Business Process Outsourcing Firms Research Articles

BPO INDUSTRY IN ACHIEVING SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVENESS AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Despite the threats and challenges confronting many economies, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines has grown 10% per year in the last decade, ensuring the country’s economic stability. Quezon City is the Philippines’ ICT capital and has the most BPO workers in the National Capital Region, comprising 135 BPO establishments and 75 tax-paying BPO firms. The city was awarded the most significant office development in 2019. This study fills a knowledge gap by evaluating the BPO industry’s contribution to the Quezon City’s local government to improve future efforts for the growth of the BPO industry in the city and its socioeconomic status. The case study method of qualitative research was used in the methodology. The essential data was gathered from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the City Government of Quezon City, and in-depth interviews with focal persons from government bodies and the BPO industry. Despite COVID-19, the Quezon City BPO industry remained resilient and flourished from 2019 to 2021. The local partnership program between the private and public sectors aided in the continuous operation of the BPO industry, job retention, and revenue generation. The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has generated significant revenue for the betterment of the local government unit of Quezon City and the country, Philippines.

How does Job satisfaction affect Job security in Indian BPO sector

Much consideration has been given to the blast in business process outsourcing (BPO) assignments in India. In any case, little concern has been paid to the introduction of Indian assistance laborers in these brisk moving and every so often wild conditions. Using an illustration of 160 help laborers from a covertly held BPO firm in India, we dissect the association between Indian assistance laborers' assumption and their introduction results. Backslide and hidden condition model assessments showed a basic positive association between Indian help laborers' levels of assumption and their presentation. These promising results include the centrality of assessing and regulating representative craving to extend worker proficiency and execution. By effectively making and regulating worker trust levels, Indian BPO firms can sufficiently fight representative issues, for instance, wearing out, stress, and burnout that has tortured the BPO business. Assumption may in like manner help ease the effect of parts of Indian culture on human assets the executives rehearses in Indian BPOs.

Do Career Self-Management Behaviors Predict the Employee Commitment? A Study of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Firms in Sri Lanka

In the contemporary organizational environment where there is no guarantee for long term employment, the employees are responsible for managing their own careers by the involvement of a range of career self-management behaviors. In such an environment, whether the employees are committed to their organizations is questionable. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an effect of employee career self-management behaviors on their commitment. An online survey was distributed among a random sample of 200 managerial level employees of 20 BPO firms. With a response rate of 47%, 94 managerial level employees reported the effects of career selfmanagement behaviors such as networking behavior, visibility behavior, and mobility behavior on employee commitment. Based on multiple hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that the networking and visibility behaviors promote employee affective commitment and normative commitment whereas the externally oriented mobility behavior results in lowering the employee affective attachment and normative commitment. These findings provide implications to the theory of proactive behavior and the social cognitive career theory. In terms of managerial implications, the firms should create an organizational culture that is conducive for employees to involve with career selfmanagement behaviors aimed at furthering careers within the organization. The limitations and the implications of the study for future research are also discussed.

Does Economic Upgrading Lead to Social Upgrading in Contact Centers? Evidence from South Africa

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has been identified by the South African government as a key driver of economic growth and employment generation. While BPO operations are inevitably tethered to some physical infrastructures, they can be relatively easily shifted around the world, threatening the jobs of current workers. This observation — combined with the industry’s immense focus on workplace control and high levels of attrition — means that the development potential of the BPO industry on workers in South Africa is a matter of critical concern. This article uses the global production network (GPN) framework to understand the developmental potentials of contact center jobs for workers in South Africa. It asks under what conditions economic upgrading leads to the social upgrading and downgrading of workers in the context of outsourced services activities. One of the central arguments is that economic upgrading among BPO firms can lead to both social upgrading and downgrading among contact center workers. We end with some policy recommendations for the South African government.

