Employees’ Compliance to MNC Language Policies: Command-and-Control and Self-Regulation

Abstract

Corporate language policies are argued as useful for overcoming the language barrier in multinational corporations (MNCs). However, existing empirical studies based on the command-and-control perspective give only a partial answer to why employees should comply with the policies. This study conducted a within-subjects and a between-subjects experiment to verify the command-and-control perspective and introduce self-regulation as an additional perspective. The findings lend support to command-and-control, showing that explicit implementation of policies indeed enhances employees’ intention to speak the corporate language. More importantly, the findings show that employee compliance was also fostered through self-regulatory mechanism. When the choice of the corporate language is aligned with subsidiary strategic role, employees perceive the corporate language as legitimate and demonstrate higher willingness to comply with the policies. Theoretical implications on corporate language policies and practical implications for designing effective policies in MNCs are discussed.