February 11, 2004
Diversity Symposium Forecasts Changes for Business
by Erica Grieder
|
“Diversity,” said Texas State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, “will be the key lynchpin for businesses to be successful in the future.”
Dukes gave the opening remarks for the Business Honors Program’s annual symposium at the McCombs School of Business on Feb. 7. The presentations which followed addressed a range of topics: globalization of labor, women in the professions, global population trends and demographic trends in the United States and Texas. All underscored Dukes' sentiment that business needs to embrace the realities of diversity to succeed.
As Steve Murdock, the state demographer of Texas, put it,
“The reality is that how well our non-Anglo populations do is
how well Texas and the United States will do. The future of
America is in diversity.”
Globalization of Labor
In his presentation on the globalization of labor, Ray
Marshall, professor emeritus at the LBJ School of Public Affairs
and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, considered why so many
highly-skilled jobs are going overseas and argued that the
solution to this problem lies in diversity.
The old conventional wisdom, he said, held that the way to ensure a secure and lucrative job was through higher education. Although nations such as India, Singapore and China might have workers willing to accept lower wages, it would take these countries generations to build the educational infrastructure necessary to catch up to the skills of the U.S. workforce. “That was dead wrong,” said Marshall. “The developing countries got there a lot faster than anyone thought they would.”
To an extent, this underestimation can be chalked up to what Marshall identified as one of this country’s perennial problems: hubris. “I’ll never forget the feeling that came over me in 1978 when Henry Ford, Jr., told me he wasn’t worried about the Japanese because they only make little cars,” he said.
Innovation, said Marshall, is key to remaining competitive in the global economy. “We need a value-added strategy; we need to do things that they will not be able to do as well,” he said. “The future will belong to the creators. If all you can do is something someone else can do, for a lot less than you are willing to do it, you’re in big trouble.”
The issue is complicated by certain demographic trends. In particular, increasing numbers of immigrants without much formal education are changing the workforce. “We need to make the investments required” for this population, Marshall said. He advocated a fairly generous amnesty program, saying, “We’re much better off with legal immigrants than constantly developing an underclass of people who don’t know where they stand, who work scared.”
Although making the necessary investments would be a
challenge, Marshall considers it worth the effort. “Diversity is
our comparative advantage,” he said, contending that new
perspectives on old problems can yield insights that lead to
innovation.
Women in the Professions
At a panel on women in the professions, Professor Sharon
Dunn, Andrea Choquette, BBA 04, Morgan Coleman, BBA 03, and
several alumni from the BHP class of 1984 considered diversity
from a more personal perspective. The symposium fell on
an alumni weekend for the Business Honors Program, and members
of the classes of 1964, 1974, 1984 and 1994 were present, having
come from as far away as Belize.
Lynn Utter, BBA 84 and a vice-president at the Coors Brewing Company, spoke of how she and her husband address the simultaneous demands of work and family. They decided two years ago that he would become a full-time stay-at-home dad.
“At first, I didn’t like it,” admitted Utter. “Even though I was a working mom, I had still been in charge of the nannies, and dance class, and Gymboree, and who was going where. But when he was home I had to let go of all that, and I had a lot of guilt.” Eventually, said Utter, she became comfortable with the arrangement—but recently, her husband has been showing interest in going back to work, and so they find themselves at another transitional point.
Another 1984 alumna, Laura Stanley Sailer, an accounting manager at Disaster Kleenup International, felt misgivings when she decided to leave her job to become a stay-at-home mom. “I knew it was the right thing for me to do,” she said, “but it’s a loss of self, your identity and who you are. You know you’ve spent all this time and energy getting these degrees, and to cut loose from that is a really hard thing to do.”
Students appreciated the opportunity to hear about the issues facing women in business from experienced perspectives. “Although I had a lot of misconceptions and worries about my future as a business professional and as a woman, I came out of the experience with a sigh of relief,” said Sarina Hickey, BBA 07. “I won’t allow being a woman to stop me from doing what I really want to do.”
In our culture, women who want to have children and maintain a full-time career face challenges along their path. Still, this state of affairs is preferable to the situation faced by women in other parts of the world. John Traphagan, the director of the Center for East Asian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, took up this issue during his presentation on global population trends.