The relationship among change implementation, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior in the Business Process Outsourcing industry in South Africa

The unique and dynamic Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in South Africa strives to thrive in a challenging business environment with the attendant need for stability, loyal and satisfied workforce. An empirical investigation was, therefore, conducted utilizing managerial and non-managerial employees in a stratified sampling technique. Questionnaires were administered to 250 employees from four selected organizations. The essence was to examine the nature of the relationship among change implementation, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Four significant results emerged. Firstly, there is a positive but moderate relationship between change implementation and OCB; there is a high or strong positive relationship between change implementation and job satisfaction; there is a positive, but moderate relationship between OCB and job satisfaction; and lastly the results confirm the assumption that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between change implementation and OCB. BPO firms need to understand the effects of change implementation on OCB and job satisfaction. This is because change management is inevitable in the BPO industry; therefore, organizations have to be constantly alert to tackle its demands. Keywords: change management, job satisfaction, intrinsic job satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior. JEL Classification: J240, J280, L240, M120

Examining relationships among corporate ethical values, commitment and turnover intentions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of corporate ethical values (CEV) on the work attitudes linked to the organizational behavior of employees. It primarily focusses on examining the relationship of CEV with organizational commitment (OC) and the turnover intention (TI) of employees. Design/methodology/approach – Study undertakes an explanatory analysis on a sample of 150 employees from large and medium scale Indian Information Technology Business Process Outsourcing firms. Findings – Results of the study revealed significant relationships among the variables. Strong positive association has been found between CEV and commitment, whereas, contrasting result has been found with TI of employees. CEV explained 22 percent and 23 percent of variance in commitment and TI, respectively. Moreover, the relationship of ethical values and TIs has been found to be mediated through OC. Practical implications – Study enables the managers to understand wider impact of ethics in an organization and its positive impact on employees in increasing their commitment levels. Managers should focus on the ethical aspects of conducting business to ensure that the employees are well engaged with their employer and have the least tendency to shift when given an opportunity. Originality/value – This research attempts to bridge the gap in the existing literature by explaining relationship among variables (CEV, OC and TI) in context to the South-Asian nations, and especially India.

Understanding knowledge management capability in business process outsourcing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate trends in the dimensions of low, medium, and high knowledge management (KM) capability of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. It also explores the trends in BPO performance with different levels of KM capabilities of BPO firms. Moreover, the study determines how firm characteristics, such as size, age, industry, and outsourcing age, affect KM capability. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was employed to collect data on managers from 605 firms. K-means cluster analysis was performed on the aggregate measures of the four KM capability dimensions and BPO performance to reveal trends. Subsequently, MANOVA was used to evaluate the effects of four firm characteristics on KM capability, and individual ANOVA tests were performed to examine the specific differences among the four dimensions. Findings – Among the four dimensions of KM capability, knowledge application is the most significant. Knowledge protection is the second highest in terms of expressing the profile for low KM capability firms, but the lowest among the four dimensions of KM capability for medium and high KM capability firms. Each dimension of KM capability affects BPO performance positively. Firm size, age, industry, and outsourcing age differentially affect the dimensions of KM capability. Originality/value – This study presents a theoretical model of firm characteristics, KM capability, and BPO performance. Through the model, ideas are offered: firms with high KM capability significantly differ from those with low and medium KM capabilities; different firms exhibit different KM capabilities; developing knowledge application capability should be the priority in managing BPO; and improving KM capability is an effective means to enhance BPO performance.

Managing BPO service workers in India: Examining hope on performance outcomes

AbstractMuch attention has been given to the explosion in business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in India. Little concern, however, has been paid to the performance of Indian service workers in these fast‐paced and sometimes turbulent environments. Using a sample of 160 service workers from a privately held BPO firm in India, we examine the relationship between Indian service workers' hope and their performance outcomes. Regression and structural equation model analyses indicated a significant positive relationship between Indian service workers' levels of hope and their performance. These promising results highlight the importance of measuring and managing employee hope to maximize employee productivity and performance. By effectively developing and managing levels of employee hope, Indian BPO firms can effectively combat employee problems such as attrition, stress, and burnout that have plagued the BPO industry. Hope may also help mitigate the influence of aspects of Indian culture on human resource management practices in Indian BPOs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Challenges and opportunities of business process outsourcing in India

We identify managerial challenges and opportunities faced by business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in India by interviewing 28 executives in lower (n = 10), middle (n = 11), and upper management (n = 7) in 15 BPO firms. Content analysis of the responses revealed human resources and organizationrelated challenges as the most critical issues. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportu-nities, Threats) analysis uncovered future opportunities, e.g., Knowledge Process Outsourcing. Secondary data, from four global research agencies and a national trade association, supported our findings. Organizational changes to address challenges and to exploit opportunities are explored.

