The work of management academics: An English language perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of the English language on the work of management academics. They are seen as knowledge workers in the context of business and management, who have to be able to use the English language in such ways to pursue successfully and competently the main purpose of their work – the generation, dissemination and sharing of knowledge. Empirically, the paper reports the experiences of 33 management academics (all non-native speakers of English; all working in non-English speaking national contexts in a higher education environment) and presents their views about the role of the English language in the execution of their work activities. Findings show that (a) all work activity is increasingly framed and executed in English (b) there is an emergence of an ‘international faculty’ which is fluent in English and creates knowledge almost exclusively through the English language (c) the careers of management academics are bounded by their mastery of the English language (d) the driving forces for the continued and accelerating ascent of the English language are the internationalisation of the higher education sector and large scale institutional change, which are weakening the influence of local and national traditions. The findings highlight the importance of English as the language of knowledge generation and dissemination as it is both a medium to articulate and express knowledge as well as a constitutive force which shapes the content of knowledge.