirement the management engages in
hiring and recruiting then there is going to be two kinds of increased cost. One is salary every
month and secondly it is the cost of recruitment and training (Gerbl, McIvor and Humphreys,
2015).
If we take up the example of a company that specializes in making websites for other business
then it is certainly going to be in need of a content writer. The projects need content just once
and modification in the content also comes rarely (until it is an informative website rather than
product selling one). In such situations if the organization is having a permanents content writer
may have the content writer sitting idle most of the year. This is not going to stop the salary and

other benefits that other employees are entitled too. But when the company hires a person from
outside then the work can be done on freelance basis and it is going to be quite cost saving
(Chou, Techatassanasoontorn and Hung, 2015).
Yet, the writer cannot be trusted with plagiarism and for this there are tools that need to be
bought and the work has to be constantly crossed checked. When the organization is letting a
price of work being outsourced, it is also letting out the very pattern of functioning of the
organization the temporarily hired employee (del–Río–Ortega et al, 2015).
The organizations need to be in aware of what is being let out to the third party and information
that can be damaging should be filtered before it is presented to them. Here, the management
must employ effective strategy and the art of communication is going to get the job done as well
keep the secret intact. This is something that is not explicitly highlighted in the Business Project
but is something that I have come to realize as a part of personal learning during the whole
business process. It is basically the conversion of the fixed cost into variable cost which has
been explained in the research project is completed by our team (Gerbl, McIvor and Humphreys,
2016).
In order to have a full understanding of the situation, it is important that the decrease in the cost
is not just noticed but also the increase cost is mentioned. As it is mentioned in the research,
project that the cost of monitoring is increased. If the cost saved is as equal as the cost that is
going to be incurred in monitoring then the organization must consider the whole idea of
outsourcing because the cost will not be saved.
The whole idea of outsourcing is a fine balance of management and cist calculation. If these two
are done right then the business is going to profit from it.
Another part that came as revelation to me while going through the literatures was the matter of
quality. Quality is very important and it is the trademark of the products that the organizations
produce.
To conclude, I may say that the business project has given me the opportunity to develop a
deeper understanding if the outsourcing in business function which has also helped in utilization
of all the skills that I acquired during the course.

References
Gerbl, M., McIvor, R. and Humphreys, P., 2016. Making the business process outsourcing
decision: why distance matters. International Journal of Operations & Production Management,
36(9), pp.1037-1064.
Gerbl, M., McIvor, R., Loane, S. and Humphreys, P., 2015. A multi-theory approach to
understanding the business process outsourcing decision. Journal of World Business, 50(3),
pp.505-518.
Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L., 2017. Conflict resolution in business services outsourcing
relationships. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(2), pp.80-100.
McIvor, R., 2016. An analysis of the application of process improvement techniques in business
process outsourcing. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 33(3), pp.321-
343.
Chou, S.W., Techatassanasoontorn, A.A. and Hung, I.H., 2015. Understanding commitment in
business process outsourcing relationships. Information & Management, 52(1), pp.30-43.
Smith, A.P. and Smith, H.N., 2017. An international survey of the wellbeing of employees in the
business process outsourcing industry. Psychology, 8(01), pp.160-167.
Liu, S. and Deng, Z., 2015. Understanding knowledge management capability in business
process outsourcing: a cluster analysis. Management Decision, 53(1), pp.124-138.
Hiles, A. and Hon, F.B.C.I., 2016. E-business service level agreements: Strategies for service
providers, e-commerce and outsourcing. Rothstein Publishing.
del–Río–Ortega, A., Gutiérrez, A.M., Durán, A., Resinas, M. and Ruiz–Cortés, A., 2015, June.
Modelling service level agreements for business process outsourcing services. In International
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (pp. 485-500). Springer, Cham.