Outsourcing IT

Perhaps one of the most critical contemporary issues facing the management of information is whether or not to outsource either some or all technologies associated with information to service firms that are specialized in various information technology aspects. This particular issue is not a phenomenon that is transient the move from management computing within a company to outsourcing is increasing very fast. The decision of how, where and when to outsource, is an issue that is likely to become one of the few issues of information management that will have to be reviewed by several multinationals in the near future. Up to now, only one explanation is good enough since it is applicable in all information technologies outsourcing The outsourcing that multinationals are attempting to become more profitable through reduced employment (Murray  Crandall, 2006 Sparrow, 2003).

Outsourcing IT   
Research in IT outsourcing is mainly aimed at establishing the real and tangible benefits that are likely to accrue to a firm once it starts outsourcing. This therefore means that a feasibility study has to be carried out in order to determine whether or not IT outsourcing is viable as far as the firm is concerned. Once the feasibility is conducted, the management of the firm evaluates the benefits of IT outsourcing and weighs them against the costs and demerits that are likely to arise from IT outsourcing. The feasibility study report should also contain various alternatives that are applicable giving the merits and demerits of each alternative. This will enable the management objectively evaluate the proposed method of IT outsourcing and therefore choose the best as far as the firm is concerned (Williams, 2001).
   
IT outsourcing research is mainly aimed at increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of a firm. The research should establish the actual time that will be saved as a result of outsourcing IT as opposed to carrying it out within the organization. Cost reduction is an overall objective in several decisions that are to be made by the management of any firm. There is no difference as far as IT outsourcing is concerned and therefore research should be carried in order to implement the best IT outsourcing policy that will enable the firm to save as much finances as possible (Tipton,  Krause, 2007). 
   
The actual play with IT outsourcing in simple terms is applying it as an instrument of driving the strategic value of the company, transforming the business of the company and finally changing the dynamics within the industry fundamentally. IT outsourcing enables managers to carryout the main tasks within their organizations while the non core functions that are expensive since it is hard for the company to experience economies of scale and thus benefit economically, are forwarded to a third party (Lee, 2008 Tho, 2005).
Offshore and inshore IT outsourcing
   
The IT needs have grown exponentially in the past one decade this growth has taken place in an economy that is highly competitive and fast. Therefore, in order to develop several other new projects or products as well as upgrade the new technologies in a cost effective manner and with increased pace, there are several organizations that have decided to create and invest in solution centers offshore. At the same time some organizations have opted to use the locally available IT solution centers (Tipton  Krause, 2007).
   
In offshore IT outsourcing, an organization places the IT business processes to nations that are geographically distant from the country in which the outsourcing company operates from. This enables the outsourcing enterprise to great reductions in operational costs. Better costs calculability and reduced costs are therefore very crucial aspects of offshoring IT outsourcing. It becomes easier for the outsourcing company to convert its fixed costs into the variable ones. The outsourced IT project may need several experts and staff who may not be required once the project is over. In order to avoid the costs of retrenching such workers, companies can outsource such IT projects to firms that have specialized on them (Gordon  Zimmerman, 2007).
   
Some companies outsource inshore from the local firms, just like in the case of offshore outsourcing, the objectives of outsourcing remains unchanged. Companies outsourcing inshore mainly outsource to regions where the cost of labor is cheaper so that they can reduce the operating costs. This type of outsourcing results into enhanced distribution of income with a country and at the same time creates more job opportunities locally (Hormozi et al, 2003).
   
The private and public sectors in one way or the other complements each other there are some services that are offered by the public sector that are required by the private sector and vice versa. This therefore means that the public sector can easily outsource IT projects to the private sector instead of hiring experts to do such work for only a short period of time. Such a move would benefits the government through reduced costs of operating. The reduced cost benefits would then be transferred to the public in the form of reduced tax burdens. The private sector would also benefit through increased employment opportunities in the country (Murray  Crandall, 2006 Burnett, 1998).

