Multiple status signals in multinational teams: Implications of lingua franca proficiency and task expertise for informal leadership

Abstract

Lingua franca proficiency and task expertise coexist in multinational teams as prominent status signals that are often relied upon to infer a member’s competence. These personal attributes, however, do not always suggest consistent information since those with lower lingua franca proficiency might be more expert at the task and vice versa. In examining their joint implications, we draw on status characteristics and expectation states theories to identify the signaling nature of each attribute. Unlike the categorically specific quality of task expertise, lingua franca proficiency possesses characteristics commensurate with both specific and diffuse signals: it represents a social group and, at the same time, carries valid information about performance for certain tasks. Using archival (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) data, we explore how the hybrid nature of lingua franca proficiency shapes its interaction with task expertise and implications for subsequent leadership outcomes. We provide further evidence for the generalizability of our findings through a supplemental study that includes 18 interviews with current members of multinational teams across various organizations.