Global Population Trends
Many industrialized nations, especially in East Asia, are seeing their populations decline. In Japan, said Traphagan, this is becoming an acute problem. If current trends continue, the population of Japan, currently some 127 million people, will be reduced to just 60 million by the end of the century. “Japan’s case, not to be overly dramatic, is staggering,” said Traphagan. “It is a tremendous problem. How are they going to pay for the care of the elderly?”
The Japanese population pyramid is becoming increasingly inverted, with elderly people outnumbering the young. There are several explanatory factors at work, such as better healthcare, but these pertain to all industrialized nations. The unique thing about Japan is that the fertility rate has collapsed, and Traphagan considers prevalent ideas about gender roles to be the culprit.
The standard pattern in Japanese society is that a woman works for several years, but is expected to quit her job after marriage. “An incredible number of women,” said Traphagan, “are choosing not to marry and not to have children, for their careers. They don’t want to give up their career, which would be expected if they get married. And that’s happening often enough to affect fertility.” The aging of the population, Traphagan concluded, along with a declining birth rate and workforce, will have serious consequences for the country.
“Japan’s government is terrified of their population being
cut in half? I would be, too,” said Michael DeGroot, BBA 06,
adding, “On a positive note, it looks like phenomenal business
opportunities in Japan’s health care system are on the horizon.”
Demographic Trends in the U.S. and Texas
Many Western countries are facing problems similar to those
of Japan, albeit on a much milder scale. The United States, too,
faces a disproportionately elderly population as baby boomers
move out of their middle ages. The graying of the country is
cause for some concern. “We baby boomers are a very important
group, but much maligned, and not just by our children and
spouses,” noted Steve Murdock, the state demographer, in his
presentation on demographic trends in the U.S. and Texas.
Thirty years from now, said Murdock, one in five Americans will be over 65. Therefore, now would be a good time to address some of the tough questions that will inevitably be asked concerning the care of the burgeoning ranks of the elderly. “We have a demographic window of opportunity that, when it closes, will remain closed for several decades,” said Murdock.
However, the U.S. is not in as dire straits as some other countries, because it continues to grow. According to Murdock, immigration is the driver of the country’s pervasive, consistent growth. As such, it is differentiates the U.S. from other Western nations in terms of demographic trends.
The fact that immigration is propelling our growth is one reason for the shifting ethnic composition of the country. “In recent years, in every state in the country, the non-Anglo population grew faster than the Anglo population,” said Murdock. He noted that the Hispanic population is seeing a particularly high growth rate, “even in such hotbeds of Hispanic culture as Idaho and Iowa.”
The United States is becoming a majority minority nation, said Murdock, and the state of Texas is a bellwether. “In fact,” he said, “One of the things I say to people is, if you’re really interested in looking at the country that your children and grandchildren will live in, all you have to do, if you’re in Texas, is look around.”
The effects of these demographic changes will be palpable. “These demographic factors are tied to socioeconomic factors,” said Murdock, “and if the population of Texas and the nation changes in the way we expect it to change, and we don’t change the socioeconomic differences that exist in our society, we will change the very economy of Texas and the country.”
At the beginning of his speech, noting wryly that “demography is a divine calling,” Murdock asked his audience to bear with him if he became “preachy.” Towards the end, he did become passionate on his chosen topic:
I argue that the most important thing for Texas and the United States to do as we go forward in time is to increase the socioeconomic achievement of non-Anglo populations, particularly African-American and Hispanic populations. Now I could say that from some social egalitarian or humanitarian perspective, but I could also be the biggest bigot that ever walked the face of Texas and I’d have to say exactly the same thing. Because I know that 96% of the net population additions between now and 2040 are going to be non-Anglo. I know that by 2040, 68% of consumer expenditures, 80% of kids in Texas elementary and secondary schools, and 70% of students in colleges and universities are going to be non-Anglo. And if we don’t change the socioeconomics between our groups as we go forward in time, Texas will be poorer and less competitive, and the nation will be poorer and less competitive.
In the context of the presentation, the remarks were highly salient, reflecting themes that emerged throughout the symposium. As a group, speakers, corporate and student participants alike reflected a consensus that increasing diversity is a global force driving changes that demand attention from all sectors of society--not least of all from the world of business.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
