see description and attachment

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Sick Leave*

Kelly tried to control her anger as she thought about her supervisor. She couldn’t understand why he

was being so unreasonable. Maybe to him it was only a couple days of paid leave and not worth fighting

over, but to her it meant the difference between being able to go on vacation during Golden Week or

having to stay home. She looked at her contract and the phone number of CLAIR on her desk. She wasn't

the only person in the office affected by this. She sat and thought about how she should proceed.

Kelly

Kelly was 22 years old and had been working for the past six months at the Soto Board of Education

office in Japan. This was her first job after graduating from college with a degree in management, and

she was really excited to finally be in the real world.

Kelly was born in Calgary and had spent most of her life in Alberta, Canada. Kelly 's father was a

successful lawyer in Calgary, and her mother was a high school English teacher. Kelly had an older sister,

Laurel, 27, who had just passed the bar exam and was working for a corporate law firm in Edmonton.

Kelly had studied Japanese in high school and in university and spoke and wrote the language quite well.

When she was 15 years old, Kelly spent four months in Japan on a school exchange. She had enjoyed the

time she spent there and always planned to return one day. Upon graduating from high school, Kelly

went to the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, to study management.

During her final year at the university, Kelly heard some of her friends talking about the Japan Exchange

and Teaching (JET) Program. She was told that it was quite easy to get accepted-all an applicant needed

was a university degree and an interest in Japan-and that it would be a great way to make money and

see another part of the world. Kelly would have her degree by the end of the year and thought that

having lived in Japan and knowing the language showed enough interest to have her application

considered. Kelly thought that a year or two in Japan after her management degree would improve her

Japanese and give her more of a competitive advantage when she returned to Canada to begin her

career. She also thought that it would be a great way to make money and have some fun before she

came home to start a real job. She asked her friend how she could apply to the program and returned

home that night to work on her resume.

The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program

Before the JET Program

The origins of the JET Program can be traced back to 1982. In that year, the Japanese Ministry of

Education (Monbusbo) initiated a project known as the Monbusho English Fellows (MEF) Program,

which hired Americans to work at the local boards of education in order to assist Japanese English

teaching consultants who acted as advisors to the Japanese teachers of English in the public schools.

The task of the MEFs was to oversee the junior and senior high school English teachers and to assist

them with their training. In 1983, the British English Teachers Scheme (BETS) was inaugurated by the

Ministry of Education. However, from the outset the British teachers were stationed at schools, and the

goals of the program did not only concern English instruction but also sought to increase mutual

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understanding and improve friendly relations between the peoples of Japan and Britain. While there

were some differences between the two programs, both shared a common goal: inviting native English

speakers to Japan to assist in improving foreign language instruction.

The Birth of the JET Program

The realization that Japan must open itself more fully to contact with international societies resulted in

an awareness of the importance of promoting internationalization and international exchange at the

local level. This brought about not only expanded English instruction, but also a rapid increase in

exchange programs. Taking these new circumstances into account, the Japanese Ministry of Home

Affairs in 1985 released a paper titled "Plans for International Exchange Projects" as part of its priority

policy of local governments for the following year. In the paper, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed a

definite course for the internationalization of local governments, which ideally would lead to smoothly

functioning cultural exchanges. All of these ideas were finally implemented in a concrete project: The

Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program.

The Ministry of Home Affairs abolished the two projects currently in effect (MEF and BETS) and created

a new one that was entrusted simultaneously to three ministries: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the

Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the concept of appointing local

authorities to implement the program and act as host institutions was preserved. While discussions

were held with each of the local authorities to work out the details and ensure the smooth

implementation of such a massive program, the formation of a cooperative organization for all local

government was expedited.

The Creation of CLAIR

CLAIR, originally the Conference of Local Authorities for International Relations, was established in

October 1986 by the Todofuken (the 47 prefectures of Japan) and the Seireishiteitoshi (the [then) 10

designated cities) as a cooperative organization responsible for implementing the JET Program in

conjunction with the three Japanese ministries just named.

