Socio-Economic Effects of International Outsourcing in India

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Since the early 1990s, liberalization of the Indian Economy had lead to remarkable growth in the Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) sector of which Call Centers are an integral part. Multinational companies in the developed world prefer India as its back office because the overall cost of employing a call center employee in India works out to just about $500 per month which includes a salary of $200, free food, transportation, life insurance, and medical insurance. India scores over other countries because of its large English-speaking workforce with college degrees and a willingness to work for low wages.

According to Friedman (2006), There are currently about 245,000 Indians answering phones from all over the world(24). In 2008 that number has swelled to 704,000 and is slated to grow further. These call centers are spread all over India encompassing big cities, small towns, and now even the villages. Call centers with their peculiar job requirements, odd working hours, and lifestyle imperatives have had a profound effect on the social fabric of the Indian community. This essay attempts to encapsulate the influence of call centers on Indian culture along with the moral and ethical dilemmas facing the corporate world and their responses thus far.

Call centers have been likened to Electronic Sweatshops where employees put in grueling 10 to 12-hour shifts in a 24-hour cycle under the watchful eye of their supervisors and an array of closed-circuit cameras. Punishing working conditions, lack of sleep, and ever-watchful supervisory control result in stress, early burnout, and high attrition rates in the Industry. To counter this attrition rate, companies have evolved differing methodologies.

According to Raman & Balsubramanian (2006), in some BPO companies a lot of employee involvement techniques, including suggestion schemes, quality circles, newsletters, and videos, were used to counteract the negative effects of strict control and monitoring(320). Goel & Thakur (2007), suggest that BPO companies should Institute the concept of pay for complexity, which recognizes that functions and processes vary in complexity and hence should be compensated differently(6).

India has a traditional patriarchal society in which women have traditionally played a passive role and are considered as a liability. Call centers prefer to hire women as employees because they are perceived to be more polite, have pleasing voices, and are more sincere in their jobs than men. This perception has translated into empowerment for women across India. However, exposure to western culture, a differing lifestyle, and disposable income has also had concomitant effects on the psyche of the women working in call centers.

The adoption of western styles of clothing and mannerisms by women has become a source of friction with their families and the traditional society. Late-night shifts and odd working hours are also looked upon as dishonorable in a society used to seeing their women back at home by sunset. Indeed, a few cases of call center employees being raped and murdered by their pick-up drivers were reported in the Indian media over the last few years. Corporate companies responded by incorporating more stringent security systems, better driver verification processes, and ensuring that the women employees always had some male colleagues as escorts during pick and drops.

Call center work requires the employees to don a foreign personality, complete with a foreign name and accent while attending calls. The employees then have to drop this make-believe personality on completion of their shift and revert to their normal selves. This has lead to multiple personality disorders, schizoid episodes, panic attacks, and depression among the call center workforce as also increasing incidents of alcoholism and drug-taking. Larger BPO companies have responded proactively to this malaise. According to a Los Angeles Times article (January 01, 2008), Infosys Technologies Ltd. has established 24-hour helplines for psychological counseling. HCL Technologies Ltd. has built day-care centers for children and sponsors group outings for employees.

As part of training, Call centers hold parties, dances, eat out at Mc Donalds, and generally encourage their employees to imitate the Western culture. While such an approach helps the employees drop their Indian accents and orient quickly to their jobs, a sudden change of social mores, close proximity at the workplace have to lead to increased incidences of promiscuity, shattered hopes, and the fear of social stigma.

As more and more educated youth join the call center business, a new social division is taking place across urban India which is also spreading to rural India. The youth come from small families with modest incomes, enter a new world of western ideas, work shifts of 10 to 12 hours, and thus have no time for their families or friends. This is leading to a degree of social alienation, isolationism, and a more sedentary lifestyle with all its ill effects on the general health, moral and ethical values of the society.

Addressing this problem at the national level is indeed a daunting task as the government has to balance the needs of a growing economy and the preservation of the social fabric at the same time. While the BPO industry has tried to address some of the problems, regulation of employee conditions is weak on account of lax labor laws and the imperatives of business profitability. As it stands today, the moral and ethical stance of BPO employers can be considered ambivalent except for a few shining examples.

References

Friedman, Thomas L. (2006). The World is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century. Penguin Group. London, England.

Goel, Dinesh & Thakur, Prabash. (2007). India: An Attractive BPO Destination Marred By Alarming Attrition Insights into the Causes, Impact and Mitigation Actions. Web.

Los Angeles Times. (2008). Cry For Help From Indias Call Centers. Web.

Raman Raghu S & Balasubramanian, G.(2006) Managing People in a New Industry: A Case Study of a High-end BPO Organization. Web.

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Socio-Economic Effects of International Outsourcing in India

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