The impact of language barriers on trust formation in multinational teams

Abstract

AcknowledgementsWe thank Sebastian Reiche for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. We are very grateful for the constructive and thoughtful guidance by special issue editors Rebecca Piekkari and Mary Yoko Brannen, as well as three anonymous reviewers. MNTs in three German automotive corporations, we show how MNT members' cognitive and emotional reactions to language barriers influence their perceived trustworthiness and intention to trust, which in turn affect trust formation. We contribute to diversity research by distinguishing the exclusively negative language effects from the more ambivalent effects of other diversity dimensions. Our findings also illustrate how surface-level language diversity may create perceptions of deep-level diversity.Furthermore, our study advances MNT research by revealing the specific influences of language barriers on team trust, an important mediator between team inputs and performance outcomes. It thereby encourages the examination of other team processes through a language lens. Finally, our study suggests that multilingual settings necessitate a reexamination and modification of the seminal trust theories by Mayer, Schoorman (1995) andMcAllister (1995). In terms of practical implications, we outline how MNT leaders can manage their subordinates' problematic reactions to language barriers and how MNT members can enhance their perceived trustworthiness in multilingual settings.

The Impact of Board Internationalization on Earnings Management

“…According to Dhaliwal, Naiker & Navissi (2010: 792), financial reporting issues involve high levels of technical details and, hence, a high degree of knowledge of accounting rules are required to recognize critical accounting issues at such high levels of earnings management. Indeed, in line with this conjecture, evidence demonstrates that boards including at least one individual with financial (accounting) expertise are associated with higher financial reporting quality (Dhaliwal et al, 2010;Krishnan & Visvanathan, 2008;Zhang, Zhou & Zhou, 2007 A second potential obstacle a foreign director faces is language (Kassis-Henderson, 2005, 2010Piekkari et al, 2015;Tenzer, Pudelko & Harzing, 2014). Although English seems to be the lingua franca of boards that include a foreign director (Piekkari et al, 2015), language potentially affects the 6 effectiveness of the board in two ways.…”

“…Not feeling comfortable in using English may for instance increase a director's insecurity and feelings of anxiety (Tenzer et al, 2014), which may negatively affect the extent to which an individual director contributes to discussions in the boardroom (Piekkari et al, 2015). Moreover, at the board level research suggests that language affects interpersonal trust relations and the working atmosphere in teams (Kassis-Henderson, 2005;Tenzer et al, 2014).…”

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

“…At the group level, existing work investigates a diversity of settings from co-located teams (Tenzer et al 2014) to global virtual work groups and corporate boards . (Klitmøller and Lauring 2013;Klitmøller et al 2015) and language-related status evaluations (Butler 2011;Neeley 2013).…”

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

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