Advantages of IT outsourcing
One of the major reasons why corporations outsource IT is reduce their overall operation costs. This involves decreasing the scope, re-pricing, re-defining the quality levels, cost restructuring and re-negotiation. IT outsourcing enables a corporation to access less cost economies known as labor arbitrage, which is arises from the wage difference between the developing and the industrialized nations. Outsourcing IT enables the outsourcing corporation to focus on its core business. The corporations resources such as infrastructure, human and investment are mainly focused on developing and expanding its core business. Cost restructuring of a corporation can also be achieved effectively through outsourcing IT to service companies specialized in the field of IT. The operating leverage is basically a measure that is used organizations in order to compare variable and fixed costs. IT outsourcing greatly alters this ratios balance by providing a shift from fixed costs to variable ones. Furthermore, outsourcing IT makes the variable costs of a company to be more predictable, which is very essential as far as planning is concerned (Ryans, 1996 Burnett, 1998).

Outsourcing IT leads to quality improvement, this is possible since the company can concentrate on functions it can do best while contracting the ones in which it does not have the capacity to operate effedtively to specialized IT firms. Knowledge base increases through IT outsourcing. Outsourcing leads to increased access to wider knowledge and experience as well as increased access to the intellectual property.

Operational expertise is usually enhanced since it might be very costly or difficult to fully develop all IT requirements within the company while it is not the core business of the company. IT outsourcing is a very essential factor in improving the capacity management of technology and services. In this case, the risk that is involved in offering extra capacity is taken by the supplier. In the recent past, IT outsourcing has emerged as a significant change catalyst. A corporation can make use of an IT outsourcing agreement to bring about major changes within the organization in which case the change agent is actually the outsourcer (Rucker, 2003).

Enhancement of capacity for creativity and innovation is a key factor in management of dynamism in the business world. This is effectively achieved via IT outsourcing whereby the corporations are increasingly applying externally sourced knowledge in supplementing the limited internal innovation capacity of the organization. IT outsourcing enables a corporation to accelerate the production or development of its products through the application of the extra capability which results from the supplier. IT outsourcing enhances the tendency of standardizing IT services, business processes, and services applications that enables corporations to purchase IT services at favorable prices, permits businesses to access various services that were previously available only to the large multinationals (Gordon  Zimmerman, 2007 Cullen  Willcocks, 2003).

In order for corporations operating in the current business environment to minimize as much as possible they have to consider outsourcing some of their services such as IT. A risk management approach for some forms of risks faced by corporations around the world requires the use of the services of an outsourcer who is in a position of offering mitigation for the various risks. This enables business enterprises to increase their benefits in their core business functions and at the same time reduce the risk involved in their undertakings (Edginton  Jiang, 2000).

Disadvantages of IT outsourcing
There are risks involved with outsourcing such as compromising the quality of the services and products offered by the corporation. Quality risk involved in IT outsourcing is basically the tendency for a service or product to be substandard due to issues related to operations. In outsourcing IT, the risk of quality is as a result of several factors. One of the major factors is suppliers opportunism as a result of incentives that are misaligned between the supplier and the seller. Other factors include asymmetry of information, high switching costs of the supplier or high costs of asset specificity. Quality risk can also arise as a result of poor communication between the supplier and the buyer, lack of suppliers resources, capacity or capabilities, lack of supplier-buyer contract enforceability. There are two basic concepts which have to be put into consideration in regard to observability as far as risks involved in IT outsourcing is concerned. These concepts include criticality and testability (Quinn  Hillmer, 1995).

Another major criticism that is faced by the general aspect of outsourcing is social responsibility. It is a fact that outsourcing leads to a scenario where jobs are sent to areas of lower income. Despite the fact that the outsourced work increases employment opportunities in such areas, there are some people who argue that such outsourcing leads to exploitation of the workers who are lowly paid. A contrary perspective is that there are more people who are employed and thus benefit from such work. However, there is hope that most of the issues raised by this criticism will be addressed over time as outsourcing becomes more streamlined in future since it is becoming competitive and this will in future compel the outsourcing corporations to adequately remunerate their suppliers. Furthermore this is an ethical issue and the ethics of a corporation cannot be dealt with in only one aspect that is outsourcing, but rather in a more comprehensive approach (Innocenti  Labory, 2004 Strassmann, 1997).
   
IT outsourcing is largely influenced by the need for corporations to transfer the execution of IT services that do not constitute their core business to firms specializing in offering IT services. In this case, both organizations are in a position of enjoying economies of scale since they concentrate on the tasks they can do best and hand over the others to be done by experts in other firms. IT outsourcing is also largely influenced by the need of companies to reduce their costs of operating. IT is usually outsourced to regions of lower income and hence the outsourced work is charged less as compared to the cost that could have been incurred if the work was done within the company (Sparrow, 2003).

