Jennifer Nevard South Metropolitan College of TAFE Western Australia
Email: nevarj@fleetst.training.wa.gov.au Phone: 08 9239 8124 Fax: 08 9239 8088
Karpin recommended that schools provide a general education and both primary and secondary students should be exposed to a form of education which values enterprise and entrepreneurial behaviour. An enterprise based curriculum along these lines has since been developed by the Department of Employment Education Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) for secondary students. However, there are also concerning features about our future that extend beyond doing business in an enterprising fashion.
Optimistic predictions identify a number of areas young people interested in business careers could pursue. For example, those who are willing to conduct their working lives between countries could consider a career with a transnational company. These claims need to be tempered with the knowledge that this environment would be highly competitive and, in some instances, could be a " closed shop" for ambitious young Australians. Based upon Beaverstock and Smith's research 2 much of the recruiting would be of nationals from the UK, America and Japan where these young highly skilled workers would learn the values and policies of organisations located in global hub cities such as London, New York or Tokyo. A young Australia might need to consider completing business training at a targeted international business school in one of these locations. This career choice would be limited to a small number of highly networked Australians. As well the value systems of transnational companies might be unattractive to some young Australians. For example, the transnational practices of shifting company profits to a national destination where income tax rates are very low, could be regarded by some young people as immoral rather than proactive. An example close to home is Toyota Australia which has declared tax losses in their Australian tax returns since 1989 3 .
Some futurists and strategic planners consider that Sydney may emerge as a world regional city. On these grounds then young Australians with a desire to work with a transnational company may therefore find the richest recruiting ground in Australia to be Sydney. Young people may need to consider whether a Sydney based management school will be their most appropriate destination from the point of view of recruiting. If they join a transnational organisation they may find that their role remains that of local-transnational staff. Australian transnational companies may wish to maintain Australia as home base, however, of the top 100 transnational companies, 46 are American, 17 are Japanese, ten are British, eight are French and another eight are German 4 .
There is some likelihood that related industries may cluster in an international hub city, particularly if there is a need for 24 hour trading in the industry. Young Australians might set their goals on an English speaking hub. This could limit their activity to London or New York. Places such as Singapore, for example, would find a bilingual Australian worker more suited to their needs. Similarly, a Japanese speaking Australian would need to reach a high level of competence to satisfy the needs of a Japanese transnational organisation. Based upon evidence provided by Howes 5 and Zarsky 6 about the nature of regional trade, having a language in addition to English would assist an Australian manager to participate in intra-regional trade activities in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Rim areas.Hopefully a young manager abroad might be taught to understand issues beyond simply that of how to turn a profit. For example, a recent World Trade Organisation meeting in Hyderabad (May, 1998) prompted Indian workers to produce the following impassioned manifesto for denouncing some international trading practices: 7
We, the people of India, hereby declare that we consider the WTO our brutal enemy. This unaccountable and notoriously undemocratic body called the WTO has the potential not only to suck the sweat and blood of the masses of two thirds of the world, but has also started destroying our natural habitat and traditional agricultural and other knowledge systems...converting us into objects of Transnational Corporations' economy of consumerism... the WTO will kill us unless we kill it.
Clearly, young executives abroad would be wise to understand the political environment in which their organisation operates.
For young Australians interested in careers in-person service work at home there will be growth in this sector. The demand for in-person service careers will be twice as great as the need for symbolic analysts (the problem identifiers and solvers and the strategic brokers). If current trends gather momentum, numbers of community services are likely to be out-sourced from government management to non-government providers. Some of these health and community service providers are likely to be transnational companies who will broker to local service deliverers. There will be pressure to monitor a service quality and standardise procedures. This can lead to a dilemma at point of delivery where quality of service to the individual customer can be lost in the contracting agency's demands for meeting their bureaucratic requirements.
Some futurists, for example Langmore and Quiggin 8 , Ellyard 9 , Aronowitz and DiFazio 10 and Archibugi and Michie 11 sound warnings of the reduced power, income and influence of national governments. Unless creative resource distribution solutions are found, it is likely that service provision may be relatively under resourced and that instead of dissatisfied clients targeting Canberra, head office may be London or Chang Mai, for example. If current trends are any indication of future choices, many women will remain involved in these industries. For those with technological expertise or the entrepreneurial skills, there are likely to be opportunities for remote community services delivery and development of innovative solutions to community service associated problems. This has implications for how we advise young people on their future career choices and what cautions we may want to provide to prepare them for working in an environment where local services may be the responsibility of a distant or multinational conglomerate.
