Outsourcing as a Leveraging Strategy for Organizational Productivity in Covid-19 Era

Abstract

The year 2020 was notably one of the most very challenging years in recent times, with the whole world responding and looking to recover from the health and economic challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic which impacted hard on every sphere of life. Considering the ferocity of global competition, most businesses have been caught up in revising many operational matters and strategies so as to be able to manage the effects of the pandemic. This they have done by striving to take advantage of areas that they can exploit for improved efficiency as well as reduce costs in order to avail more time for activities that generate revenue. This paper, which adopted analytical discussion of secondary data and anchored on transactional cost economics as its theoretical framework, evaluated the efficacy of outsourcing as a management and production strategy which not only helps companies to overcome productivity challenges by providing unlimited opportunities in this Covid-19 era but equally helps them streamline operations by adding additional resources and value that may have been lacking in-house. This, most business organizations did by re-adjusting and appraising their production and management strategies with regards to their opportunities and strengths; and relinquishing by contracting those activities that challenged their competencies to other third-party professional organizations that performed their hitherto in-house activities for them. It is recommended that in current times, going for an outsourcing partner may be the best thing an organization can do to retain optimal productivity.

Keywords: Outsourcing, Covid-19, Transaction cost economics, Pandemic

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-6-14

Publication date:March 31^st 2021