Negative Effects of Unrestricted Multilingualism on a Business - Coursework Example

Unrestricted Multilingualism Unrestricted Multilingualism This is the ability of an individual or a community to speak more than one language. Statistics show that the numbers of people who are multilingual in the world today outdo the monolingual speakers. This indicates that multilingualism is spreading so fast and unless it is restricted, it will lead to inefficiency and affect the achievement of business goals. Some measures should be put in place to catch up with the level at which multilingualism is growing and prevent it from adversely affecting the business. Generally, language affects the way multinational companies perform in the global market. Negative effects of Unrestricted Multilingualism on a Business Unrestricted multilingualism is inefficient in many ways. First, it leads to language friction in cross border interactions. Language friction refers to the kind of cultural friction that arises from structural differences in the respective languages used by potential partners in negotiating business deals and solving problems (Bellak, n.d). A little language friction may prompt the partners to change their minds, which may boost collaboration. However, if the friction becomes too much, it may lead to disintegration of the cooperation. Multinational organizations might experience friction in most of their dealings. For example, alliances, joint ventures, technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions. Even though two parties may write or speak to each other in a common language (Franca lingua), language friction will always come up because they think in structurally different native languages (Kim, 2011). The use of a common language like English does not prevent how each party views the transaction in their native language. Studies show that language affects thoughts and structural differences in languages may affect reasoning and problem solving activities particularly in theoretical domain. There is a fundamental assumption that humans think in the language they speak and this language influence their thought. This is backed by the principle of linguistic relativity that states that, the particular language one speaks affects the way he thinks about reality. For example, when a native French speaker interacts with a native Spanish speaker, they are likely to experience language friction (Braunmüller, 2013). This is because a French speaker experiences friction due to differences in French and English, while a Spanish speaker experiences friction due to differences in Spanish and English. The effect of language friction can be felt across all areas of an organization. This includes the finance, human resource, procurement, research and development, customer service and information technology etc.For instance, when carrying out a cross border research in a multinational company, a challenge of correctly mapping words to ideas may be experienced because the participants think in their different native language. This demands redefinition of the terminology or technical issues in order to achieve mutual understanding and establish shared meanings. The idea of reframing the problem may inhibit the alliance formation process because it may lead to potential partners rethinking their position and changing their mind. Therefore, a multinational company with high level of language penetration may experience the same level of language friction because each language will likely be the source of friction in internal and external interaction. This clearly shows that unrestricted multilingualism can cause inefficiency in many businesses especially in cross border dealings. Unrestricted multilingualism may lead to problems that put business competitiveness at risk. Any organization with operations overseas needs to have better communication in order to speak and connect with their customers. The company needs to work tightly with the customers and coordinate tasks in order to gain a competitive advantage. Multilingualism limits a company’s growth level because of the differences in native language. Communication with a diverse range of customer, partners and suppliers is hindered hence the company cannot sell or buy products as required. The company fails to achieve corporate growth and brand promotion due to communication failures. In addition, there is poor networking hence preventing the formation of alliances with other international companies. For example, a company cannot expand through mergers and acquisition unless there is proper communication with the foreign organization. This is a lost opportunity for business growth. A business that has adopted a one-language system has placed itself at a great advantage over others because communication is simple. It has more growth opportunities. Another problem is that employees from diverse regions with different languages cannot communicate all. There is lack of mutual understanding resulting to a situation where they cannot work as a team anymore. For example, an employee from Columbia needs an input from another employee from Paris; this brings a lot of confusion since there is no understanding. It has an ultimate effect on the firm’s production and quality levels that may deteriorate over time. This may therefore lead to loss of customers because of the reduced quality of goods. This also affects internal management and put a strain on the company’s cost due to solving of conflicts that arise between the employees. There is need for a common ground when it comes to communication. This will enable the company to move towards the global level of competitiveness improvement. Multilingualism also leads to loss of sales. This is a situation where the company’s level of sales goes down hence incurring losses. The problem of language makes it hard for company officials to negotiate deals and attract customers. Marketing products and services becomes hard since there is no common ground of understanding. The modern advancement in technology does not favour multilingualism since most internet marketing is done in one language i.e. English. It is very clear that a company practicing online /internet marketing may not achieve its aim if this is done in their local language. For example, a Japanese company practicing e-commerce in its language may not attract many customers since it is only understood in its native country. There are other losses incurred when operating firms with diverse languages. For example, the translation cost can prove to be a burden with other related problems such as translation errors. These may lead to great losses to the company that may even lead to insolvency. Multilingualism and business goals Multilingualism, if not controlled, may hinder the achievement of business goals. Such goals include shareholder’s wealth maximization, profit maximization, customer loyalty, growth, leadership, commitment to employees, customers and community, minimizing expenses, product quality, technological advancement and good working environment. There are various ways in which multilingualism hinder achievement of business goals. Some of the ways are discussed below. The first goal is the shareholder wealth maximization principle that requires the corporations to ensure maximum returns on equity. This cannot be achieved if there is no proper communication between the firms and the external environment. The management