In order for corporations to not only remain relevant but also excel in the current highly competitive and dynamic business world, management has no alternative but to outsource some of the non-core functions. One of such functions that have emerged very strongly is the IT outsourcing. Virtually all corporations have to use IT services whether or not such services form the core operations of the business. While it might not be wise for a corporation whose main function is offering IT services to outsource them, other corporations that use IT in order to achieve their main objectives, can consider outsourcing such services in order to enhance their capacity of managing their core functions. In the recent past, IT outsourcing has emerged as a significant instrument of strategic management and therefore organizations has to use it in order to plan their future activities more effectively. However, corporations intending to outsource IT have to be extra careful and ensure that they outsource the right services, to the right people and at the right time in order to get value for the outsourced services.

Utilitarian Approach Response to Crisis

Based on your concerns about the intended layoffs in the company, the company has looked keenly on the consequences the layoff will bring to your life. It has seen that its action will lead to loosing your house to the mortgager due to lack of finances to pay for the house and it will also affect your childs education may be by causing the child to drop out of college. This will eventually leave you to suffer for lack of a shelter and loss of money that had been paid for the mortgage and this is a form of unhappiness to you .As a parent too, discontinuity of your child education will cause unhappiness both to you and your child and affect the future development of the child. As a result of this, the company has seen that their action will cause more harm than good to your life and has finally decided you will not be laid off.

Pros and Cons of Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical decision making approach that argues that human action should be to bring about the best possible results from their action. Utilitarian acknowledges only one principle of morality which is utility. The principle state that in all our action, we should focus on producing the best overall consequences for all those who will be affected by our actions. Utilitarian requires that agent to be strictly impartial to their own happiness.

Utilitarianism has both its advantages and disadvantages in decision making. One of it advantage is the attempt it has made to look beyond the individual own interest in deciding which action to take. According to utilitarianism, any individual must always consider the impact their action will have on others with his well-being weighing less than for others. Agents own happiness is not the determining standard of what is right or wrong but that of all affected by the action (Scarre, 1996).
    
Despite this, utilitarianism is not acceptable in moral decision making and especially in the Christian perspective. It is commonly accepted in the Christian realms that we should always stand for the truth or tell the truth. This is contrary to utilitarianism because a utilitarian will promote to tell a lie if telling the truth will cause unhappiness and pain. For example, if telling a married woman that her husband has been trying to have an affair with me will cause more pain to the woman. Then utilitarianism will opt for not telling the truth to avoid the unhappiness. But morally it is good to tell the woman the truth (Scarre, 1996).
Another disadvantage of utilitarianism is that it can easily be used to undermine rights of an individual or minority over the majority. According to utilitarianism, they are concerned with the greatest happiness for the greatest number. This means that if an action will affect a small group of people or one individual for that matter and cause great happiness to many people, then the action is right even if it is causing pain to a few (Scarre, 1996).

Utilitarianism is also found to be wanting in the principle of justice. Principle of justice demands that a person be treated fairly and reward and punishment to people be based on their own merits. In such circumstances, utilitarian can easily be used to violate this principle of justice. If a person did something wrong and deserve to be punished, utilitarian will be against such decision because punishment in it self will bring unhappiness and pain to the person and every action in utilitarian approach is to bring happiness and avoid pain.

Utilitarianism Approach in Decision Making
Utilitarianism approach in my opinion is not the best approach in making moral decision. First, this approach is not practical in the real world. Focusing on other people happiness without considering other factors that may be playing role may not bring the desired outcome or may yield short term happiness to the individual (Scarre, 1996). An example is for our case where the management using the utilitarian approach decided to stop the laying off of its workers to avoid causing them unhappiness. In the long run, the workers will be happy because they will retain their jobs but the future of the company is at the verge of collapsing. The company wanted to lay off the workers because it was going through financial crisis and this action would have saved the company from collapsing. Retaining the workers was only going to put more pressure on the company and the company final will collapse. With the collapse of the company the worker who we did not want to make unhappy will loose their job and be unhappy and it will also cause the unhappiness of the agent and both stand losers.

