How non-native English-speaking staff are evaluated in linguistically diverse organizations: A sociolinguistic perspective

Śliwa, Martyna; Johansson, Marjana

doi:10.1057/jibs.2014.21

Cited by 68 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…Janssens et al, 2004;Lauring, 2007), communicative (e.g. Kassis Henderson, 2005;Śliwa and Johansson, 2014), and societal context (e.g. Janssens and Steyaert, 2014;Kuznetsov and Kuznetsova, 2014).…”

Section: Category 3: Language As Social Practice In Mncs (N = 19)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language‐Sensitive Research in International Management

Karhunen

Kankaanranta

Louhiala‐Salminen

et al. 2018

J Management Studies

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This paper explores the assumptions underlying the core concept of language used in the growing field of language‐sensitive research in international management. We reviewed 92 articles on the topic of language(s) in multinational corporations published during the period 1997‐2015, and applied a linguistic lens to uncover how these articles ‘talk about language’. The assumptions found in these articles can be grouped into three complementary categories that take a structural, functional or social practice view of language. We go beyond the review by also reflecting on the consequences that these underlying assumptions have for the study of language in multinationals. We consider the social practice view the most promising one, and propose a future research agenda for advancing it and thereby contributing to theorizing about the multinational corporation more broadly.

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Section: Category 3: Language As Social Practice In Mncs (N = 19)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language‐Sensitive Research in International Management

Karhunen

Kankaanranta

Louhiala‐Salminen

et al. 2018

J Management Studies

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show abstract

“…Sociolinguistics (Labov, ) focus on language's effect on the society based on the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which claims that the structure of a language affects how its speakers conceptualize their world (Hoijer, ). In recent years, this stream of thought has been influencing research on business and organizations because of the impact language it has on organizations (e.g., Bordia & Bordia, ; Śliwa & Johansson, ). Language captures ancestral culture because grammar is inherited from the distant past and reinforced by the influence of cognition on the speaker.…”

Section: Research Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encouraging environmental sustainability through gender: A micro‐foundational approach using linguistic gender marking

et al. 2017

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While studies show that organizational diversity is beneficial to their practice of environmental sustainability, we know very little about the effect that the gender of an individual director can have on sustainability practice. In this empirical paper, we employ a micro-foundational approach to examine whether the number of women on an organization's board of directors has a direct effect on its attitude towards environmental sustainability, regardless of the national culture in which the organization is located. Culture in this study is measured through grammatical gender marking, a unique approach to measuring women-oriented cultural effects. Previous studies show that certain cultures have more gender roles than others do, which in turn affect general and organizational behavior in that society. Grammatical gender marking enables us to study the impact of gender of the individual director on the organization's attitude towards environmental sustainability across cultures, by empirically examining data from 71 countries, sampling 4500 organizations for multiple years and industries. Our findings show that organizations become significantly more proactive in environmental sustainability with the appointment of even one woman to the board of directors, regardless of the local culture. We further show that the organization's level of disclosure regarding its sustainability activities increases with the number of women on the board of directors. Our data also show a significantly negative relationship between various gender-based language indices and the presence of women on the board of directors. In cultures defined by a language that has clear grammatical gender markings, there is a tendency to appoint fewer women to boards of directors, thereby influencing indirectly the organization's attitude towards environmental sustainability.

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“…Conversely, local employees with no skills in the corporate language may feel silenced and excluded from career opportunities (Harzing and Feely, 2008;Marschan-Piekkari et al, 1999a;Piekkari et al, 2005). Also deficient English skills (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) or simply a particular accent may influence the way in which speakers are perceived (Sliwa and Johansson, 2014). Such feelings of discrimination or domination in relation to language deficiency in the corporate language might lead to suborganizational identifications in opposition to the corporate level (Fredriksson et al, 2006;Marschan-Piekkari et al, 1999a;Tietze, 2004).…”

Section: Identification Processes and Corporate Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local intermediaries and their organisational identification in a French subsidiary

Zølner

2019

EJIM

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The paper explores identification processes among subsidiary employees who function as intermediaries between the subsidiary and headquarters thanks to their language competencies in the common corporate language. The study is based on a qualitative in-depth case study and adopts a social constructionist approach to identification.The paper adds theoretically to the literature on languages in international business in three ways. First, it illustrates that fulfilling a role as local intermediary affects identification processes among subsidiary employees. Second, the paper shows that the literature on organizational identification contributes in conceptualizing local intermediaries' motivation for identification in terms of self-enhancement and sensemaking. Third, the empirical analysis indicates that feelings of self-esteem and sense-making may derive from symbolic resources for constructing workplace-related identities that prevail within the societal context of the subsidiary.In terms of managerial relevance, the study shows the importance of identifying the subsidiary employees that fulfil roles as local intermediaries in order to recognize their efforts and to foster organizational identification. When doing so, it might be relevant to consider prevailing symbolic resources in the local context, rather than the language.

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How non-native English-speaking staff are evaluated in linguistically diverse organizations: A sociolinguistic perspective

Cited by 68 publications

References 107 publications

Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language‐Sensitive Research in International Management

Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language‐Sensitive Research in International Management

Encouraging environmental sustainability through gender: A micro‐foundational approach using linguistic gender marking

Local intermediaries and their organisational identification in a French subsidiary

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