TY - JOUR

T1 - Embrace it or resist it? Employees' reception of corporate language policies

AU - Lønsmann, Dorte

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - Corporate language policies and particularly the use of English as a corporate language have been studied in multinational corporations (MNCs) for almost two decades now. Despite these volumes of research, very little has been written about the process of implementing a corporate language and even less about the employee perspective. The article contributes to the field of language in cross-cultural management by exploring when and why corporate language policies encounter resistance among employees. The study uses observational and focus group data to investigate reactions to a new corporate language policy in one Danish MNC. Drawing on sociolinguistic stancetaking theory and ethnographic methods, the study seeks to understand how contextual factors influence employees' stances towards the introduction of English as a corporate language. English language competence, the local linguistic context and different temporal perspectives are found to be key factors. The study suggests that new language policies are likely to be resisted when they are introduced to support a long-term strategic goal but lack immediate relevance in the daily life of employees. These results have implications beyond the scope of corporate language policies but reach into the study of the implementation of strategic organizational changes more generally with the suggestion that understanding employees' local context and outlook is necessary for management to successfully implement change in the organization.

AB - Corporate language policies and particularly the use of English as a corporate language have been studied in multinational corporations (MNCs) for almost two decades now. Despite these volumes of research, very little has been written about the process of implementing a corporate language and even less about the employee perspective. The article contributes to the field of language in cross-cultural management by exploring when and why corporate language policies encounter resistance among employees. The study uses observational and focus group data to investigate reactions to a new corporate language policy in one Danish MNC. Drawing on sociolinguistic stancetaking theory and ethnographic methods, the study seeks to understand how contextual factors influence employees' stances towards the introduction of English as a corporate language. English language competence, the local linguistic context and different temporal perspectives are found to be key factors. The study suggests that new language policies are likely to be resisted when they are introduced to support a long-term strategic goal but lack immediate relevance in the daily life of employees. These results have implications beyond the scope of corporate language policies but reach into the study of the implementation of strategic organizational changes more generally with the suggestion that understanding employees' local context and outlook is necessary for management to successfully implement change in the organization.

KW - Corporate language

KW - focus groups

KW - language competence

KW - language policy

KW - organizational change

KW - policy implementation

KW - stancetaking

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018305276&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1470595817694658

DO - 10.1177/1470595817694658

M3 - Review

AN - SCOPUS:85018305276

VL - 17

SP - 101

EP - 123

JO - International Journal of Cross Cultural Management

JF - International Journal of Cross Cultural Management

SN - 1470-5958

IS - 1

ER -