What's the difference between 派遣 and 出向?


Both seem to mean borrowing an employee from another company but not exactly
the same for both cases.




派遣 refers to sending a worker to another company while he/she is still
employed by the original company. If someone works under the command of
Company X but is paid salary by Company Y, he/she is called a 派遣社員. This can
happen in various forms, but typical, "so-called" 派遣社員's are employees of
large 派遣会社 (temporary staff agencies) dedicated for offering 派遣. They engage
in various types of (sometimes unimportant, sometimes special) labor, but they
usually don't have enough chances to get promoted. Despite its own advantages,
generally speaking, 派遣 is not seen as an ideal style of working.

出向 is not a legal term, but it basically refers to temporarily sending someone
to an associated company/office for various reasons. A 出向社員 is employed by the
new company, but expected to go back to their original workplace usually after
a few months or years. One important difference is that 出向 is often seen as a
good chance to develop the career of an elite worker. In the case of 出向, one
may be sent as a manager or even a board member of the new company. [_Kachō
Kōsaku Shima_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kach%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dsaku_Shima) is
a manga which depicts a salaryman who experiences a number of 出向's within an
imaginary conglomerate, until he finally becomes a president. (There are
negative 出向, too.)