The second point why utilitarianism is not a good approach is that it ignores our sense of duty. In any given society individual have their own responsibilities which they are supposed to carry out correctly. Doing or failing to undertake such duty comes with a reward or a punishment. In our contemporary society, every individual is expected to behave and respect others. Imagine a situation where a man decides to steal from another. This person is supposed to be punished for he was not dutiful to his neighbor. If it happens that I witnessed this person stealing, then it is my duty to report this person for him to be punished according to his merit. A utilitarian will choose not to tell the truth and rather lie because his action of telling the truth will cause suffering of another person. This then denies him from carrying out his duty as expected by the society (Scarre, 1996).

Another reason of not using utilitarianism is that it has the problem of moral luck. According to this approach, it is the effect that decides whether the action is good or not. This means that even action that are universally good or moral are perceived to be immoral by utilitarian if their effects are not desirable or do ot bring happiness (Scarre, 1996). Telling the truth is universally accepted as a moral or good action. However telling the truth will not in all circumstance bring happiness to an individual. Then telling the truth that will cause unhappiness is considered evil by utilitarian. Suppose a utilitarian is in place where there is racial strives and he witness  a black man raping a white woman. His testimony will bring conviction of the black man. This utilitarian will be have the duty to give a false witness aand avoid causing pain to the black which is morally wrong. This then means that utilitarianism can be used to propagate vice in the society.

Utilitarianism is not also a good approach because it ignores the principle of justice. Justice demands that individuals be rewarded or punished according to their own merit and all people to be treated fairly and equally (Scarre, 1996). In the case that we have cited above of a rapist, a utilitarian will ignore the principle of justice to avoid causing pain to the rapist. He will also treat the woman unfairly because his false testimony will prevent the woman from receiving any compensation from the perpetrator though she deserve it from justice point of view. The perpetrator on the other hand deserve a punishment to act as a deterrant to repeat the offense but he does not get it.

Another problem with utilitarianism is that it does not consider the long term effect of an action (Scarre, 1996). Failing lay off workers in our case of high-tech company will only produce short term benefit  to the workers but in the future, the individual will be subject to long suffering when the company eventually collapse. May be it would have been better if the company laid off the workers and have time to strategize a fresh and revamp it back. This would mean that the workers would have  been called back thus making their suffering short term. The collapse of the company would mean long term effect to the worker and this is what the utilitarianism approach could have led to.
   
Making decision in life always aims at maximizing happiness to an individual. This fact is well represented by utilitarian approach. But in the rear world, achieving happiness is not always achieved by avoiding pain and suffering but rather by considering other factors that may affect that happiness more so in the long term. This then implies that making decision should not be purely be based on utility but a compromise is necessary among other approaches to achieve long term benefits.

Technology S-Curve

The performance of the product increases rapidly initially and once there is a decline in the slope the productivity doesnt improve in spite of the increase in RD investments. Initially at the beginning of the curve, extra effort is required to extract a high performance from the product. However, once this bit is done productivity advances significantly with marginal input. Later, when a new generation technology is introduced advances to the previous generation technology stays limited and it eventually phases out. This leads to a creation of a new S-Curve which is shifted to the right of the Original S-Curve.

It helps in assessment of a technology in its different stages. It helps in identifying the need to re-align strategy when productivity declines and in turn warn of any technology obsolescence.

The S-Curve framework doesnt provide a roadmap to the managers about how to deal when the technology is no longer exhibiting performance. It doesnt help in estimating the gains one can make from new technologies. As it is a generalization from various technology paths as observed, the size and the structure of the S-Curve can vary so one cant determine the right time to invest in new technology and abolish the existing one.

The S-Curve framework is deduced from studies done on technologyfirm performances and it can be used along with other frameworks to provide a suitable recommendation.

U.S. Bank global wire-transfer system By HP NonStopPayments

James Martin was among authors of information technology books that coined the term telecommunications and the computers in his crimson book. The notion soon evolves into the term information technology that we often hear these days. While the first terminology puts emphasis on the role of infrastructure or hardware in communications, the second suggests that in addition to hardware, contents also play significant part in advanced communications. This includes information technology roles in financial institutions and within the evolution of management practice at any industries as well.

The adoption of information technology in financial industry like banking is critically important as data accuracy, speed, and reliability counts to help a company becoming trusted providers.
In this situation, the information technology presents much opportunity for developers to provide system that is more advanced that deal with the improvement in the three aspects as mentioned above.
Concerning the information technology development in financial industry, this paper will elaborate IT management in the case of U.S. Bank that entrusts streamlined global wire-transfer system to HP NonStopPayments solution.