The dynamics of HRM systems in Indian BPO firms

This paper highlights the context within which business process outsourcing (BPO) has rapidly grown in India and the critical need to investigate the dynam-ics of human resource management (HRM) practices and systems in this sector. Using a mixedmethod approach involving both indepth interviews and self-completing questionnaires, we analyze the nature of HRM systems in BPO orga-nizations operating in India. The analysis is based on a sample of 51 BPO com-panies, a majority of which are located near the capital of New Delhi. The results focus on the nature and structure of work and organization of Indian BPOs, as well as the strategic role played by HRM in such organizations. Fur-thermore, the findings highlight the way specific HRM practices such as recruit-ment, performance appraisal, training and development, and compensations are implemented. Our study suggests the existence of formal, structured, and ratio-nalized HRM systems in Indian BPOs. A number of insights related to HRM poli-cies and practices are shared by the HR managers interviewed shedding more light on the inner workings of the Indian BPO companies and their challenges. The analysis provides original and useful information to both academics and practitioners and opens avenues for future research on the nature of HRM sys-tems and practices in the Indian BPO industry.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): Emerging Scenario and Strategic Options for IT-enabled Services

The paradigm shift that the Internet has brought about in communication has opened up a plethora of opportunities for outsourcing business processes (BPO) across continents. Success lessons in manufacturing sub-contracting are found to be relevant for under- standing the logic of BPO. Outsourcing involves transferring certain value contributing activities or processes to another firm to save costs and for the principal to focus on its areas of key competence. The possibilities of disaggregating value elements for the purpose of creating value in them at the sub-contractors‘ premises and final aggregation and synthesis at the parent organization are determined by the nature of industry, limitations of coordination and control, product maturity, and level of inter-firm competition. IT-enabled services (ITES) includes services that can be outsourced using the powers of IT; the extent to which this is possible depends on the industry, location, time, costs, and managerial perception of the risks involved. The Internet has facilitated execution of several activities, previously done within geographical proximity to the firm, from remote low-labour cost locations, drawing both transaction cost and production cost efficiencies. Some of the factors that come in the way of parents setting up their own operations in India and have significant implications for the growth trajectory of Indian BPOs are: direct cost of operations and scale economies long-term assessment of India as a low cost centre cost-benefit assessment of own vs rented possible loss of control over their transactions and confidentiality and security of the data if an outsider handles them brand implications of perceived drop in quality robustness of existing systems and processes. Many BPO firms do not seem to realize the possible exit barriers and strategies to manage exit, if necessary. What happened in the dot com era can very well happen in the BPO space also unless care is taken to manage this rapid growth while retaining productivity and quality. Two key capabilities required for success in ITES space are: capabilities to understand customer needs in the specific domains and acquiring business (BD capabilities) and capabilities to execute them efficiently (Ops capabilities). ITES firms are likely to bifurcate their firm into two parts based on these two critical success factors. The successful segregation of value elements in a number of processes has enabled value configuration in as many ways as required by customers, both in the case of product and service components of customer value. The current trend in outsourcing will go up when such analysis-synthesis becomes a routine. This will be accelerated also because the capabilities required to do so depend not only on technical skills and knowledge in a domain but also strong process capabilities. The trend of outsourcing is likely to continue to grow in the future despite temporary political protests because of the robust arguments outsourcing finds for itself in the economics literature, both in terms of transaction and production cost advantages. Sub- contractors need robust systems and processes along with adequate domain knowledge and assured physical infrastructure for this to happen. In any case, the Indian BPO firms have to consistently prove their capabilities to deliver and create near indispensable situation for the parent to survive without them. This will not only involve growing technical and domain expertise, but also refinement in systems and practices, while keeping costs under control. In essence, BPO firms have to manage their consolidation and growth challenges simultaneously.