Final answer:
Before outsourcing, it's crucial to consider potential issues such as the impact on domestic employment, ethical concerns with the welfare of overseas workers, and difficulties in managing distant operations. Outsourcing has expanded beyond manufacturing to fields like BPO and IT due to cheaper labor overseas, yet it has led to adverse effects, such as the Rana Plaza disaster. Ensuring worker's rights and maintaining job quality are significant concerns.
Step-by-step explanation:
Pitfalls that should be carefully explored before outsourcing include an understanding of the potential drawbacks such as contributing to the rise of sweatshops, difficulty in enforcing wage and working conditions, loss of jobs domestically, and challenges in managing offshore operations. Companies in developed nations have taken to outsourcing due to various reasons such as high wages and operational costs at home. Offshoring involves moving operations overseas to benefit from cheaper labor markets, but this can lead to a decrease in local high-paying jobs and can cause social and ethical issues, like in the case of the Rana Plaza disaster. Moreover, due to globalization and trade agreements like NAFTA, outsourcing and offshoring have become significant cost-saving strategies for large companies.
In places like the Philippines, which are becoming hubs for business process outsourcing (BPO), the local economy can benefit, but this can be at the cost of the local workforce in the outsourcing countries. Information technology and BPO are large markets that continue to grow, shifting jobs from one country to another, while allowing corporations to cut operational costs. While this can help companies remain competitive globally, the implications on workers' rights, job losses and the long-term economic impact on the outsourcing country's workforce should be thoroughly evaluated.