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Outsourcing, Organisational Performance and Employee Commitment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Benson
John Benson*
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Melbourne
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Abstract

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A growing trend in work organisation in Australia is for firms to outsource many activities that had been previously performed in-house. Outsourcing these activities, it is argued, will free up human and capital resources as well as allow for increased flexibility in the way labour is employed. Although the extent of outsourcing and other approaches to flexibility have been well documented in Australia, little attempt has been made to evaluate such practices. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing research and to evaluate the effect of outsourcing on firm performance and employee commitment. The research findings, which are based on four manufacturing companies, shows that employee commitment among contractor employees is generally high, although the economic benefits to the firm may take several years to realise.

Type
Symposium on Outsourcing
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , June 1999 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1999

Footnotes

*

This research was made possible through the cooperation of the management and employees who participated in the study. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Australian Research Council and thank an anonymous referee for insightful comments and criticisms.

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