An introduction to the tertiary sector

Which of the following services are classified into public services or private services? Which
of the following can be classified into both?

Administration Police Justice Education Transport Health

q Public q Public q Public q Public q Public q Public
q Private q Private q Private q Private q Private q Private
q Both q Both q Both q Both q Both q Both

Read the following text about “outsourcing”, then answer the questions:

Outsourcing is the process of hiring another individual or company, either domestically or

internationally, to handle business activities for you. It has become a common business practice that
allows small and medium-sized businesses to gain services and skills they would usually find hard
to develop, because of either financial or manpower restrictions, or possibly a combination of both.

Many of the individuals or companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the
work for considerably less money, especially if they are based in a non-Western country, such as
India, China or Philippines. We can define outsourcing as the proccess of transfering services like
infromation technology from developed countries to places where labour is cheaper.

From a global perspective, the mere utterance of the word "outsourcing" sometimes incites
controversy. Some people believe companies have a moral obligation to protect jobs from their own
country above everyone else.

During periods of high unemployment, some companies face media and public scrutiny
whether outsourcing domestically or abroad. Fair or not, this pressure stems from the perspective of
some citizens that a business should promote employment rather than choosing lower-cost
contractor relationships. The way a company treats its outsourcing partners has ethical
considerations as well.

What is the definition of “outsourcing”?

Why there are critics and controversy when we talk about outsourcing?
What is your opinion about “outsourcing?

Nike
Sportswear giant Nike outsources the production of all its footwear to various overseas
manufacturing plants. China has a larger share of Nike manufacturing plants than other countries,
but Nike does maintain quite a few manufacturing plants in Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and
India.

For well over a decade, Nike became defined by

the term “explotation”. It was simple one of the
principal things for which they became famous.

In 1996, Life magazine published a story that

included a photograph of a child stitching footballs that
carried the Nike Logo. The picture was a powerful
visual for a situation that was shown to genuinely exist.
The company's reputation suffered and the first of
many protest began to take place. By 1998, the
company accepted it needed to take responsibility. Phil
Knight admitted “the Nike product has become
synonym with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abyse”. Nike and child labour had
become indelibly linked in the public consciousness.

In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, photos were presented to the company of pictures of
Pakistani children stitching Nike footballs -a direct repeat of what had happened ten years earlier.
Nike looks nowadays as a company that has a commitment to improve its environmental impact,
providing transparency about is processes, and ensuring decent woring conditions in its supply
chain, and have turned the tide of public perception. It looks like the social presion have made
possible to turn the company methods around. But are we sure that all the companies will have good
conditions to their workers when they are outsourcing in so far away countries?

Elaborate a conclusion by trying to answer the last question of the text: