this topic is about issues of the offshoring

1. Chapter VII.
Offshoring as an
Ethical Issue
IT-304 SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

2. Exporting low-wage, low-skill
jobs from one country to
another to exploit lower paid
workers has historically raised
objections,
but recently, highly skilled,
highly paid IT jobs have been
exported from the US.

3. Arbitrage - is the practice of
buying a low-priced
commodity and selling it at a
higher price in the
expectation that the market
will correct one or both
prices.

4. In certain circumstances, this
practice is ethical, such as
if the currency exchange rate
makes work done in the U.S.
cheaper than work done in
France.
U.S
FRANCE

5. In liquid markets, New York
London gold arbitrage is a
recognized function performed by
some firms to reduce or eliminate
price disparities.
It is a benign communication
function that helps to even out
prices consistently throughout
markets.

6. Offshoring has some of the
features of arbitrage, but it does
not have all the relevant features
that make arbitrage a benign,
healthy function of a market
economy.
The most important difference is
that the "commodity" subject to
arbitrage in offshoring is labor.

7. Offshoring is a new ethical problem
brought about by the availability-at-
any-location feature of information
technology, which allows us to take
advantage of social contexts with
prevailing lower wages when the
relevant features of the job can be
performed great distances away.

8. Professional Ethical
Considerations
IT-304 SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

9. Professional
Ethical
Considerations
• Is an accumulation
of values and
principles that
address questions
of what is good or
bad in human
affairs.

10. Offshoring - is a form of outsourcing that
requires due diligence on the part of IT
professionals and managers to ensure
that it will provide net benefits for the
organization and its stakeholders.

11. The primary benefit for
offshoring is to save
personnel costs with at least
equal quality of work.

12. However, it is not appropriate to
outsource strategic applications, the
long-term reliability and quality of the
outsourcer is still an important
consideration, and oversight and
project management need to remain
with the outsourcing company.

13. Additionally, English language skills or
strong knowledge of American accounting
practices are needed.
Offshoring projects can fail to deliver
anticipated savings and maintaining U.S.
levels of security on development projects
can be difficult.
IT professional ethics requires one to be
aware of the risks and to manage them
appropriately.

14. REPORTING
Justice Between Societies
The Justice of Offshoring
A Global Economy?
Monton Group
Ian Group
Giralyn Group

15. Offshoring as a
Competitive Necessity
IT-304 SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

16. Managers who are uneasy about the
practice of offshoring may still feel that
competition makes it necessary for them
to offshore, as they may be at a
competitive disadvantage if they don’t.
This justification is often used to justify
offshoring, as one company may not be
able to afford to behave ethically or even
seriously consider behaving ethically
when such behavior would produce a
serious competitive disadvantage.

17. Corporations are legal constructs rather
than individuals, with the directive to
maximize shareholder value.
Michal Lerner (2000) notes that even
corporate executives with the highest
level of spiritual sensitivity have no choice
but to accept corporate profits as the
absolute bottom line.
The corporation cannot become a more
ethical person, because it is not an ethical
person at all.

18. so what is an individual to do, who has, on the one hand, ethical beliefs based on
his role as a citizen in a just society and, on the other hand, conflicting directives
based on his role as a manager or IT professional in a corporation?

19. In Chapter III, The Context for IT
Ethical Issues, we discussed ethical
obligations in an environment when
others are not complying.
Section (Partial Compliance)
The relevant ethical consideration is
that whatever an individual ultimately
does, the higher-level principle has to
be acknowledged in what that action is.

20. Even if the corporation is not an ethical
individual, an individual as a manager is, and
embodies both points of view:
Citizen concerned with justice
and responsible corporate
manager.
Even if reasons of interest make it difficult or
impossible for a manager to do what they
believe is ethical, it is still necessary to
acknowledge their own (higher order) ethical
principles in what they do.

21. What are the relevant ethical considerations involved in exporting jobs to exploit
lower wages?
ASSIGNMENT