CLAIR's Role in the JET Program

To ensure smooth implementation of the JET Program, the three ministries, the local authorities, and

CLAIR were all given specific functions. The functions that the conference attempted to fulfill for

implementing the JET Program were as follows:

1. Advice and liaison during recruitment and selection.

2. Placement of participants.

3. Participant orientation, conferences.

4. Guidance for local authority host institutions.

5. Participant welfare and counseling.

6. Travel arrangements for participants coming to Japan.

7. Liaison with related groups and institution s.

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8. Publications and reference materials.

9. Publicity for the program.

The larger goal behind these functions of the conference was the promotion of international exchange

at the local level. Independent of this development, the Council of Local Authorities for lnternational

Relations (a public endowed foundation) was inaugurated in July 1987. The council's main duty was to

study and survey participating nations' local authorities overseas with the ultimate objective being to

support local government programs for the promotion of internationalization. By fostering international

exchange at the regional level, the council came to assume the same duties as the Conference of Local

Authorities for International Relations. It was suggested that both organizations merge since they held

information relevant to each other's work and shared the goals of improving work efficiency and

performing their tasks more effectively. Moreover, the annual growth of the JET Program led to an

increased number of interrelated duties and tasks. Thus it was necessary to strengthen the structure of

the Conference of Local Authorities for International Relations.

It was decided that the operations and financial assets of the conference would be assumed by the

council, and in August 1989 they were amalgamated, under the acronym of CLAIR, to form a joint

organization of local public bodies in Japan to support and promote internationalization at the regional

level.

Counseling System of the JET Program

1. Role of the host institution: Basic problems that JET participant s faced during their stay in Japan

were addressed by the host institution. If a JET had a complaint or a problem at work or in his or her

private life, the JET could alert his or her supervisor, who took up the matter and attempted to solve it.

2. Role of CLAIR: Problems or difficulties that JET Program participants faced were as a rule dealt

with by host institutions. However, if the issues were difficult to solve at this level, or if they concerned

grievances between the JET participant and the host institution, CLAIR employed a number of non-

Japanese program coordinators who would intervene and respond directly to participants' needs.

CLAIR would then step in on behalf of the JET participant and work to solve the problems with the host

institution.

1. The Special Committee for Counseling and Training: The Special Committee for Counseling and

Training consisted of the staff members of the three ministries (Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, and

Education), embassies of the participating countries, and host institutions. It took charge of orientation,

conferences, public welfare, and counseling. If necessary, it answered the questions and concerns of the

JET participants.

AJET

The Association for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (AJET) Program was an independent, self-

supporting organization created by JET Program participant s, whose elected officers were all

volunteers. Membership in AJET was also voluntary. AJET provided members with information about

working and living in Japan and provided a support network for members at the local, regional, and

national levels. Many Japanese and JETs considered AJET to be the union of the JET Program

participants.

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The First Job

Kelly looked over the information she received from the JET Program. There were two different

positions available: (1) the coordinator for international relations (CIR) and (2) the assistant language

teacher (ALT). The first position sounded quite interesting to Kelly since applicants were required to

have a functional knowledge of Japanese. ALTs, on the other hand, were not required to know any

Japanese before arriving in Japan. She realized that her odds of getting accepted were greater if she

applied to the second position since almost 600 ALTs were selected across Canada, compared with only

25 CIRs. Kelly was chosen for a CIR interview but in the end was offered a position as an ALT.

At first she was a little disappointed, but then she reminded herself that her original goal was to perfect

her Japanese, and she started to look forward to her trip to Japan.

Kelly received a lot of information about working and living in Japan from CLAIR. CLAIR also offered

several predeparture training sessions and orientations about life in Japan and its potential problems,

but she decided not to attend because after four months in Japan she already knew what to expect.

