Ethical Dilemma

The year was 2010, and it was just another morning. I woke up in my dorm room, went to classes, and then got ready for work at Kumon Math and Reading Center LLC. At Kumon, employees work with and motivate students to attain knowledge of complex math and reading topics in a simpler way. Today we were assigned a new project; Five of my fellow employees and I were assembled into a team in which we would tutor 1st-8th grade students from topics such as simple addition all the way to geometry. Our manager told us this team would work together for 3 months with bi-weekly meetings to assess problems and give feedback. Each employee had been working at Kumon for a relatively short time while I had been there for two years, so I felt that the best way to succeed would be to take on a leadership role.

At first, everything went smoothly. Everyone came on time, we had no one supervising us, and students were slowly starting to understand their respective work. As time passed, however, all five employees would come in late and leave early. They would help students finish a problem, but not understand why. Everything they would normally do under supervision was now not a priority. From my perspective, it was a blatant abuse of autonomy and as a leader of the team, I knew action had to be taken. Our first meeting with the manager was the following day, and I was in a tough position. I did not want my fellow employees to feel like I was “throwing them under the bus”, however their inadequacies were clearer than ever. This was the first instance that I truly felt an ethical dilemma. I knew that whatever I did, someone was going to be hurt, so I chose not to say anything for the time being.

I took a step back to see what values of mine came into conflict with the actions of my peers. From early adolescence, my family instilled a strong respect for authoritative figures (Johnson, Pg 56), and I carried this with me when I became employed at Kumon. In a collectivist culture such as...