Outsourcing Jobs to Foreign Countries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Outsourcing Jobs to Foreign Countries - Essay Example Noted scholar and business visionary, James Brian Quinn of Dartmouth College, has described outsourcing "one of the greatest organizational and industry structure moves of the century." (Quinn, 1994) Several largest and most successful organizations OF United States are also the world's top providers of outsourcing services. Organizations like ARAMARK, Delphi, EDS, General Electric, IBM, IKON, Unisys, UPS, Xerox, and many others have millions of human resources in their outsourcing businesses. As management expert Peter Drucker articulates, "If you ask me what is the fastest growing industry in United States- it's outsourcing." (Bahli, 2003, p-214) Far from being bad for businesses or their workers, outsourcing is one of the most important and powerful forces available for building successful organizations, creating economic growth, and generating and enhancing jobs. Outsourcing first came to prominence in the early 1990s at a time when the U. S. economy faced a severe recession and the very competitiveness of its businesses was in question. Organizations used outsourcing then to help streamline their operations and to regain their competitive strength. The result was an unprecedented period of economic growth during the latter half of the 1990s. As one enters the mid-2000s, today's challenges may be even more pressing than those of a decade ago. It's hard to think our jobs are moving to other countries and there is nothing we can do. While outsourcing is a big profit for business owners, American workers and their families are the ones who suffer. The most common definition of outsourcing includes turning over a firm or business operations, network operations, software development and maintenance or other IT functions to a provider for a specified time, or generally a few years; sometimes profit can become a major factor and outsourcing becomes permanent. Outsourcing can be between two or more companies in the United States or it can be between the United States and other countries. Another term we use is off shoring, in the U.S. we use this term to specifically refer to outsourcing to other country (Ramanugan and Sandhya, 2003). These terms are used interchangeably and continue to be throughout this research study. Companies in America offshore outsourcing to many countries such as: China India Korea Mexico Philippines Malaysia Russia According to Ramanujan and Sandhya (2006, p.2) "China and India are the two major recipients of outsource work and these countries turn out millions of high-end, college-educated workers, who are well motivated and who make much lower salaries for doing those jobs than their counterparts in the west". So can you "imagine" these people have all the right tools to take our jobs and keep them; not saying we don't need our jobs but Americans just cannot accept any salary, the cost of living is too high. They also states "if you are a secretary or file clerk, if you work in the mail room, or as a middle manager, bank teller, librarian, if you are in any sectors of the retail or whole sale, chances are your jobs will not be here five years from now". What is driving the IT and other jobs offshore Well the labor cost is the primary

Spirit Myth and Sacredness in Architecture Essay

Spirit Myth and Sacredness in Architecture - Essay Example Shortly after the Buddha's death, history records a scramble for his remains amongst monks from across the Indian subcontinent. His remains were finally divided into eight portions, each being placed in one of the twelve original Stupas that were built. Few of the original stupas still survive, but stupas continued to be built long after the Buddha's death with progressive modification of subsequent design as its meaning became more and more symbolic. However, the building of Stupas began long before the Buddha himself, as relic holding monuments of rulers. The symbolism was acquired at a much later date. To quote authors Thurman and Leidy (1997) : "Stupas began in pre-Buddhist India as hemispherical burial grounds that marked the remains of temporal rulers. At an early stage in the development of Buddhist art, they became symbols of the Buddha's continuing immanance as well as representations of his mind........the fourteen rings around the spire (that are seen in all "modern" stupas) are all that remainn of the royal umbrellas often found in earlier stupas. They symbolise the fourteen stages traversed in the attainment of buddhahood; the four tantric stages added to the ten bodhisattva stages." In its basic essence, a stupa represented the sitting posture of saints and the Buddha as shown in Figure 1, as it was customary for saints to be buried in a sitting posture. However, the Buddha wished to be cremated and his ashes to be distributed to eight kingdoms after his death to be housed in Stupas. Therefore the stupas were built according to a basic plan of the Buddha seated for meditation, to encourage generations afterwards to seek salvation through spiritual practice. Figure 1. The sitting Buddha However, after his remains were distributed to the eight kingdoms, the differences in Stupa architecture represented the eight different stages of his life as shown below in Figures 2. This was the original basis of symbolism based on the Buddha's life, but with time, the interpretations and further embellishments changed the architectural pattern of the Stupas. Figure 2. The eight original Stupa plans Deconstructing the Symbolism of the later Stupa All stupas are built basically according to the principles that govern the process of Enlightenment that takes place during the acquisition of the Buddha-mind. Figure 3 shows the basic philosophical interpretations of the elements that made up a Stupa in its Figure 3. Basic Stupa elements. entirety - (a) the ornamental pole of parasol or canopy, representing wind , (b) the cone or harmika , representing fire, (c) the hemispherical round dome representing water, (d) the square base, reprenting the earth, and (e) the parasol itself, representing space. At a higher order of understanding, these basic elements can be interpreted as Higher States of the Buddha mind as explained by the Buddhist master Dilgo Rinpoche :" These are the essential attributes of a fully realised human being: the base of the stupa signifies earth and equanimity; the dome, water and indestructibility; the spire, fire and compassion; above the spire, wind and all-accomplishing action; and at the very top, the jewel represents space and all-pervading awareness. The stupa is a mandala, or sacred arrangement, containing all of these enlightened qualities." However, the