Outsourcing and the human condition

Contemporary organizations in the capitalist paradigm aim mainly
for profit maximization and efficiency. This effort sees organizational
processes being increasingly standardized and rationalized. There is
a growing tendency to consider the workers as a means for reaching
organizational objectives. This trend affects the organizational life of
the worker who is aiming at self-fulfilment.

Outsourcing is a threatening phenomenon in organizations and the
decision to outsource can be made by management at any time that
this might be economically advantageous for the business. This makes
outsourcing a harsh instrument and the culmination of organizational
rationalism. It is therefore a phenomenon worth researching in the
context of the effects of managerial instruments on the individual in
the strategic management process of contemporary organizations.

This book provides answers to the question of what these effects are.
These answers come from an analysis of the stories of the technical
in-house ICT staff of a Dutch non-profit organization. Narrative inquiry,
strongly influenced by the Social Photo Matrix methodology is
employed to unveil the mainly hidden information. The theoretical
concept of 'repressive desublimation' as proposed by Herbert Marcuse
is successfully applied in this research, leading to revealing conclusions.