Knowledge Work on the Move Business Process Outsourcing

As a result of the location independence of knowledge work, many organizations seek to lower their labor costs by moving their digital operations overseas. When managers evaluate such opportunities, they must consider the following regional attributes:

• Political and regulatory environment
• Infrastructure (electrical, telecommunications)
• Professionally skilled labor force
• Information systems skilled labor force

All prospective locations must have a supportive political and regulatory environment; however, variations within the other three attributes will pose special limitations. For example, India has millions of well- educated workers but notoriously unreliable telecommunications and electrical grids. Organizations that set up outsourcing operations in India build their own islands of stability with backup power and satellite telecommunications systems. A region with a shortage of professionally skilled labor may offer labor-intensive activities such as call centers or data entry instead, yet even these jobs require basic computer literacy. The value of services provided depends primarily on the expertise or creativity involved in its performance. List suitable job titles for each work characteristic below. Rank each item in order of the value provided.

a. Digitize: Convert data or information into a digital form.
b. Distribute: Process information in one direction or another based on strict rules and nondigital inputs (if the inputs were digital, a computer could probably do the job).
c. Analyze: Process information based on human expertise.
d. Create: Create new information or products based on human expertise.