Critics of Companies That Use Outsourcing Contend That Shifting Responsibility

question 113

Multiple Choice

Critics of companies that use outsourcing contend that shifting responsibility for performing value chain activities to outside specialists

• A) has the disadvantage of raising fixed costs and reducing variable costs and makes it harder to develop distinctive competencies.
• B) can hollow out a company's knowledge base and capabilities, leaving it at the mercy of outsider suppliers, and short of the resource strengths to be a master of its own destiny.
• C) results in less organizational flexibility and leads to sometimes exorbitant costs in collaborating with outside suppliers and strategic partners.
• D) slows down decision making on key strategic issues because outside suppliers have to be consulted first.
• E) lowers the morale of company employees, dampens a company's ability to implement best practices, and results in greater bureaucracy and slower decision making.

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Definitions:

Discriminative Stimulus

A stimulus that signals when a particular response is likely to be followed by a certain type of consequence.

Extinguished Stimulus

A stimulus that previously elicited a response but no longer does so after the process of extinction in conditioning.

Neutral Stimulus

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention, until it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Discrimination

The learned ability to differentiate between two similar stimuli based on differences in their significance or meaning.