A further consideration, for today's young people will be that they may be competing in an international market of expertise. Any Australian product could be facing global competition. The European Economic Community already has projects which deal with various forms of remote service delivery. Any intra-regional economic alliances Australia participates in may need to target the similarities of circumstances of regional community members in order to provide a more relevant product than the global product of a transnational company. Minority groups may find their interests not being well served by processes seeking global economic efficiencies. Young Australians moving into these industries may be confronted with issues relating to morality, integrity, niche market entrepreneurial activity and unique problem solving requirements.
Based upon the research of Langmore and Quiggin 12 , Ife 13 and Ellyard 14 , Australia may find that some of its regions will focus on transnational activity while other geographical areas will concern themselves with smaller scale industries such as agri-industries, eco-industries, outsourced teletasks, research, tourism and recreation, land regeneration and conservation, biodiversity and communications enhancements. This will have implications for how students see their own futures and how they are offered preparation.
There is an increasing gap between the affluent and the poor in Australia. In March 1998 it was reported that 30% of Australians had incomes below the poverty line. This was in comparison with the last measure conducted in 1972 when 20% of Australians fell into that same category 15 . Public education could be a casualty in the process of distributing limited public funding to government infrastructure. There will need to be leaders who understand economic trends and who can exploit Australia's desire to be a continued target for foreign investment. Their strategies could include mobilising the threat of instability as leverage for obtaining better circumstances for the under resourced segments of the population. Cities such as Newcastle, Port Kembla and Whyalla which may reorientate because of declining heavy industries may become leaders in resistant thinking and alternative civic models. These are issues young people may need to be apprised of through studies in social geography, economic modelling, negotiation strategies and scenario planning.
Based upon the scenarios outlined above, the education that a future leader or manager would therefore best gain through their school experience could include: opportunities to identify and develop alternative solutions to problems; entrepreneurial opportunities which could be trialed; interaction with female and male leader and manager role models for both primary and secondary students; access to IT links to other schools in Australia and overseas; opportunities to apply computing across the curriculum; learning about morality, integrity and a need for social justice for all, respect for other cultures, experience in working cooperatively in ranges of different group configurations, both internal and external to the school, and awareness programs for parents so that they can encourage their child into new, as yet undeveloped, fields.
Our school students will also need to understand which kinds of futures are likely to be available for them based upon their location and their access to educational resources. How existing economic models are built and what alternatives might be developed could be areas of investigation in the school curriculum. Understanding how morality can be challenged when decisions are made on one continent and the impact is felt on another will be important in a globally oriented society. Civic tradition 16 will be another area likely to require consideration within the school curriculum. This will be because Australian beliefs and values may be challenged in the future by decisions made outside our borders.
Within a civic tradition, Langmore and Quiggin 17 describe an Australian society which could aim to become more secure, free, just and creative. They suggest that these could be goals for government and the community. Their list of characteristics of a more secure society include seeking to establish employment opportunities for all who want them, a fair income, the right to own property, community solidarity, peaceful conflict resolution, national economic viability and ecological sustainability. Their ideas for freedom include citizens having the choice to look after themselves, to lead fulfilling lives, and to be involved in all forms of organisational and national government. They suggest that social justice should include equity in the distribution of income, wealth and power. The dignity of all people would be preserved. In relation to developing and fostering a creative society, it would be one where citizens could enjoy enlivening relaxation, exciting sport and entertainment, and cultural, intellectual, scientific and spiritual enrichment.
In support of a need for students receiving an education in civic tradition, Pixley 18 argues that employment is a linchpin for citizenship and this in turn initiates rights and obligations which make it possible to participate in the life of a society. A society deprived of the opportunity to work is likely to be dysfunctional. One ancient example comes from the crumbling Roman Empire where citizens were provided with food allocations and access to entertainment, commonly referred to in history text books as a "bread and circuses" policy. This feature of their society has been frequently interpreted by historians as a symbol of the empire's social breakdown.