The Placement

Kelly was sent to Soto, a medium-sized city on the island of Shikoku. Kelly found the area a far cry from

Osaka, where she had stayed the previous time she was in Japan. Soto was, in Kelly's opinion, "a small

provincial town, stuck in the middle of nowhere.'· She had enjoyed the activity and nightlife of Osaka

and, except for sports, her only entertainment options in Soto were one movie theater, several pachinko

parlors, and scores of karaoke bars. Kelly very quickly developed the habit of going away on the

weekends to tour different parts of the island. She would also use her holidays to take advantage of

visiting parts of Japan that she might never again get a chance to see. After a few months, Kelly decided

that Soto was at least a good place to improve her Japanese since not many people spoke English very

well, and only a few other foreigners lived there.

Kelly worked at the board of education office three days a week and visited schools the other two days

to help with their English programs. There were three other JET participants who worked in the same

office: Mark, 27, another Canadian; Andrea, 26, an American; and Suzanne, 25, from Great Britain. Like

Kelly, Suzanne had been in Japan for only the past six months, while Mark and Andrea had been working

there for a year and a half. Kelly was on good terms with the other JETs in the office, although she was

closest with Suzanne since they had both arrived in Japan at the same time and had met at their

orientation in Tokyo.

Although Kelly had lived in Japan before, this was the first time she had worked in a Japanese office. She

had learned about Japanese work habits in a cross-cultural management class at the university, yet she

was still surprised at how committed the Japanese were to their jobs. The workday began each morning

at 8:30 with a staff meeting and officially ended each night at 5:00 p.m., yet no one left the office before

7:00 or 8:00 p.m., The Japanese also came in on Saturdays, which Kelly thought was absurd since it left

the employees with only one day a week to relax or spend time with their families.

Kelly and the other JETs in the office had a standard North American contract given to them by CLAIR

which stipulated hours, number of vacation days, amount of sick leave, and so on (Figure 2). The

contract stated that the JET participants only worked from Monday to Friday until 5:00 p.m. and did not

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mention working on Saturdays. Neither Kelly nor the other foreigners ever put in extra hours at the

office, nor were they ever asked to do so.

Kelly's supervisor was Mr. Higashi. At first Kelly thought that he was very kind and helpful because he

had picked her and Suzanne up from the airport and had arranged their housing before they arrived in

Japan. Mr. Higashi even took the two women shopping to help them buy necessary items like bedding

and dishes so they did not have to be without, even for one night.

Mr. Higashi

Mr. Higashi was born and had lived all of his life in Soto. He was 44 years old and had been teaching high

school English in and around Soto for more than 20 years. Two years ago, Mr. Higashi was promoted to

work as an adviser to all English teachers at the Soto Board of Education. This was a career-making

move, and one that placed him on the track to becoming a school principal.

This new position at the board of education made Mr. Higashi the direct supervisor over the foreign JET

participants in the office, as well as making him responsible for their actions. He had worked with them

before when he was still teaching in the school. but since they only came once a week to his school, he

had never had the chance to get, to know any of them really well.

Mr. Higashi found it very difficult to work with JETs. Since they were hired on a one-year contract basis,

renewable only to a maximum of three, he had already seen several come and go. He also considered it

inconvenient that Japanese was not a requirement for the JET participants because, since he was the

only person in the office who could speak English, he found that he wasted a lot of his time working as

an interpreter and helping the foreigners do simple everyday tasks like reading electric bills and opening

a bank account. Despite this, he did his best to treat the foreign assistants as he would any other kohai,

or subordinate, by nurturing their careers and acting as a father to them, since he knew what was best

for them. Mr. Higashi was aware that his next promotion was due not only to his own performance but

also to how well he interacted with his subordinates, so he worked hard to be a good mentor.

Mr. Higashi took an instant liking to Kelly because she spoke Japanese well and had already lived in

Japan. Although she was the youngest of the four ALTs, he hoped that she would guide the others and

assumed that she would not be the source of an) problems for hi m .

