Hr Outsourcing: Bt Case Study

HR outsourcing: BT case study

, INTRODUCTION

According to Gunsauley (2002) more and more US and European companies resort to the practice of HR outsourcing. The present paper will discuss the outcomes of HR outsourcing policy in BT and the way it affected and might be affecting various areas if organizational performance.

The analysis will start with the definition of outsourcing and types of HR outsourcing. Then the factors that induce companies to turn to this practice and the negative consequences of it will be highlighted. Since the notion is relatively new, the review of the advantages and disadvantages of HR outsourcing will provide conceptual boundaries of the BT case study review.

The paper will discuss the factors that triggered BT’s decision to outsource HR function and the way this decision was realized. Besides, the case study will review the outcomes of HR outsourcing. Then the analysis of HR outsourcing on various sides of organization will be made.

Of particular concern, the paper will consider the importance of HR function for the strategic content and process of the organization. Moreover, since the outsourcing introduced various “soft” and “hard” changes, the paper will review the content of the organizational culture and will explore the issues of organizational change in the context of BT strategic objectives and intended market performance.

Since the topic is quite new and there is not much sufficient data about the outcomes of HR outsourcing on global communication industry players the paper will make certain presupposition which will be evaluated on the basis of existing HR theories and practice.

OUTSOURCING

What is outsourcing

Chaffey (2003) define outsourcing as “the contracting out of specified services to a third party with a controlled, flexible relationship”. He points out that the decision of outsourcing usually takes place when a firm does not want to use its internal resources to build or operate in-house function it can hire an external organisation that specializes in providing these services to do the work.

Types of outsourcing

HR outsourcing services generally fall into four categories: PEOs, BPOs, ASPs, or e-services (Lee, 2002).

PEOs

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) assumes full responsibility of a company's human resources management. It takes full legal responsibility