Peter F. Drucker Boxed Set (8 Books) (The Drucker Library)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Sell the Mailroom: Unbundling in the ’90s

MORE AND MORE PEOPLE working in and for organizations will actually be on the payroll of an independent outside contractor. Businesses, hospitals, schools, governments, labor unions—all kinds of organizations, large and small—are increasingly “unbundling” clerical, maintenance, and support work.

Of course, the trend is not altogether new. A great many American hospitals—and European and Japanese hospitals as well—now farm out maintenance and patient feeding; 40 years ago none did. “Temporary help” firms go back more than 30 years; but while in the beginning they handled file clerks and ...