After reading the article in preparation for the class on People, Culture and Teams, I was astonished at the fact that Zappos not only offered a one year long return policy, but chose to handle the high volume of phone calls created by this flexible return policy internally instead of outsourcing the jobs to another country like most North American companies do to cut operating costs.
The outsourcing of jobs, especially call centres, has become a common practice for American and Canadian companies. The country most often associated with call centres is India, but the Philippines has emerged as a strong competitor in the call centre market in recent years claiming to offer higher quality service than Indian call centres are capable of. Kenya is also hoping to tap into the growing call centre market and fight for a piece of the market share. Of course, this globalization can potentially create problems regarding the organizational culture of a company; as call centre representatives are directly contacting customers, if they do not reflect the culture of the company, it will create confusion for customers. While growing popularity of outsourced jobs is generating great opportunities for globalization and cost-cutting, it is also simultaneously forming possible issues concerning the overall unity of a company.
This comedy series about a call centre operating in India, although fictional, accurately depicts some of the real problems of outsourcing jobs in a company.
