That was an interesting article thanks for posting it. I think it was fairly accurate as well. While I obviously can't vouch for the managers point of view as being accurate (I'm not Japanese and don't work at an Eikaiwa), I can say it closely mirrors the attitudes of the company 'spirit and propaganda' I was exposed to. I'd guess that its fairly accurate. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with it either aside from the fundamental difference in the starting points between a school and a business, which is more philosophical than anything. As was pointed out, people need to make a buck and get by in life.

As for the teachers, I don't really think it's smart to complain about being 'left out of the loop' when it comes to managerial issues. The teachers aren't brought in as consultants they're brought in to teach, thats it. Any Eikaiwa teacher who feels they need to be part of the organizatioinal structure should work their way up the chain of command and do something about it. Otherwise it's just too many cooks in the kitchen.

The article did highlight something though that I think is one of the main issues at Eikaiwas, and that's the transient nature of the job. You need gaijins to manage gaijins, its the only way, and unfortunately very few of them are willing to stay beyond 2 or 3 years at the most. And that's not surprising either, re-locating to a foregin country isn't the highest priority on alot of young people's lists, and in all fairness its advertised as a post-graduate 'experience', many teachers arrive with the idea that they're definitely gonna leave. So finding people who are strongly committed to the company, to enforcing its rules, etc. is hard and the professionalism gap widens between management and English-speaking staff, which was the point of the whole article.

To remedy this I think from personal experience, dangling a few carrots in front of us might help (bonuses for the individual with the most positive feedback received in a monthly period perhaps). It would also help if promotions carried significant incentives as well. The job of AT and BT at Nova for example (Assistant Trainer and Block Trainer) both carry a lot of increase in workload with little increase in pay. With the extra work and hours it's almost a pay cut compared to the salary increase. Again, gotta dangle those carrots, that seems more 'professional' and business-oriented to me.