HP NonStopPayments
In the tagline of HP NonStopPayments, the company display that this service combines reliability, performance, and agility. This tagline asserts the company focuses in serving the multi-billion of fund transfer business that requires the three aspects. In terms of promotion, HP also take a right endorsement as in the first page of report, they excerpt a quote from Steven M. Soroka, Executive Vice President of U.S. Bank, that reveals HP solution in the wire transfer system really help the processing of payment at the right time. Soroka further reveals that in the fund transfer industry, the load usually mounts in the last two hours where half of that occurs in the last 30 minutes. This condition highlights the important to have reliable technology and system installed.

Based on the case study, we see that HP, as leading providers in computer industry, already done right in the preparation of IT project for global wire transfer. This is inline with the suggestion from several literatures regarding how to avoid failure in the information technology (IT) projects.
Make sure the IT project possess clear and measurable objectives
Employ suitable risk management tools and method
Stick to the determined constraints of cost, time and quality
In case of offshoring IT Project to another country like India, pay attention to cultural diversity issue in the country

Ensure to conduct planning before starting the implementation stage
Pay attention to critical tasks during the implementation
Obtain the support from the management
Always report the progress to find out whether there are overlook steps
Involve the users in design and implementation of the IT project
Ensure that we have enough resource in planning, communication, and technology skills
In the case of U.S. Bank that entrusts streamlined global wire-transfer system to HP NonStopPayments solution, we see that HP already sets the objectives, approach, IT improvement plan, and display the business benefits for those that employ the HP NonStopPayments solution.
One technical issue in the provision of wire transfer business that HP offer is as following
Streamlining of high-speed processing environment for customers domestic and international wires
Improvement in the transaction turnaround and quality
Better system security and payment routing
Faster processing with 24x7 availability

Competitiveness of HP NonStopPayments
Although in the report, HP has displayed several issues that highlight the advanced system that HP NonStopPayments provide, still, there is not exact explanation of costs of doing the wire transfer by using the HP solution. This is also important from customers point of view, as costs of transaction become key considerations for customer when deciding mode of fund transfer.
Below is one example of comparison of two fund-transfer method between Xoom and Western Union. This figure highlights that online payment services like Xoom, PayPal etc become a competitive offering for users.
   
According to a statistic, there is only 16 percent of IT development project that occurs within acceptable constraints of cost, time and quality (Ryan, 2000). This condition highlights the need to carefully plan any IT project. In addition, it suggests that in order to become successful IT-based services, costs of transaction should be taken into account when the service is planned to be commercialized publicly (Sommer, 2004).
Because customers only know that security issue, speed of transaction and reliability is mandatory. What they know is they can obtain in without costly charging. This complies with the reasons underlying the factors lead to IT projects failure as following
IT Project is launched without appropriate strategy
The IT project has unclear goals and objectives
Objectives change during the implementation of the project
The project has unrealistic time or resource estimation
The project has no enough support from executive
IT Project does not take into account input form users or customers
The project fails to set up communication among team members
Inappropriate technical consideration
The project does not employ planning and risk control across the project life cycle
The project is costly that beyond the budget
(Al Neima, 2010 CGI, 2001 Leitao, 2003)
   
Currently, to succeed in wire transfer business, HP NonStopPayments should also inform regarding the costs of transaction, features, availability in large number of countries etc since it becomes killing features when this is fulfilled. Among several providers of money transfer, below is a summary displaying the total costs of transaction. Therefore, HP NonStopPayments should also allow banking and payment intermediaries to provide low costs transactions to customers.

In conclusion, the money transfer mode that HP NonStopPayments offer is technically convincing. However, it is still lack of informing customers about the efficiency and effectiveness. They become key considerations for customers when deciding the mode of fund transfer they would use.

In the given situation, my stand is that a best reply would be I have heard that the firm is in a huge financial situation but I am not sure about the lay-off issue.

This is the most qualified answer for two reasons (1) it allows for the greatest good for everybody (i.e. subordinates, management team, and the firm as a whole) and (2) the answer provides enough flexibility to deal with the underlying issues intrinsic in the utilitarian perspective.
The discussion is divided into two parts to provide a clearer understanding of the premises give to support the conclusions put forward here a brief discussion of utilitarianism and the actual premises that support the conclusions. The first part briefly lays out my understanding of what utilitarianism is, as well as the problems possibly encountered in using its approach. The second part provides the support to why the stand put forward in this paper defines the best utilitarian solution.     

