H ow workers experience and express status loss in organizations has received little scholarly attention. I conducted a qualitative study of a French high-tech company that had instituted English as a lingua franca, or common language, as a context for examining this question. Results indicate that nonnative English-speaking employees experienced status loss regardless of their English fluency level. Yet variability in their self-assessed fluency-an achieved status marker-was associated with differences in language performance anxiety and job insecurity in a nonlinear fashion: those who believed they had medium-level fluency were the most anxious compared with their low-and high-fluency coworkers. In almost all cases where fluency ratings differed, self-assessed rather than objective fluency determined how speakers explained their feelings and actions. Although nonnative speakers shared a common attitude of resentment and distrust toward their native English-speaking coworkers, their behavioral responses-assertion, inhibition, or learning-to encounters with native speakers differed based on their self-perceived fluencies. No status differences materialized among nonnative speakers as a function of diverse linguistic and national backgrounds. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for status, achieved characteristics, and language in organizations.

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Theories of status rarely address "unearned status gain," defined as an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth attained not through individual effort or achievement but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory about unearned status gain drawing from a qualitative study of 90 U.S.-based employees of a Japanese organization following a company-wide English language mandate. These native English-speaking employees believed that the mandate elevated their worth in the organization, a status gain they attributed to chance, hence deeming it unearned. They also reported a heightened sense of belonging, optimism about career advancement, and access to expanded networks. Yet, among those who interacted regularly with Japanese counterparts, narratives also revealed discomfort, which was manifested in at least two ways. These informants engaged in "status rationalization," emphasizing the benefits that Japanese employees might obtain by learning English, and prevaricated on whether the change was temporary or durable, a process we call "status stability appraisal." The fact that these narratives were present only among those working closely with Japanese employees highlights intergroup contact as a factor in shaping the unearned status gain experience. Supplemental analysis of data gathered from 66 Japanese employees of the organization provided the broader organizational context and the nonnative speakers' perspective of the language shift. This study's findings expand our overall understanding of status dynamics in organizations, and show how status gains can yield both positive and negative outcomes. I wasn't always sure that there was a career path for me here. I'm talking about five, ten years down the road.. .. Making English the official language opens up the possibility that I could be of value at different offices in the long run.

Research Summary: Despite the recognition that knowledge sharing among employees is necessary to enact knowledge strategy, little is known about how to enable such sharing. Recent research suggests that social media may promote knowledge sharing because they allow social lubrication and the formation of trust. Our longitudinal and comparative analysis of social media usage at two large firms indicates that users who participate in nonwork interactions on social media catalyze a cycle of curiosity and passable trust that enables them to connect and share knowledge. Paradoxically, the very nonworkrelated content that attracts users to social media and shapes passable trust can become a source of tension, thwarting a firm's ability to encapsulate knowledge in the form of routines and to use it to enact its strategy. Managerial Summary: Integrating knowledge from across a firm is a critical source of competitive advantage. Firms are increasingly implementing internal social media sites to promote knowledge sharing among their employees. Our analysis indicates that employees' curiosity about nonwork-related and work-related interactions motivate them to use the sites. The integration of nonwork and work content allows employees to identify people with valuable knowledge, and gauge the passable trust that they need to share knowledge on the sites or offline. Paradoxically, the nonwork-related content that attracts users to the sites can become a source of tension, thwarting the production of knowledge to enact firms' knowledge-based strategies. To foster work-related knowledge sharing, managers should accommodate nonwork-related interactions on social media.