Outsourcing & Offshoring Ethics try to govern on the rightfulness of the dos and the don'ts in any activity. In business, some activities are practically inseparable regarding their rightfulness, acceptance, and goodness and badness to the receiving ends. An ethical dilemma arises in the case that businesses fail to be in one tune of a song, trying to venture into different pathways, both or all of which have the two perceptions containing the dos and the don'ts. The acceptance of one set of business activities, or any activity or act might be a wrong on the other side of the congregation, hence necessitating for the presence of a unifying factor that will guarantee a way of balancing the equation given the many variables attached to the act (Brown & Wilson, 2005).

This piece of research attempts to explore the ethical dilemma of offshoring and outsourcing, a business practice that has two sides from the consumers and the proprietors, and serves to benefit a section of them and not the entire group. This ethical dilemma is attached to the initiations and regulations seen to guide on how to carry out several duties and activities attached to businesses in the U.S. and the world as a whole. With a review of several scholarly articles, much has been explored regarding the ethical dilemma in place, together with the many activities being done to cater for the issues that arise from the dilemma. For instance, the study ventures into exploring the nature of leadership implications and the global context as regards the ethical dilemma. Several perspectives have been brought to light, highlighting the significance of the dilemma as seen by different eyes and understood from around all the dimensions in play. For instance, the variables that determine the nature of the dilemma are different and serve to integrate different reactions from the consumers of the same. As such, theories and business ideas have been explored as a way of managing the global reactions and contexts of the ethical dilemma (Daly & Silver, 2007). The western theoretical framework together with the non-western theoretical framework has been used to depict the essence of the dilemma, making for its understanding and application. Moreover, adequate and appropriate recommendations and conclusions have been drawn on tackling the ethical and leadership issues on offshoring and outsourcing in the current business world.

Introduction

No business owners or any business in the world would seek to fail in its bid to grow and expand. Every business has its initiatives to grow from one level of productivity and success to the next higher than the previous. This calls for many of such businesses to engage every mechanism that will ensure that they remain valid and sustainable in the presence of other businesses, as they aim to grow. Growth is imperative and paramount to any business or strategy. Some circumstances predispose organizations into making wrong choices and strategies. In some cases, the right decisions and strategies are realized resulting in increased productivity within the business. Over one million businesses in the U.S. are nurtured and owned internally (Doh et al. 2010). This is beside the many businesses in the form of firms that have expanded from the foreign regions and established in the country. In the impending desire and need to keep with the rising competition, each of these businesses would encourage practicable and open strategies that will ensure growth within the country and outside the country (Ebrahimi, 2009).

Currently in the U.S. alone, much is yet to be decided on the levels of outsourcing and offshoring that has done businesses to seek alternative ways of becoming better. The competition in the country escalated by the presence of the external businesses has necessitated that many businesses try to figure out what is essentially protective to their presence and sustainability. One would question the acts of outsourcing together with offshoring (Ambika et al. 2012). The reasons for such perceptions are not limited to the ethical considerations imperative in making sure that the present businesses in the country are by the existing legal frameworks. One question that will always be a bother to many business individuals is the essence, practicality, and rightfulness of offshoring and outsourcing in the U.S. As businesses seek better avenues to increase their growth, some of the practical ways can be subjected to so much prejudice, misunderstanding, and general mistrust amidst their use in the society (Doh et al. 2010).

Outsourcing is a business act that refers to the act where an organization contracts work onto a third party. On the other hand, offshoring is a business act that refers to having to complete some work in another country as a way of leveraging for cost advantage. These two acts are quite confusing as perceived and understood by different businesses. Some would say that it is possible to offshore work and not outsource it while others will hold to the belief that it is possible to outsource work rather than to offshore it (Lacity, 2009).
Often, offshoring involves the implications done on three grounds, which are the different stakeholders being involved, expectations, and with no one approach being considered right. The offshoring process entails three major parts, which are jobs, the working environment, and the worker conditions. The first issue relates to the job export. People will have thought that they are experiencing a loss of jobs: managers have to address job loss in the U.S. as an unethical move favoring other nations. People will not have any significance for the underlying reasons for engaging the prospects of offshoring (Wendy & Lisa, 2009). The media will have its say, catering information from different perceptions and understandings. For instance, the media will propagate the perception that the said company is cutting a certain number of jobs to export them to another country (Dou & Sarkis, 2010). Such a statement can be understood in two fronts, as a positive move aimed at increasing growth and productivity, and as a negative move that intends to lay off workers in the country.

From an economist point-of-view, there will be short-term job loss, which will result in cheaper goods. With the presence of the cheaper goods, there will be more money saved, also resulting in more money being spent elsewhere. With more money spent, there will be a certainty of having new jobs in place. This means that the media and the economists in the country will have diverted perceptions, understandings, and decisions made by one act of a company offshoring. The truth of the matter is that the semi-skilled workers are the once who are mostly affected. Approximately a third of them will miss the jobs that were always destined to them. A third of them will have less money, and a similar amount of them will see life as a challenge and always the same (Dou & Sarkis, 2010). One will ask a question like "is this act of offshoring right at all?" such questions will come from the fact that it is sad for people to lose jobs out of the offshoring reason. It might not be seen as ethically right to have people lacking fundamental needs because a company they have been working for has decided to offshore most of its activities to the nearby country. Moreover, it might be seen, as with the economist, that the act of offshoring is to benefit the business, and there is nothing unethical about it. Because of this, the company will experience a win-lose situation. It is clear from this perception that offshoring is not equal to biggest creators of jobs. With an increased efficiency, there will be more hiring than layoffs (Lacity, 2009). The nature of low unemployment rate will always be questioned. In such a case, the small and medium businesses will save the day. With such a perception, one is likely to make a conclusion that offshoring seems not to be a bad thing as seen by the media and the individual people, most of whom are the consumers.

On the conditions of work, offshoring is equal and resultant bad working conditions; this is unethical. It is unethical to have workers working in conditions dangerous to their health. The media will have their say, and are likely to insinuate that workers are sometimes forced to stand for over 20m hours as they work. Workers are exposed to toxins, explosives, and other dangerous environments. In the real sense, the media will not be happy about everything here and hence; the likely conclusions is tat offshoring hurts people and hence should not be practiced. The truth of the matter here is that the top companies have a minimum wage and are not sufficient. In some cases, people are forced to work overtime (Ebrahimi, 2009). The excessive labor utilization results from one action in almost every three seconds. There is no case of labor…