I. Understanding Utilitarianism
To judge a moral situation from the utilitarian point of view entails pursuing the greatest happiness principle. To determine the proper course of action from this perspective is to reflect on the idea of whether a particular action can bring the greatest amount of good to benefit the highest number of people. If the action indeed pursues the highest amount of good to benefit the many, it is justified by the utilitarian approach.
Analyzing the dilemma in this fashion may sound so simple. But it is important to consider the fact that the theory itself suffers from observations that can undermine the strength of its arguments. Thus, to judge a situation from the utilitarian point of view entails giving a solution that can adequately address every possible loophole in the theory.  

Certain notions that require clarifications are what it means to be happy, how do you measure happiness (if it can be measured in the first place), is the view on what happiness is the same for everyone, if what people perceive as happiness amounts to something good (or morally right) as well, etc. Attempts to resolve these internal issues within the theory resulted to the existence of the different sub-theories that are nevertheless, utilitarian in nature. Each theory has its own underlying presumptions and beliefs.

Thus, it is necessary to identify the categories and considerations that form the specific utilitarian framework of the moral solution to a particular situation. Jeremy Bentham argues that happiness is quantifiable and so the amount of happiness a particular action can bring about can be measured. Bentham developed a calculus for it. On the other hand, J.S. Mill differentiates among the kinds of pleasure and argued that what is considered pleasurable for one person is not necessarily for the common good of everyone or of the greatest number. This difference between the utilitarian theory advocated by Bentham and that of J.S. Mill are just one of the most remarkable points of view made under the utilitarian perspective. 

The greatest challenge in using the utilitarian approach is perhaps on the definition of happiness. How one should define happiness is a prior issue that needs to be resolved before anyone can maintain that a certain action brings it about. In trying to answer this, a person will have to face another set of issues like what determines the qualifications or authority of a certain thing to be called the happiness. Further, it can also be asked, where does the authority of a particular set of standards that is applied to determine what is good come from Basically, Mill tried to resolve those by saying that the happiness should be what will be for the betterment of the society, or in a particular group. On first glance, it sounds good enough. But to take that for an answer, it will bring us again to the question of whether in the end, the good will simply be determined by a certain elite opinion.

Admittedly, in reality, the power or significance of an opinion is determined by how influential the person is who utters them. Further, in reality, there are political and business considerations that should be taken into account. By doing so, we might end up serving the interest of a particular elite group no matter how smaller their number is against other groups because of those limitations. Point is, the good may not be determined by the greatest number but instead, by the good of a smaller number because of those important considerations. To cite some instances, instead of cutting out on advertising or status style (lavish business trips, etc.) costs, a firm may opt to terminate services of some employees instead. Further, the firm may also opt for a lay off than minimize the companys profits.      

II. The Arguments
Seemingly, I have given an answer that is bordering between I know something and I do not know anything fields. Basically, to understand the argument it is essential to note that there are three factors that I have considered here which influenced my judgment. These factors include psychological, legalities or formalities in a business structure, and the differences existing among the theories under the utilitarian perspective.
Premises Based on Legalities or Formalities in Business Structure
It seems that, in this context, the lay-off is still under consideration by a particular committee and is not yet scheduled to be released to the public domain.
There are certain policies and ethical standards that govern the management team as well about how they make employees know about certain issues.
As the lay-off is a sensitive matter, it is something that should be handled following the firms standard procedures.

It seems that, in this case, the manager is no position to answer any queries about lay-off despite the fact that the he already knows because the announcement has not been made official yet. The manager is not in any position to announce a lay-off because the options are still under review.
Speaking about the lay-off may be pre-emptive. It may create certain apprehensions and misapprehensions that may impact how subordinates performance or functionality.

Premises Based on Psychological Considerations
Whatever response the manager will have, it surely will elicit certain reactions from his ex-coworker- this is basically a human nature.
As we cannot control how others will show their reactions into words and actions, extra caution must be exercised over whatever reaction stimuli we provide for another.

