Language Strategy

Abstract

IntroductionAn organization without a set for communication is inconceivable. Employees in an organization use languages to express and exchange opinions, hold discussions, solve problems, learn and grow, make decisions, and maintain records. As globalization of business has created organizations with subsidiaries across world, barriers have given rise to various problems that would have gone unnoticed in case of domestic organizations, where employees communicate in their native language. Given this globalized business environment, it is imperative for multinational corporations (MNCs) to devise a strategy.Language is defined as the rules and regulations that govern use in (Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012) and has only quite recently received interest in research (Marschan, Welch, & Welch, 1997). This paper's scope of review includes not only studies using term language strategy but also studies on same topic using different terms such as language policy, corporate language, functional language, and language management.Neeley (2012, 2013) and Neeley and Kaplan (2014) played an important role in popularizing term language strategy in academic discussions on MNCs and language. In particular, papers by Neeley (2012), Neeley, Hinds, and Cramton (2012), and Neeley and Kaplan (2014), published in Harvard Business Review, were so pioneering that they were ranked as most popular articles in Harvard Business Review. Using examples of Japanese firms such as Uniqlo and Rakuten, which were most proactive among Japanese firms in adopting English as a lingua franca, Neeley (2012) suggested necessity of adopting English as a lingua franca and developing expertise and policy on internal management of usage. Incorporating perspective of human resource management (HRM), Neeley and Kaplan (2014) argued that is critical to MNCs' global human resource management. They pointed out that employees' and cultural skills need to be seriously considered when recruiting, training, evaluating, and promoting them in order to realize a suitable for firm's value proposition.Table 1 shows growing trend of Japanese firms adopting English as a lingua franca.An increasing number of firms (such as Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation) have set TOEIC requirements for recruitment and promotion as they move toward using English as an official lingua franca in future. Also, firms that have strengthened their internal English study programs (Asahi Breweries, Ltd., Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., and Hitachi, Ltd.) have been increasing rapidly since 2010.As businesses become more globalized, English will undoubtedly become essential as official of business. However, is conventional wisdom true that English as a lingua franca promotes internal communication and makes information sharing and decision making more effective? Does this apply to all industries, countries, and sectors?Research Flows of Language in International Business (IB)1)MNCs and languageDiscussions on subject of in field of international business began in 1970s with research on international marketing and exports. At time, main goal of analyzing languages used in target overseas markets was to examine attractiveness and accessibility of those markets (Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Mughan, 1990).At end of 1990s, discussions stressing importance of in international business began to increase, along with need for research on this topic. For example, Marschan et al. (1997) focused on importance of issues in day-to-day management of MNCs and examined how overseas subsidiaries reacted when English was used as lingua franca. …