Michael Corbett does cracking good research and consulting on oustourcing, and one of his latest bits was a little web survey: Given that the recent Presidential election placed outsourcing squarely on the ballot, this month’s poll question asked: “Do you believe that the growth of outsourcing as a management practice will be affected by the results of the upcoming Presidential election?” The survey was completed BEFORE Americans went to the polls, and the results mirrored the same divided nature displayed by the overall electorate. With 37 responses the results* were: Yes – 51.4% No – 48.6% One’s answer likely depended a great deal on the time frame considered and who the winner might have been. In conversation with people over the past few months, I have heard of organizations that have delayed outsourcing decisions until after the election. If this is indeed prevalent, then a Kerry win might have further delayed those and other decisions until it became clearer how a Kerry Presidency would translate into specific tax and legislative initiatives. With the Bush win, it is more likely that any deferred projects will be coming off the shelf and moving forward. In either case, if one was looking out 12 to 18 months, then it’s hard to see any lasting impact regardless of which way the vote had gone. *As with all Web polls these results are not scientific and reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate, some of whom may vote multiple times.