Outsourcing the human resource management function: concepts, challenges and a proposal for systematization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51302/rtss.2012.3299Keywords:
outsourcing, human resource management, outsourcing human resources and challengesAbstract
In the current changing economic environment, organisations are searching for ever more flexibility in their quest towards competitiveness. One of the avenues towards flexibility is the outsourcing of some business processes, whether it is to achieve cost cutting or acquire expertise from external organisations. The human resource function or some of its components have also been subjected to outsourcing for some time (especially selection processes and training activities). However, the decision of what to outsource, how, when, and to whom in human resource is not exempt from risks. This article reviews the main concepts, logic and challenges to outsourcing the human resource function and it generates an agenda for research in order to orient researchers’ efforts to reach more conclusive evidence about the practice of human resource outsourcing. It concludes with a proposal for academics and practitioners alike in order to think of outsourcing as a process, and it systematises the steps of this process, from the initial identification of the need to outsource to the long term consequences of the decision of outsourcing the human resource management function.
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