Telling the person the manager knows that a lay-off is called for, and more so that it will affect the department, can cause two different possible reactions from the employee. For one, the employee can work more efficiently, in the course of him trying to save his job. The other is that, it can cause him a sufficient amount of worry, if he does not have enough confidence in himself that he will be retained. To make matters more complicated, whichever of these reactions might it be, certainly if the co-worker has known that the manager knows a lay-off is planned, the co-worker has the possibility to form certain expectations.
A subordinate might expect the manager to defend them and save them from being laid-off. Again, this is just a possibility. But indeed, it happens in real-life that subordinates might take it against the manager in the end with the thinking that the manager cannot defend his subordinates well enough.

It is important to note now that more than the level of authority the manager exercises over his subordinates, a manager has the responsibility of piloting his team. This simply means that the manager is to oversee individual performance and to ensure the welfare of the whole team every time. Sometimes the mindset towards such responsibility, at least on the level of the subordinates, goes up to the extent that the idea becomes such that whatever happens in the team, the manager is always someone to get blames no matter what- this is an impression readily adapted to by people.

The worry that may result from knowing that chances of getting laid off is there, specifically the panic, of a subordinate can be transformed into possible deliberate inefficiency (some employees who think they will be terminated just stop performing) and can affect business operations (some people who think the company will terminate them start to act revengefully and may resort to doing an anomaly that can hurt the company to show the firm that he can also do something that can affect the company so it will belike power tripping in some sense.

On counter-arguments
Lying to the employee and telling him that there are no plans, just to appease him, can expose the manager-subordinates relationship to possible conflicts. Thus, it may be considered wrong in the utilitarian perspective because it brings more harm or damages, than good, in the end. As part of the management team, it is reasonable to expect that whatever plans the corporate management may have a team manager is informed about it before the plan is executed. Every employee knows this and lying can result to a bigger consequence of losing an amount of confidence and trust your team may have on you.

Considering the context that the manager has been part of the team prior to promotion, it sounds reasonable to assume that there is a certain level of relationship and friendship that has been formed between the newly appointed manager and his previous co-workers. This results to a different level of expectations on loyalty- it may be the case that, and is usually is, that co-workers expect that their co-workers will be loyal with them. Something in that loyalty is retained even though he manager has been transferred already to a different or higher position. Lying violates that sense of loyalty and can damage the managers relationship with his subordinates. Possible consequences of lying include the subordinates holding back against the manager, which then brings about terrible and uncomfortable situations. It may not be enough to assume that you have the situation under control in the sense that only one employee asked you the question. Co-workers do talk to one another and it is impossible to assume that the others will not get to know about the lie that you have given as an answer to that particular question

Wikis for everyone with Wikispaces

Coined from the two words, Wiki meaning a website that permits easy creation of interconnected web pages using the current capabilities of HTML, and spaces pertaining to the web pages itself, Wikispaces.com is one of the groupwares out in the internet that promises collaboration with anyone you intend to work with your web page. Makers of Wikispaces offer their services to businesses, to non-profits organizations and to academes.

Summary description of its structure and purpose
    Wikispaces claims to have a flexible interface for its users by permitting them to do many things, whether it is for their classroom, company or community group. Wikispaces caters educators, parents, professionals and members of non-profit organizations with a wide variety of functions fit for their work needs.

Overall look and feel and its apparent target audience
    The look and feel of Wikispaces site has a sleek and simple design that I think in general would be easy enough to navigate by first time visitors. Wikispaces made a very clear and well understandable documentation all over the website just like in their front page and help section. They had made the Get Started division in the right side of the front page with emphasis so to make logging in easy for those who had already registered their wikispace accounts that signifies their membership. Because of their use of large fonts and vibrant color of blue match with large image clips in white makes it suitable for view in mobile phones that do have internet access. Their apparent target audiences in my opinion do range from those children who are just starting to learn the basics of modern education up to those businessmen and professionals including the teachers who do want to systematically setup their way of collaboration with the people they work with.

Usefulness of Wikispaces   
Wikispaces is a great tool to make an organize work environment through the use of modern technology brought by the Internet. Paper trail will lessen as this would promote electronic transfer of documents such as memos and agreements for whether for profit or non-profit businesses. Teachers could upload their handouts while children could submit their home works thus saving money we used to pay for printing. Professionals could upload their resume CVs and work related stuffs such as schedules and drafts. Added to the upload functionality is the offered way of interaction with other people by allowing them to access and edit ones files.

