College aantekeningen
Language Management in International Organisations
- Instelling
- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Grade: 8.5. This document contains all lectures and includes very extensive notes made during the lectures.
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Voorbeeld van de inhoud
Language Management in International OrganizationsLecture 1
Course objectives: understand, explain, analyze, evaluate…
• The importance of language management for international organizations
• The contextual factors that may influence an international organization’s
language management
• The cognitive and social mechanisms that are activated in multilingual situations
in international organizations
• The influence of language on:
- The redefinition of organizational structure
- The realization of internal and external networks
- The exchange of knowledge for international organizations
• The range and effectiveness of language management options that are available
to international organizations
Language Management in International Organizations
‘Companies deal with language issues every day, they cope, the world continues to
turn. How they do so, however, remains largely absent from the literature.’
‘The emerging work that attempt to redress this neglect is showing how an
organization can be rendered partially deaf, mute and blind because of language
effects, ultimately creating the silent organization.’
Cares about language management?
Effective language use = effective business.
(However, language skills are often an after thought).
Chapter 1
What is language according to Piekkari et al.?
• Everyday spoken/written language: language for interpersonal,
interunit and external communication
• Company jargon/speak: specialized language consisting of
acronyms, special terms, and management process terminology,
which evolves over time.
• Technical/professional language: coded language common within
and between groups (inclusive or exclusive in nature) and is often
combined with company jargon.
The aforementioned are interconnected, but the book focuses on everyday
spoken/written language. Also, the language separated from culture (‘out of the
embeddedness- in-culture perspective).
Lecture 2
Chapter 1
Language is either seen as a technical thing (it can be fixed through language).
Organizations define their policies → do they make a distinction between language &
culture?
- Culture = social system in which people function and think in a particular manner.
- Language = expression of personal feelings, thoughts, etc.
1
,Language gives a lot of information on viewpoints on how you should organize
information.
English as a lingua franca: Why is English different from other languages in the
world?
English is used across cultures in order to do business, etc. E.g. English can be
used in order to create a specific company culture. Does English belong to the
English or also to the rest of the world?
• Over 85% of international organizations use English as one of their official
languages.
• 7% of French firms use English as main language.
Some organizations do NOT use the English language → important because it
defines the organizational culture; it says something about their philosophy. So
English is a political phenomenon.
• English fluency = possibility to participate in global conversation, but also
functions as a contact or transit language (= lingua franca). English is most
dominant lingua franca, but there are multiple lingua franca’s out there.
The status of English → a research specialism because of the influence of the
majority of its speakers (the non-natives!).
• English as a dominant lingua franca does not have to be permanent. What about
the rise of China/India and the impact on the importance of other languages, such
as Hindi? The authors state that English might not dominate for long. People may
agree or disagree. English comes from a long history with English language &
culture; it takes a long period of time.
Countries are sometimes occupied keeping English away.
• Countries, e.g. France, are attempting to protect their language from English
influenced.
• English has always been influenced by other languages and continues to do so: it
is dynamic.
• Certain languages are easier for social media use: e.g. Twitter and Mandarin (so
English is not always best for everything).
• Old adage: ‘the medium creates the message’, but also creates the message’s
code?
2
,In foreign language use, the potential for noise is greater.
• Noise exists in communication, different media influence language use when
people share native languages.
• Foreign languages add more noise, potentially.
• A solution to minimize noise is to impose a common corporate language (CCL).
o E.g. Volkswagen → ‘the most German of German companies’. In 2016
they decided to switch their German language to English. It is a huge
international company, they did that in order to better attract talent
globally. Moreover, talents from different language backgrounds →
diversify staff. Diversity is a popular concept in society today; great way to
generate innovation. Perceived as great way to enhance competitive edge.
Other motivation is to attract top talent from various places in the world.
Diversification is about attracting the best of the best of the world.
Volkswagen CCL = English, however:
- Volkswagen 2015 → ‘das Auto’ in Korean commercial. 2019 → no longer,
‘das Auto’. German part of Volkwagen is still important to communicate the
typical brand.
In 2019 got a little less German, but still German (still German pronunciation of
‘Volkswagen’). How companies use language internally and externally says a lot
about what they want to be, who they think they are, etc. Common way to create
international communication = common corporate language.
CLL KONE example:
Two-thirds of the staff had to operate in CCL (English), which was not their native
language. What does this mean?
A CCL requires:
1) Fluency: individuals can create social networks, internally and externally, to grow,
maintain a business.
o What type of fluency are we talking about here (able to make decent
conversation, etc.?) → You need the staff to be fluent, can differ across
subunits.
o What is an organization? (how do you define it? e.g. meaning of
headquarters, etc.).
2) Understanding of subconscious influence of language and culture on business
decisions:
o Physic distance = the preference of businesses for foreign markets that
were culturally similar (people prefer what is similar to them; can influence
in what extent people will engage with you).
o Why are these tricky issues?
- Admitting you’re not as fluent as an employee/boss.
- Language effects are often opaque (they are not bluntly obvious).
- People view language issues as a technical issue (‘translators,
interpreters will fix it’ → not the case!).
Language impacts:
- Communication processes
- Knowledge transfer
- Internal (re)structuring mechanism
3
, People from same background are more likely to communicate than people from
other backgrounds.
Language skills should be considered as part of people’s human capital (e.g.
Volkswagen, diverse staff/nationality/gender). But, this requires a very specific view
on what language skills are!
o What you’re able to do is different than merely taking a course.
o In companies it is not always clear that such a difference exists.
Language & expansion strategies.
Staying within language comfort zones reduces physic distance, has business
advantages:
- Easier, cheaper collection/processing information
- Easier to build network, negotiate
- Easier/cheaper promotional activities (but language similarity is not the same as
market similarity).
Please note: export literature shows export = driven by foreign approaches!
Language & expansion strategies:
• Empire language paths: British/Spanish empire connections. Empire language
paths (English) easier to move from American to British market because of
limited language barriers.
- Limitation: Empires can differ in size and other markets might be more
attractive; paradox of language distance. Does not guarantee success
necessarily.
• Diaspora language path: ‘bamboo network’ of Chinese immigrant.
- A limitation = you need to move beyond network within foreign market.
These paths are not necessarily based on nationality, but on language/dialect.
Companies either started by diaspora, and then moved to countries where similar
languages are spoken.
• What if you’re Japan? Large country; global power; limited Japanese outside of
Japan…
➢ Hypothetically: You use trading companies... You move to nearby
countries (e.g. Thailand), then English-speaking-countries, build
knowledge/skills, then move to countries where English levels are
generally high (e.g. NL, Denmark) = language economy of scale.
• Also, migrant can act as language bridge-builders to assess markets. They have
the language fluency, the cultural background and thus can become key
decisionmakers. Pitfall = heavy reliance for big business decisions.
E.g. Amazon → 1994: US e-commerce company (core business). Companies can
have different motivations to expand to another country. Germany = keyplayer
financially speaking. UK & Germany show immediately why a market can be
relevant. Companies are not keen in sharing their motivations, that is what makes it
difficult to study organizations. Countries that are similar in language, but also
countries that are economically interesting.
E.g. Netflix → 2007: US entertainment streaming company. Moved from US to
Canada (empire path), moving to Latin America, Central America, Caribbean. Then
4
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