Patterns of Expatriate-Local Personnel Communication in Multinational Corporations

Linguistic and cultural barriers to intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries

“…IB research on intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries has thus been based more on cross-cultural comparisons than on actual interactions among individuals with different native languages and cultural values (Du-Babcock and Babcock, 1996). On the other hand, the importance of cultural values has been acknowledged but only weakly integrated in the emerging IB research on language in foreign subsidiaries (Peltokorpi, 2007).…”

“…Thus, instead of focusing, as in previous studies, on either cultural values or languages, this study takes both into account, and they are expected to have a strong, albeit different, influence on intercultural communication. Second, while useful cross-cultural typologies are available for communication-style comparisons among individuals from different cultures (Hofstede, 1980;House et al, 2003), these typologies are considered to be of limited use when examining actual interactions among interlocutors with different native languages and cultural values (Du-Babcock and Babcock, 1996;Brannen and Salk, 2000;Boyacigiller et al, 2004). Because comparative quantitative research is argued to have little to say about the dynamic aspects of intercultural encounters (Du-Babcock and Babcock, 1996;Brannen and Salk, 2000), this study relies on semi-structured interviews to examine the Nordic expatriate (Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden)-local employee communication in a culturally and linguistically challenging country, Japan (Peltokorpi, 2008).…”

“…A study in Finnish MNCs also shows that language similarity facilitates knowledge transfer (Ma¨kela¨et al, 2007), and in a study of Japanese workers in US subsidiaries, language was a strong marker of group identity and a source of power and advancement for local employees; this study (San Antonio, 1987) showed further that language is an important means of restricting access to information. In the absence of a shared language, expatriates need to rely on linguistically competent local employees who are found to act both as benevolent language nodes (Du-Babcock and Babcock, 1996) and as language gatekeepers (Peltokorpi, 2007).…”

Digital channels in the internal communication of a multinational corporation

“…The literature has examined IC from the perspective of how to use traditional communications channels effectively and the skills needed for efficient communication (Charles and Marschan-Piekkari, 2002;Du-Babcock and Babcock, 1996;Tucker et al, 1996;Quible et al, 1996). Recent advances in information technology have created new challenges in managing and facilitating IC, but along with those challenges come opportunities.…”

Appeals to social power in Chinese business communication

“…In addition to the articles that have followed these trends, there have been a number of articles that have looked more directly at the rhetorical tools which the Chinese use to infliience others in business negotiations (Zhao, 2000;Beamer, 1998;Yin, Ankh, & Rieder, 1991), in business interactions with foreign busmess partners (Liu & Vince, 1999;Li, 1999;Du-Babcock & Babcock, 1996), in management (Yuan, 2000;Mak, 1999;Krone, Chen, & Xia, 1997;Krone, Garrett, & Chen, 1992), in Chinese organizations (Chen, 2000;Nowak & Dong, 1997), in non-native languages (Lundelius, 1997), through graphics (Courtis, 1997), and in particulargenres (Zhu, 2000;Wang & Phooi-Ching, 2000). Theseworks have played an important part in beginning discussions about the ways that.…”