Outsourcing and Boeing

ON ETHICS: You are a corporate R&D manager at Boeing and are thinking about transferring some R&D work to China, India, and Russia, where the work performed by a $70,000 US engineer reportedly can be done by an engineer in one of these countries for less than $7,000. However, US engineers at Boeing have staged protests against such moves. US politicians are similarly vocal concerning job losses and national security hazards. What are you going to do?

As a Boeing manager I view the outsourcing of some jobs to countries like; India, China, and Russia to be completely ethical and beneficial to the homeland. When referring to home land I am referring to the company's place of origination. In this case the company is Boeing and the homeland is the United States. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are becoming increasingly well known for their globalization strategies. MNEs like Boeing are known for concentrating their on their upstream and downstream aspects of their firms. It is also recognized that focusing on these aspects of the respected firms adds great value (Mudambi, 2008). Recognizing this characteristic Boeing is more than likely focused on the up and down stream of their firm and is able to take advantage of advanced technological countries like India and China. By outsourcing the middle of the value chain which includes research and development (R&D) Boeing is able to focus on what will inherently create more opportunities in the homeland. The Bloomsburg Business week online paints a clear picture of the driving force that is at the heart of Boeings integration by stating, " Boeing seeks foreign suppliers with the best aerospace technologies and manufacturing skills regardless of the cost". This only drives home the fact there are other countries that have advanced in technology and integrative systems. To touch on what was stated in the previous paragraph Boeing appears to be focusing on the upstream and downstream attributes of their company.