An investigation on the impact of outsourcing strategies on organizational performance in a VUCA environment in Zimbabwe: a case of Unilever Zimbabwe

Abstract

The emergence of globalization has made outsourcing to become one of the widely embraced business strategy for delivering outstanding services to consumers in the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. However, despite the increasing trend in outsourcing arrangements, there is limited literature underpinnings on how outsourcing activities affect organization performance in FMCG sector in a VUCA environment. To bridge that gap this research sought to investigate the impact of outsourcing strategies on organizational performance in a VUCA environment in Zimbabwe, a case of Unilever Zimbabwe. The research objectives were to ascertain the impact of outsourcing human resources, information technology, and key inputs of production on organizational performance and to determine the mediating impact of turbulence on the relationship between outsourcing and organizational performance. The researcher used descriptive research design method in carrying out his study. Stratified random sampling was used to pick a sample size of 301. Data was collected from primary sources through survey method by use of questionnaires. The quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential analysis by use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 software. Both correlation and regression analysis were done, and the results revealed that, IT outsourcing and production outsourcing have a significant strong positive relationship with organizational performance. There is a weak negative relationship between organizational performance and human resources outsourcing. VUCA has presented Leadership with an opportunity to use outsourcing as a strategic tool to increase production output, reduce costs on Human Resources and tap into new technologies and improve quality and efficiency in the long run. Based on the study findings, the researcher made the following recommendations: The outsourcing decision-making process must be linked with the organization’s overall business strategy. Organizations must have robust performance measurement systems in place to evaluate and manage outsourcing effectively. Future research could be continued to measure various performance variables such as productivity, sales, revenues, career opportunities, manifest in power struggles, change jobs,