Outsourcing process from management and employee perspectives

Abstract

Growing interest in third party warehouse and logistics service providers has been observed globally. This paper focuses on outsourcing logistics process, especially outsourcing particular logistics activities to the third-party providers. The study explores leading decision making factors and drivers in outsourcing process from management and employee perspective, as well as the impact of the whole process on the employment relationship. The research approaches two main research questions. The first research question examines particular decision-making factors that have been used in order to archive strategic outsourcing. The second research question looks at employees’ perception during the transferring process. Current work presents opinions of both groups regarding the process, at the same time attempting to find the reasons for differences in perception of the process by two sides. In order to explain logistics outsourcing and identify company’s potential key resources the resource-based view (RBV) together with dynamic capabilities have been used. A connection between RBV and human resources together with employees’ attitude towards organizational change have been explained. To complete the research, a qualitative in-depth case study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were used for the investigation. Certain key elements of the strategic outsourcing process have been observed, such as critical evaluation of decision-making factors of the change, resources and capabilities assessment, communication strategy, leadership and management as well as perceptions and results of the process from employee point of view.