ABSTRACT
Phase I — Situation You are a board member of the Institute for International Business Communications (IIBC), which tests individuals on speaking, writing, and comprehension of the English language. Your organization is a non-profit organization that operates primarily in Japan and has a relationship with the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS). Your organization uses an expensive test on thousands of individuals, and the endeavor generates millions of dollars in revenue. The chairman of the board, Watanabe Yaeji, is a retired bureaucrat of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). The board is populated with many other retired bureaucrats from MITI and other business executives. The chairman of the board and many of the other members of the board have no experience or formal training in language teaching or testing. The organization was created with the permission the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and operating under the supervision of MITI, the IIBC assumed responsibilities for the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) in Japan (McCrostie, 2010).
