Monday, January 28, 2008
A Biblical perspective on IT Outsourcing...
Some belief that there should be a strong separation between business and religion while others acknowledge that God should be part of every day life and should guide one's judgment...
Regardless if you are a practitioner of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, it can be acknowledged that God is absent from the modern workplace. Many folks don't consider what they ought and some view business and religion as separate. So my answer here won't give you an answer of what folks actually do when they consider this question, but my layman's sense of what they'd need to consider Biblically in determining what to do.
The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind (Luke 10:25): who is my neighbor here, that I should be concerned with helping him? In a global sense, the worker in a country whose labor rates are such that they entice us to outsource can be considered my neighbor. His rates are lower because his opportunities are fewer and outsourcing to provide him an opportunity is a good thing. However, if the effect were to cost my neighbor down the street his livelihood, though, outsourcing would be a bad thing. Deuteronomy 24:6 tells us not to take someone's millstone/means of working as security if it impacts their livelihood So, you'd have to look at whether you were truly taking away someone's livelihood: if so, you don't outsource without replacing the livelihood you'd otherwise take away...
| | View blog reactionsRegardless if you are a practitioner of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, it can be acknowledged that God is absent from the modern workplace. Many folks don't consider what they ought and some view business and religion as separate. So my answer here won't give you an answer of what folks actually do when they consider this question, but my layman's sense of what they'd need to consider Biblically in determining what to do.
The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind (Luke 10:25): who is my neighbor here, that I should be concerned with helping him? In a global sense, the worker in a country whose labor rates are such that they entice us to outsource can be considered my neighbor. His rates are lower because his opportunities are fewer and outsourcing to provide him an opportunity is a good thing. However, if the effect were to cost my neighbor down the street his livelihood, though, outsourcing would be a bad thing. Deuteronomy 24:6 tells us not to take someone's millstone/means of working as security if it impacts their livelihood So, you'd have to look at whether you were truly taking away someone's livelihood: if so, you don't outsource without replacing the livelihood you'd otherwise take away...