Personal application
Just like what the site front page tells, Wikispaces are built for everyone. Since I am student, I can avail of their features they offer as a package specially designed to meet my needs. I may opt to become a member to access my teachers uploaded handouts and course assignments. After that, my teacher may ask me upload rather than print my answers. Checking could be done automatically for multiple choice questions using the template Wikispaces provides. It would be easy then for me and for the teacher to communicate with each other even at great distance since online learning is now possible.

Other things that I find interesting 
An added feature of Wikispace is what they call as a Private Label. It permits one member to create any number of self contained wiki environments. Its owner can make it as public, protected, or private depending on who wants to access it thus providing it security.
    
Now that I had explored the capabilities of Wikispaces as a groupware, it is then proven that its use would provide an edge in organizing ones collaboration with other people.

Summary description of the websites structure and purpose

At a glance, this website is rather well organized, having been broken down into a number of useful, non-complex links and tabs that the average technologically-savvy individual will find quite beneficial. For instance, there are all manner of items regarding both realms of hardware and software, ranging from current affairs of the websites that are the entire rave in the market, to a critical analysis of the trendiest gadget set to be on everyones wish list in the next couple of months (Bayan, 2004). Thus, this can be said to be a website entirely dedicated to the techno-buffs in the global village, from whence they can keep abreast with the real-time goings on in the wonderful world of electronics and information technology (Gulledge, 2007).
In addition, the site can be said to be geared towards addressing issues to do with the easement of peoples technological welfare, as tit-bits are offered as a form of assistance for a number of topical subjects, for example, the link on Mobile wireless which gives a thorough breakdown of useful phone applications and related comparisons, so as to ensure that, were an individual stuck somewhere in the valley of decision, he she would, a few clicks later, be in a position to make an informed choice.

Websites overall look and feel and target audience 
The site is relatively user-friendly, not to mention quite easy on the eye as a visitor quickly scans through its array of contents. The choice of red, black, blue and white as the thematic colors goes a long way in ensuring one takes a keen interest in the items on offer.
The target audience can be said to be the young people aged between 16-29 years of age, coupled with the new generation of technologically-conversant business people (30-39 years of age) and also the burgeoning selection of IT-(information-technology) liberal business organizations that are already established but also open to the idea of venturing into the virgin territory by way of employing the internet as a mode medium of communicating with their customers or stakeholders.

Usefulness of the site
The site, as aforementioned, is useful in a world of ways for starters, not only are the target people kept up-to-speed regarding the latest technology and information technology news (Gulledge, 2007), an end facilitated by the capability of the site to disseminate such information to a very wide audience through the application of the multiplier effect of sharing links on the already established social networks, including the widely popular Facebook and Twitter utilities, but also, links are available to aid in the navigation to accessing downloads for white papers, e-books, newsletters, to mention but a few (Finney, 1999).

Links 
As a background to this analysis, I personally followed up the subscription link to CIOs newsletters (Schuman, 2005), which was not that much of a hustle, only requiring a legitimate e-mail address to which the electronic newsletters would be sent on a regular basis. The download link to white papers was also of particular interest, in a bid to assess the practicality of the site itself to fulfilling its intended purposes. Additionally, some riveting articles also tickled my fancy, such as the one on the I-pad, Apple technologys new gadget, and another on IT Managements seven (7) deadly sins The link to betterment of business set-ups is among the few I intend to delve into on a later date though.

Interesting bits of the website  
The thing that mostly caught my eye regarding the site is its modest level of simplicity, whilst upholding the utmost quality standards of presenting and analyzing information in a manner that is both user-friendly and practically applicable to any Tom, Dick and Harry. Additionally, the depth of the content there-in is incredible, offering valuable insights that would make a geek out of the average user with even minute interest (Strassman, 2005).

Bottom-line evaluation of the website    
On a personal level, the site is of enormous value, shedding light on a variety of topics which serve to not only enlighten one on current affairs, but also actively educate regarding a myriad of issues, more inclined toward technological advancement (Bayan, 2004). The low down on an appropriate choice for an Operating System to use on ones personal computer, to troubleshooting networking problems and assessment of career options is unparalleled, while keeping users connected on the afore-mentioned social utility websites. Thus, this website can be said to have met the needs intended for on a range of scales (Schuman, 2005).