signature=990473adf2133afdcd36a215628bd9db,The Widespread Consequences of Outsourcing

摘要：

Since the 1980s, Australia's industrial base has undergone major changes in organisation and management practices. Traditional hierarchical, functional structures were flattened, downsized and de-skilled as privatisation, rationalisation, deregulation and the need to reduce tariffs drove change in search of greater productivity and competitiveness. In technology-reliant enterprises, these changes were accompanied by a move from long-term management of Engineering and Technological functions to the short-term management of Engineering disciplines, primarily regarded as cost centres. However, while downsizing and de-skilling may show short-term cost savings, the practice is self-defeating in the longer term because sustained productivity growth requires the very opposite – that is, an expanding resource base of skills and competencies that keeps pace with developments in technology and increasing demand. As part of these organisational and management changes, the outsourcing of perceived 'non-core' tasks soon became common practice. Today, outsourcing is pursued as a panacea for shrinking budgets and a path, albeit foolhardy and flawed, to increased productivity. In practice, outsourcing tasks, particularly in technology-dependent enterprises, directly increases management overheads which, if not provided for, results in the outsourced task being under-managed, leaving the enterprise open to high risk and cost. Over time, outsourcing only deepens the de-skilling embedded by downsizing. As technology advances, the 'outsourcee' contractor benefits from the technology and management experience gained and usually retains any intellectual property, while the 'outsourcer' enterprise just keeps falling further behind, becoming progressively less competent to manage its outsourced tasks. Redressing the now widespread problems must be undertaken seriously if Australia is to regain its reputation as a 'smart' nation with the skills and competencies base required to manage effectively both current and future challenges in a technology-intense, globalised environment. Primary responsibility must rest with government to re-skill the public sector and redress the centralisation of power in ministerial offices, as well as set the policy framework to restructure and resource our education and training systems properly at all levels. Here, quality and substance must be the key drivers rather than simply lowering the bar to achieve increasing numbers of graduates at least cost. In particular, government needs to recognise that the customers of our training and education systems are primarily industry, commerce, business and government enterprises - those who provide and manage our wealth. All rely upon our education and training systems to deliver the products required – the skills and competencies needed to remain efficient, effective and competitive globally, while advancing the scope and depth of the nation's intellectual capital. The customers are not the students, and the education system is not simply a lowest-cost, service provider, as is the case now. This path has led only to a progressive lowering of standards, the devaluation of our training and education systems, and the erosion of our national reputation, leading to gross inadequacies in our national skills and competencies base. Within government, the complexities seen within a public service overly focussed upon process rather than outcomes, and resistant to change, are not a bar to real and timely reform, given the management approaches proposed herein, together with the use of proper governance feed-back loops. Enterprises, for their part, and particularly those that are technology-reliant, need to more skilfully identify their 'non-contractable' functions, and develop and maintain the technical skills and competencies base needed for their professional management. They must also ensure that these functions are given the management weight they deserve and take their proper role and place in the management structure.

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