The Selfish Request of Japan

Submitted to Ms. Saima Asad

Submitted by Hamza Ali AshrafShenazar WastiShahid AliUmer MukhtarAoon MujtabaShoaib HaroonMohsin Mirza Nouraiz Saleem

A SELFISH REQUEST IN JAPAN

FACTS

Toby’s Response:

Toby was greatly upset due to the rejection of his request.

He has prepared for the GMAT test for the last three month and already completed all the

paper work for the test.

Apart for his teaching career he had a very successful martial arts career.

He was so successful in his martial arts that the fighting organization was ready to

sponsor his visa and he did not need a teaching job.

As initially in July, toby’s request remained unanswered by the management of NOGI he

researched about the personal day off offered by the Japanese law.

He found out that foreigners are allowed to have seven personal day offs in a year. But

the organization had the right to reject the personal day.

Toby considered him to be eligible for these personal days and believed that the

management of NOGI is acting improperly and not allowing him to take his due right.

Toby was reluctant to talk to management before getting any support regarding personal

day so he talked to Jim Crawford of Tokyo South General Union.

Jim was an American by nationality and by profession was a lawyer and he him self had

an experience of teaching English in Japan hence he knew the situation which Toby was

facing.

NOGI had different policies for Japanese and foreigners including the personal day

policy.

For Japanese employees the personal day policy was very flexible. They do not have to

inform the management before availing personal day in case of foreigner the policy was

very rigid and they have to inform the management in case before taking a day off.

Toby and Jim decided to gather support for official union which can defend the rights of

the foreigner employees.

They need to get 10 members to support them.

As people were contacted the reaction was surprisingly positive. It was because there

were a lot of unsatisfied employees who supported the effort.

Few days later Ms. Davies called Toby and asked him to meet Mr. Miyake who was

regional manager of NOGI.

As they reached Mr. Miyake was greatly surprised to see Toby with a legal person along

with him.

Jim started the discussion regarding illegalities while Mr. Miyake did not accepted the

blame and suggested that the companies attorney will talk to him where as he himself

will talk to Toby.

After a heated discussion Mr. Miyake allowed not to come for the job on that Saturday

and told that NOGI will take decision on this issue later.

NOGI’s Response:

One day before test toby was told that office was aware of his intentions and his wage for

that day will be held and he is to come back to office after test for a private lesson of 40

minutes. Toby accepted this.

Ms. Yamashina was upset at Toby’s decision because she has to take an extra class that

day

Both were curious about teacher union established that day as nine workers and toby got

membership and made a forum to discuss employee rights

Challenging authorities is not the culture of japan and the employee doing so is perceived

to be selfish and disrespectful, same happened to Toby his request is taken as act of

selfishness and disrespect

On October 15 1995 toby gave the test that was difficult with a lesson in Japanese

corporate hierarchy, Employment law and coworker relationship as toby had no idea

about this portion so he really suffered. After returning to office he saw Ms. Nakamura

but her behavior with him was rude and she advised toby to thank his coworkers for

handling extra work

Clearly this Saturday and its significance was as undesirable for Toby’s coworkers as it

was for him

Next week terry Allen the head trainer visited NOGI and apologize and informed toby

that his wage for Saturday will be compensated and that NOGI is working to revise

employee contracts and a half later that finally materialized

Critical Issues

Unjust policies of NOGI. The unjust policies demotivated the foreigner employees as

they were treated differently from Japanese.

There was cultural gap between Toby’s culture (American) and Japan, as Toby took Jim

along with him as a legal person on a meeting (which is an American thing). It was due to

the cultural gap because of which Mr. Miyake was greatly surprised at Toby’s action of

bringing a legal person along. This action created a negative atmosphere.

The organizational and management style was bureaucratic and autocratic and

management was not giving any relaxation to employees

Most employees were not satisfied with the management style

Employees from different culture does not feel equality as there was different standards

for American and Japanese employees

Theory:

Equity Theory

Management styles

Management philosophy

Alternative Solutions:

Let Toby take the test give him one day off. This will increase employee loyalty and

productivity. Because the employee will think that the company management is

cooperative and supportive it will put good impact on other employees because they will

think that company’s management is taking care of employees but this will increase the

number of leaves application, so company can suffer from high absenteeism.

Company’s management can arrange advance makeup classes to compensate for one day.

This will easily solve the issue with no loss of school or students. But some students

might not agree for advance makeup classes, this may disturb the routine of the students

which will lead to resistance.

Management can discuss career objectives with Toby and offer him mare lucrative jobs

in the school, which will change his mind and he will not think about taking G-MAT.

This will increase employee retention but such early promotion may cause dissentient in

old employees.

Plan of Action:

Arrange advance makeup classes to compensate for the day. Grant leave to Toby as it is his ethical right. Develop a non-discriminatory procedure to grant leaves to employees. This will increase employee commitment and loyalty.