Once again, a need to aspire to a value system beyond being good at business is provided by Peter C Doherty, 1996 Australian Nobel Laureate in Medicine who speaks eloquently on the need for the social and economic value of promoting a culture of curiosity and national enquiry 19 . He argues that there is ample evidence to support a view that government support for basic science work drives industrial innovation and growth, that individual initiative is insufficient if unsupported by a "larger order". Some administrators work extremely hard to increase the casual ratio of their staffing component. This is an employment pattern which numbers of futurists consider will be standard practice through the "post industrial" era and beyond. In Australia there has also been a move towards outsourcing segments of vocational training through tendering processes. In some states this would now amount to the privatisation of about one third of all. As well, other vocational education components are delivered in schools. These patterns represent a form of deregulation of the training industry.
As well, Ife cites a change in view by the World Bank which has recently been advising nations on the wisdom of having in place a strong public sector. The World Bank considers this is necessary to support healthy national economies and to develop the basics of a civic society. As he points out, the welfare state as we have known it was established after the 1939-45 war to address social problems not adequately addressed through market driven forces which had their most negative manifestation in the economic depression, 1929-1939.
A further unsavoury statistic Ife cites is that the income and wealth of the world's eight richest people could provide basic food, shelter, health care and education for the world's population. As well, the Weekend Financial Review reported in September, 1997 that it now takes $55 million dollars to win a place in the Business Review Weekly magazine's annual Rich 200 list, up from $30 million a decade ago. The richest 10% of Australians owned about 43% of Australia's total wealth in 1993-94 and over the past decade, the CEO's of Australia's top 50 companies have increased their average salary from 36 times the average salary of employees in their own firms to 49 times the average. Clearly equitable distribution of income is an area not being satisfactorily addressed on an international as well as national basis. One might want to ask who exactly are the anti heroes our "heroes" are pitting themselves against. To some extent the 1990s are addressing some of the wayward business practices of the 1980s. As well, there have been recent moves to call Swiss Bankers to account for questionable practices of the 1930s and 1940s. While business integrity encourages workers to follow rules of business practice there is also a need for business morality.
Harcourt 23 , an eminent expatriate Australian economist rejects mechanistic models of the economy, as well, pointing out that while the US administration refuses to tackle social ills such as poverty, the quality of life for all Americans is diminished. This is despite material abundance for some. Harcourt stresses the need for economists to understand historic context. He suggests that mathematical modelling of the world has its place however, not to the exclusion of other ways of understanding it. For example, he suggests that Australia would be wise to consider a less gun-ho approach to cutting tariffs so that the government more adequately takes into account the human adjustment costs of those kinds of major refocusing decisions.
Along with Harcourt's acknowledgment that work and the economy has a history which could be consulted more frequently, there are also psychological facets to how work is interpreted by individuals and groups which have been raised by Langmore, Quiggin, and Howard. Often work related psychology has focused on increasing productivity or group effectiveness and employment psychology has often been associated with Taylorism or scientific management. Another interesting area of human psychology, addressed by Handy and by Sinclair, involve some of the deeper psychological roles of story and how it is used or reused by a culture. One implication of portraying leaders and managers as heroes is associated with the history of hero stories in this millennium. Propp 24 has demonstrated that legends share similar structures across many cultures and that the formation of those legends is embedded in a culture's psyche. It becomes the basis for art forms, conversational narratives, advertising and personal expectations, among other things. As Sinclair points out, the hero tradition does not readily incorporate women in the model as the heroes. As well, the general framework of the hero story is such that the leader is generally selected from within the group. By bringing overseas managers into Australian enterprises we would be positioning men and women from other cultural backgrounds as the new heroes. This strategy may not stimulate the same emotional responses or mobilise that same kind of loyalty in workers as operates at present. In the future, a leader's position may be substantiated by their claim to superior skills and knowledge or a form of attractiveness which creates loyalty in followers and attracts corporate clients and partnerships. However, the body of permanent workers in an organisation may well be significantly reduced and, as contract work is likely to replace some employment for life positions, loyalty may no longer play the same significant role in enterprise culture. This may mean that work will be occupying a different kind of role in people's lives.
While Australia's leaders and managers may be encouraged to look outward to participate in a global economy, the ramifications of their decisions for domestic Australia could be the difference between social justice and a further widening of the divide between resourced and under-resourced segments of the Australian population.