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In this article we analyze how privilege is dynamically constructed as well as contested. A positioning analysis of interviews with employees of a multinational organization reveals the construction of a hierarchy of privilege. As this hierarchy is based on English proficiency along with other diversity dimensions, privilege is multifaceted. Furthermore, privilege is also contested. Contesting English‐proficiency–related privilege is connected to the speaker's position in the hierarchy of privilege. The analysis shows that both category membership and specific competences and skills cumulate to produce privileging effects, but also the possibilities for contesting privilege. At the same time, although the privilege gained by English proficiency is not invisible and is regularly contested, it is nevertheless silenced by those in advantage.

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This article examines power issues related to language diversity in organizations, thus answering the need to investigate the role of language in cross-cultural management. More specifically, it contributes to a better understanding of how intraorganizational power relations are (re)defined through language use. Building on insights from language-sensitive research in international business, the article suggests that a further conceptual development of power is needed to study multilingual organizations and their "politics." Inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, it aims at developing a differentiated notion of power that allows moving beyond possessive, competitive, and limitation-oriented understandings. It investigates power from a discursive perspective and thus suggests conceptualizing power as an effect of speaking acts. From this point of view, people contribute to the creation of power relations by adopting a multiplicity of subject positions when they talk about their and others' experiences in multilingual organizations. These processes were empirically investigated by conducting a qualitative case study of a multinational company located in Switzerland. The findings show a variety of subject positions for members of multilingual organizations, ranging from "winners on the rhetorical battlefield" to "helpers paving unskilled speakers the way." While being in the position of the "battle winner" means discursively constructing competitive power relations, being a "helper" entails the discursive construction of cooperationoriented power relations. Adopting a discursive approach thus allows to move the focus from "having"/"not having" power and from conflicts to a broader perspective on power relations. Power is then considered as productive in a general sense, and this productivity might engender competition as well as cooperation.

This article investigates the underaddressed productive power effects of multilingualism in professional contexts. Instead of conceiving of power in terms of possession, competition or limitation, it focuses on ‘power to’ get active, seize opportunities, create possibilities, take responsibility, make decisions, and relate to others. Re-analyzing data from a case study conducted in Switzerland, it shows how employees discursively construct various forms of getting active and creating possibilities to counterbalance the challenging aspects of their multilingual work environment. As a result, it presents a typology of agency creation in multilingual organizations. Agency is conceptualized as breaking away from a given frame of action and as taking initiatives to transform it.

This paper reviews language-sensitive research in International Business (IB) by asking how paradigmatic positions affect knowledge production in this field of study. Paradigms refer to the researchers’ assumptions about how research should be conducted and reported. Because they affect the theoretical aim and framing of a study, the data sources, and analysis techniques used, paradigms ultimately shape the kind of knowledge produced. To study how paradigmatic choices influence the knowledge produced, we compared 299 publications in the field of language-sensitive research with 229 publications in mainstream IB by determining the paradigmatic position from which each study had been conducted. Our analysis shows that the paradigmatic diversity of language-sensitive research exceeds that of mainstream IB. Although positivism still dominates language-sensitive research in IB, interpretivist and critical studies have accounted for a growing proportion of research over the years and exceed those in mainstream IB research. We suggest that the norms of the specific research field and of academia in general strongly influence paradigmatic choices, and thus the kind of knowledge researchers produce. The review opens up a novel perspective on knowledge production within language-sensitive IB research.

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