The ALTs' Opinion of Mr. Higashi

At first, Mr. Higashi seemed fine. All of the ALTs sat in two rows with their desks facing each other, as

they used to do in grade school, with Mr. Higashi’s desk facing Kelly's. The foreigners all agreed that Mr.

Higashi acted more like a father than a boss. He continually asked Kelly and Suzanne how they were

enjoying Japanese life and kept encouraging them to immerse themselves in Japanese culture. He left

brochures on Kelly's desk for courses in flower arranging and tea ceremony and even one on Japanese

cooking. At first Kelly found this rather amusing, but she soon tired of it and started to get fed up with

this constant pressure to "sign up" for Japanese culture. What she resented the most was that Mr.

Higashi kept insisting she try activities that were traditionally considered a woman 's domain. Not that

she had anything against flowers, but if she had been a man, she knew that Mr. Higashi would not have

hassled her this much to fit in. She knew that Japanese society was a male-dominated one. On her first

day at the office, Kelly had looked around and noticed that there were no Japanese women who had

been promoted to such a senior level within the board of education. The only women who worked

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there were young and single "office ladies" or secretaries. Although they were all very sweet young

women, Kelly was not about to become one of them and "retire" if and when she found a husband.

Kelly had been very active in sports back in Canada and bought herself a mountain bike when she

arrived in Japan so that she could go for rides in the country. At Suzanne's encouragement, Kelly joined a

local Kendo club. She had seen this Japanese style of fencing before back in Calgary, and had always

been attracted to the fast movements and interesting uniforms. Kelly hoped that Mr. Higashi would be

satisfied that she was finally getting involved in something traditionally Japanese and leave her alone.

On top of his chauvinistic attitudes, Kelly didn't think much of Mr. Higashi as a supervisor. If Kelly or any

of the other foreigners had a problem or question concerning living in Japan, he would either ignore

them or give them information that they later found out was incorrect. Andrea told Kelly that she

stopped going to Mr. Higashi when she had problems and instead consulted the office lady, since she

was always able to help her. Andrea had even joked that the office lady should be their supervisor

because she was by far more effective than Mr. Higashi.

As far as Suzanne was concerned, Mr. Higashi was utterly exasperating. He was forever arranging

projects and conferences for the ALTs to participate in, then changing his mind and canceling at the last

minute without bothering to tell them. He would also volunteer the ALTs to work on special assignments

over the holiday periods and then get angry when they told him that they had previous plans and were

unable to go. Suzanne recalled that one week before the Christmas vacation, Mr. Higashi announced

that he had arranged for her to visit a junior high school. Suzanne informed him that while she would

love to go, it was impossible since she had already booked the time off and had arranged a holiday to

Seoul, Korea. Mr. Higashi got angry and told her that he and the board of education would lose face if

she didn't attend. Suzanne told Mr. Higashi that losing face would not have been an issue if he had told

her about the visit in advance so she could have prepared for it. As a result, Suzanne lost all respect for

Mr. Higashi as a manager and continually challenged his authority. Whenever a problem arose, she was

quick to remind him that things were very different and much better in Great Britain.

Mark also had difficulties with Mr. Higashi. Mark was not much of a group player and resented Mr.

Higashi 's constantly telling him what to do. He preferred to withdraw and work on his own. He didn't

like Mr. Higashi 's paternalistic attitude. He just wanted to be treated like a normal, capable employee

and be given free rein to do his work. As a show of his independence, Mark refused to join in on any of

the "drinking meetings" after work.

The Japanese Opinion of the ALTs

The other Japanese employees in the office found it difficult to work with the ALTs because, as far as

they were concerned, the ALTs were never there long enough to become part of the group. It seemed

like just after they got to know one ALT, he or she left and was replaced by another. Another problem

was that since the foreigners usually did not speak Japanese, communication with them was extremely

frustrating.

The biggest problem that the employees at the board of education office had with the ALTs was that

they were so young and inexperienced. All of the men in the office had worked a minimum of 20 years

to reach this stage in their careers, only to find themselves working side by side with foreigners who had

recently graduated from college. To make matters worse, these young foreigners were also hired to

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advise them how to do their jobs better. The employees were also aware that the ALTs earned

practically the same salary as their supervisor each month.

