Corporate Language/Manual

2014 ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Annika Schach
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Language

Impacts and implications of English as the corporate official language policy: A case in Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-129
Author(s):  
Saeko Ozawa Ujiie
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Foreign Market ◽  
Official Language ◽  
English Only ◽  
Common Solution ◽  
Corporate Official ◽  
Multilingual Learning ◽  
Japanese Employees ◽  
Japanese Speaker ◽  
Corporate Language

AbstractIncreasing numbers of corporations are now operating across national borders as a result of globalization. The “language barrier” is the first and foremost challenge they encounter when starting a business in a foreign market, and many companies are trying to solve the problem by adopting a common corporate language. Using English as an official corporate language is the most common solution for those corporations. The present study explored the impacts of English as a corporate official language policy implemented at a company, a rapidly developed high profile IT Company with 20,000 employees, in Japan, a country often perceived to be relatively monolingual and monocultural. When I started studying the company, I first found that the company’s motive to use English as the official corporate language was different from other instances of corporate language policy making I had come across. In previous studies (e.g., Feely & Harzing 2003; Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, & Welch 1999), the companies implemented common corporate language to solve problems caused by language barriers between employees with diverse linguistic backgrounds. However, the company in this study implemented the corporate language policy to prepare for globalization and recruit talents globally. When the company introduced the English-only language policy, most of the employees of the company were Japanese. Therefore, at the time of implementing the language policy, there was no compelling reason for them to use English. The language policy did not work effectively except for a few departments with non-Japanese employees who spoke different first languages. English functioned as a lingua franca in those departments with multinational employees. The findings indicate that for NNESs (non-native English speakers) to communicate with each other in English, the environment has to be more multilingual, less dominated by a single first language. Although almost all Japanese citizens are required to take intensive English courses in compulsory schoolings, the average level of English proficiency is considered to be relatively low in the advanced economies. The present study indicates that it is not for linguistic competence but a lack of interaction with other ELF speakers. Therefore, for learners of ELF in an intensely monolingual society such as Japan to become competent communicators in ELF, providing multilingual learning environments would be more effective than the prevailing teaching practices of classroom learning in L1 Japanese speaker only environments.

Corporate Language

2019 ◽  
pp. 307-308
Author(s):  
Albert Heiser
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Language

Using English as the common corporate language in a German multinational

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 892-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan S. Swift ◽  
James Wallace
Keyword(s):  
The Common ◽  
Corporate Language

scholarly journals Language policy and social change: A critical examination of the implementation of an English-only language policy in a Danish company

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorte Lønsmann ◽  
Janus Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
International Expansion ◽  
Global Business ◽  
English Only ◽  
Company Culture ◽  
Language Commodification ◽  
Corporate Language

AbstractThe article examines the introduction of English as a corporate language in a Danish consultancy company from a critical angle. Based on analyses of language policy documents and interviews with language policy makers in the company, we investigate the underlying assumptions of the policy-making process, and explore how the language policy functions as a means of exerting power beyond the domain of language. The article shows how the language policy is heavily influenced by the language ideology of English as the natural language in global business as well as by neoliberal ideals of international expansion. Drawing on the notion of language commodification, the article investigates how the language policy reconfigures the social space of the organisation. The analysis shows that while the language policy aims to change the company culture towards a more ‘global mindset’, it also effects social change by legitimising certain types of employees while marginalising others. (Language policy, social change, English as a corporate language, language ideologies, linguistic market, language commodification)*

Teach an I-O To Fish: Integrating Data Science Into I-O Graduate Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet R. Aiken ◽  
Paul J. Hanges
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
National Security ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
Data Science ◽  
National Security Agency ◽  
Internet Searches ◽  
Corporate Language

Big data is becoming a buzzword in today's corporate language and lay discussions. From individually targeting advertising based on previous consumer behavior or Internet searches to debates by Congress concerning National Security Agency (NSA) access to phone metadata, the era of big data has arrived. Thus, the Guzzo, Fink, King, Tonidandel, and Landis (2015) discussion of the challenges (e.g., confidentiality, informed consent) that big data projects present to industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists is timely. If the hype associated with these techniques is warranted, then our field has a clear imperative to debate the ethics and best practices surrounding use of these techniques. We believe that Guzzo et al. have done our field a service by starting this discussion.

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