Skip to main content
Log in

Business process outsourcing industry in India: Additional benefits of a CSR approach

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Asian Business & Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a relatively recent phenomenon in India, emergent in the early 1990s, but today it is one of India's fastest-growing industries, attracting many international and local companies and entrepreneurs. It is no exaggeration to say that the BPO industry has made significant contributions toward alleviating Indian unemployment. However, the industry has also witnessed significant problems during its rapid growth. Paramount among these is the issue of psychological contract and its impact on employees’ motivation. Preliminary studies have indicated a significant amount of worker exploitation in India's BPO industry. A number of studies have looked at the problem, but few to our knowledge have incorporated a corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective, pointing out benefits that could accrue to companies (and indeed society at large) adopting this approach. The objective of the present research is to address that gap, to enhance knowledge of these issues in the Indian environment and to show how a CSR approach to the analysis of the problem of psychological contract and its impact on employee motivation can offer benefits to employers in India.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agarwal, S. (2008) Corporate Social Responsibility in India. New Delhi, India: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, M. (2003) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edn. London: Kogan Page.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarty, B. (2011) Corporate Social Responsibility in India. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, D.I. (1998) Stakeholder management. In: J.K. Pinto (ed.) The Project Management Institute: Project Management Handbook. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 55–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiest, G.J. and Gorman, M.E. (1998) The psychology of science: Review and integration of a nascent discipline. Review of General Psychology 2 (2): 3–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guest, D.E., Conway, N., Briner, R. and Dickman, M. (1996) The State of the Psychological Contract in Employment: Issues in People Management. London: IPD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmon, P. (2003a) Business Process Change: A Manager's Guide to Improving, Redesigning and Automating Processes, Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmon, P. (2003b) An overview of business process outsourcing. Business Process Trends Newsletter 1 (9): 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, D. and Kahn, R. (1966) The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke, E.A. (1968) Towards a theory of task motivation and incentives. Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance 3 (3): 157–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McClelland, C. (1961) The Achieving Society. New York: Van Nostrand.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • NASSCOM, India. (2007) Annual reports of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010; specific aspects of which have been reproduced in the following URL references, http://yourstory.in/2010/02/winners-of-nasscom-innovation-awards-2010-announced.

  • NASSCOM, India. (2008) http://www.nasscom.org/overview-9.

  • NASSCOM, India. (2009) http://www.bpoindia.org/research/nasscom-hr-survey-report2011.

  • NASSCOM, India. (2010) http://blog.nasscom.in/nasscomnewsline/2009/03/nasscom-launches-strategic-review-2009-at-the-india-leadership-forum, http://blog.nasscom.in/nasscomnewsline/2009/05/the-indian-it-bpo-industry-crafting-the-vision-for-the-next-decade.

  • Nel, P.S. et al (2001) Human Resources Management. Cape Town, South Africa: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prada, S.K. (2008) Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Past, Present and Future. New Delhi, India: Eastern Book Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, S.L. and Rousseau, D.M. (1994) Violating the psychological contract. Journal of Organizational Behaviour 15 (15): 245–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, D.M. (2004) Psychological contracts in the workplace: Understanding the ties that motivate. Academy of Management Executives 18 (1): 120–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, D.M. and Wade-Benzoni, K.A. (1994) Linking strategy and human resource practices: How employee and customer contracts are created. Human Resource Management 33 (3): 463–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schein, E.H. (1965) Organisational Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, B.F. (1974) About Behaviourism. London: Cape.

    Google Scholar 

  • Splindler, G.S. (1994) Psychological contracts in workplace: A lawyer's view. Human Resource Management 33 (3): 325–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sudhashree, V.P., Rohit, K. and Shrinivas, K. (2005) Issues and concerns of health among call-centre employees. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 9 (3): 129–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tas, J. (2004) Financial services business process outsourcing. Communication of the ACM 47 (5): 50–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, M. and Heron, P. (2003) Knowledge Creation and the Employment Relationship, Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference; Seattle: Academy of Management.

  • Vroom, V. (1964) Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R.K. (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks/London/Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the editors of this special issue and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sam Dzever.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dzever, S., Gupta, B. Business process outsourcing industry in India: Additional benefits of a CSR approach. Asian Bus Manage 11, 273–289 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/abm.2012.11

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/abm.2012.11

Keywords

Navigation