The Japanese employees did not consider the ALTs to be very committed workers. They never stayed

past 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and never came to work on the weekends even though the rest of the

office did. It seemed as though the ALTs were rarely at the office. The ALTs also made it very clear that

they had a contract that allowed them vacation days, and they made sure that they used every single

day. The Japanese employees, on the other hand, rarely ever made use of their vacation time and knew

that if they took holidays as frequently as the foreigners, they could return to find that their desk had

been cleared.

The Incident

Kelly woke up one Monday morning with a high fever and a sore throat. She phoned Mr. Higashi to let

him know that she wouldn't be coming in that day and possibly not the next. Mr. Higashi asked if she

needed anything and told her to relax and take care of herself. Before he hung up, Mr. Higashi told her

that when she came back to the office, to make sure to bring in a doctor's note. Kelly was annoyed. The

last thing she wanted to do was to get out of bed and go to the clinic for a simple case of the flu. As she

was getting dressed she thought she was being treated like a schoolgirl by being forced to bring in a

note.

Two days later, Kelly returned to the office with the note from a physician in her hand. Andrea informed

her that Mark and Suzanne had also been sick and that she had been by herself in the office. She also

said that Mr. Higashi was suspicious that the three of them had been sick at the same time and had

commented that he knew that foreigners sometimes pretended to be sick in order to create longer

weekends. Kelly was glad that she had gone to the doctor and got a note so she could prove that she

was really sick. Kelly said good morning to Mr. Higashi and gave him her note. He took it from her

without so much as looking at it and threw it onto a huge pile of incoming mail on his desk. He asked her

if she was feeling better and then went back to his work.

At midmorning, the accountant came over to Kelly's desk and asked her to sign some papers. Kelly

reached for her pen and started to sign automatically until she noticed that she was signing for two days

of paid leave and not sick leave. She pointed out the error to the accountant, who told her that there

had not been a mistake. Kelly told the accountant to come back later and went over to speak with Mr.

Higashi. To her surprise, Mr. Higashi said that there had been no mistake and that this was standard

procedure in Japan. He said that typical Japanese employees normally did not make use of their vacation

time due to their great loyalty to the company. If an employee became sick, he often used his paid

vacation first out of respect for his employers.

Kelly responded that this was fine for Japanese employees, but since she was not Japanese, she

preferred to do things the Canadian way. Mr. Higashi replied that since she was in Japan, maybe she

should start doing things the Japanese way. Kelly turned away and looked at Andrea, not believing what

bad just happened.

The next day, both Mark and Suzanne returned to the office only to find themselves in the same

predicament as Kelly. Suzanne called Mr. Higashi a lunatic and Mark chose to stop speaking to him

altogether. Kelly was furious that they were being forced to waste two of their vacation days when they

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were guaranteed sick leave. She threw the JET contract on Mr. Higashi 's desk and pointed out the

section that stipulated the number of sick days they were entitled to and demanded that he honor their

contract as written.

Mr. Higashi looked extremely agitated and said that he had to go to a very important meeting and would

discuss the situation later. The accountant reappeared with the papers for the three ALTs to sign, but

they all refused. Suzanne started to complain about Mr. Higashi's incompetence, while Mark complained

about the Japanese style of management. Suzanne said that it was a shame that none of them had

bothered to join AJET, for wasn't this the kind of problem that unions were supposed to handle? Kelly

stared at the contract on her desk and said that they could take it to a higher level and involve CLAIR.

Andrea said that things could get ugly and people could lose face if it went that far. Kelly took her

agenda out of her desk and started looking for CLAIR's phone number.

*Source: This case was written by Laura Turek. Copyright ©2006 by Laura Turek. Used with permission.

This case was prepared as a basis for classroom discussion, not to illustrate either the effective or

ineffective management of an administrative situation.