Human Resource Management in an Organization Essay

Human Resource Management in an Organization - Essay Example As such, the organization most of the time decides to outsource these services from other organizations which can offer the service(s) required more efficiently. Other organizations outsource so seriously that they end up co-opting the organization as part of itself thereby creating what is generally termed as the virtual network structure. This paper seeks to highlight the concept of co-opting, outsourcing and virtual network structure. It also explains why virtual network structure is a good structural alternative for some firms and by using one organization as an example, the benefits and limitations of the virtual network structure are evaluated. Outsourcing refers to the transfer of some organizational functions to an external service provider. This kind of arrangement is contractual and it happens between the organization and the supplier of the services that the organization requires. Mostly, the supplier of services through the contract is able to use the means of production it already owns. These means of production may be in form of assets, equipment and personnel among others. For the entire period of the contract, the organization is able to procure the required services from the contracted service provider. It is important to note that outsourcing can be done for a number of services. These services include but are not limited to human resource, estate management, accounting, information technology and auditing among others. Other outsourced services also include customer care or service telemarketing, designing and/or manufacturing and market research among others. The decision to outsource is preceded by a number of cost considerations among other considerations. Usually, the organization has to decide whether to outsource a given service or organizational function or conduct it in-house. It is important to note that the decision to outsource is a strategic level decision and as such requires the approval of the board of directors. The process of outsourcing usually begins after the decision is made after which the organization analyzes the in-house as compared to the buying of the services in terms of cost, efficiency, effectiveness, performance, quality etc in a bid to justify the decision of outsourcing (Chopra & Meindl, 2007: pp123-127). The complexity of the outsourcing process calls for the use of outsourcing consultants or intermediaries who not only help with the scoping but also with the legal terms and conditions, pricing and evaluating the vendors offering the required service(s). Outsourcing has been around for some time now and is as old as specialization itself but in the recent years most companies have embraced outsourcing so as to handle most narrow functions e.g. data entry billing and payroll among other organizational functions. Outsourcing of these functions is done because the contracted organizations can perform the functions more efficiently than when the functions could have been done in-house. Outsourcing of these functions is more often than not more cost effective than the opposite of it because the contracted companies have all the facilities, assets, specially trained human resource and special tools for the functions they have been contracted to carry out. Most of the times outsourcing is sought, it ends up being a success albeit this is not always the case. The success is