and shareholders should be able to communicate and understand each other perfectly. In the presence of multilingualism, this can be a challenge especially in cases where the managers and shareholders come from very diverse geographical regions. Conflicts may arise at points where there is no understanding due to communication breakdown. The shareholders may lose their confident in the firm and even withdraw their shares due to perceived transparency issues. Each shareholder may prefer things done their way, and if not, it is considered corrupt. This simply implies lack of corporation between shareholders and management hence they may fail to get maximum returns. Management on the other hand may fail to be loyal enough and take advantage of the existing situation to deceive shareholders. They will communicate wrong information especially in cases where shareholders are not very keen, while robbing funds from them. These cases lead to stakeholders losing a lot of money due to management’s corrupt behaviours. Therefore, the business fails to achieve its goal of shareholder wealth maximization due to misunderstanding and communication breakdown. The second goal is the profit maximization objective. A business is required to participate in activities that maximum revenue or investments that will give high returns. However, in a multilingual environment, this may prove hard to achieve considering the difficulty experienced in marketing goods and services. A company may put up an advert to popularize a certain product, only to realize that no improvement in sales has occurred. This may be because their diversified customers cannot understand the language used, or the meaning is not interpreted as intended by the company. The company cannot make profit at all due to the obvious reason, lack of demand for their product. Language diversity and difference hinders the organizations marketing team to lure more customers that leads to losses especially for companies dealing with perishable goods. Even if the company interprets the advert into each language, it will still experience losses due to the cost incurred for translation. Therefore, profit maximization goal cannot be achieved at all if this condition exists. The third goal is the growth objective. By growth, we mean that a firm aims at expanding its operations to other places nationally and internationally. This requires a lot of capital. In a multilingualism organization, growth may become a problem because of the cross border friction problems. This friction may cause a firm to lose big deals with potential partners because the partner may choose to turn down the deal if the friction persists. To achieve globalization or rather international growth, the firm needs to interact with the shareholders, customers and suppliers of that country first. However, failure to understand the other culture before starting a business there may lead to great failure. For example, starting a business in a country where certain products are considered illegal may lead to great repercussions. Growth cannot also be established in cases where a company uses the native language to communicate. The reason is the language is not understood in the other regions of the world and so this will seem to be very strange. It becomes difficult for the locals of the other country to socialize and familiarize themselves with your product. Taking advantage of global opportunities and holding the global market cannot be achieved in a multilingual setting. Use of one language makes things better and easier since there is maximum understanding of each other, and this favours growth. The fourth goal is quality improvement and enhancement. There is need for a synchronized relationship between the workers (Lhabitant, 2003). Considering the fact that workers are the direct labour associated with production of a certain good, their teamwork and unity is critical issue. However, teamwork can never be achieved in a setting where individuals cannot communicate effectively. This will lead to total confusion because of too much misunderstanding. Products will be affected greatly or even be altered since the right combination was not done. Take an example where a Libyan worker requests for inputs from a colleague worker from Japan. The question of whether the right inputs were delivered or not can, is answered by the level of understanding the language. The fifth goal involves the development of customized products. Diversified cultures and languages may also not agree with some ingredients used to make a certain product hence consider it of low quality. This means that the company should strive to meet each customer’s preference and level of quality in order to achieve this goal. This may prove hard and simply lead to market failure. Multilingualism does not allow a firm to clearly understand what each customer needs because the languages are different. This means that even if a product is of highest quality for one language group, it may as well be the poorest quality to another group. This excludes many customers and eventually leads to losses. This problem can simply be fixed by proper communication, in a language that leads to equal understanding between the producer and the consumer. The sixth goal is the attainment of a suitable working environment for the employees. This is aimed at ensuring workers welfare so that productivity is increased (Byrne & Lor, 2005). This objective may not be achieved in a multilingual organization due to many differences. Conflicting issues may always arise because of the diversified beliefs, culture and language. As mentioned earlier, a language is an important factor when it comes shaping the culture of an organization. Every worker comes in with his /her own beliefs and traditions and it becomes difficult to assimilate him/her into the organizational culture. Cultural unawareness leads to gross misunderstanding and disagreement between workers resulting from different expectations, group norms and practices. The seventh goal is the harmonization of organisational and individual employees’ cultures. For instance, a chief executive officer is appointed from Korea to lead a UK company. This new manager is not willing to drop his Korean culture and embrace the UK culture because he perceives this to be biasness. He eventually forces every worker to act in his own way, an act that can lead to conflicting relationship between him and the workers. This leads to cases where employees feel bored with the job and generally reduce their effectiveness and competition. Language difference in this case shapes the managers view and influences how he handles his new team, a situation that can lead to poor work environment. Therefore, an organization fails to achieve its goal of conducive work environment. The eighth goal is the technological advancement. Any successful business must embrace technology. This means it must always remain up to date with the changes in technology. However, the business cannot achieve this without including its employees. In fact, if the whole organization must move forward, all the employees must learn to embrace technological changes (Ojanperä, 2014).However; multilingualism may hinder these changes because of the different views held by each worker. As earlier mentioned, a person’s language also affects the way they think. The different members may respond to the new technology depending on their way of thinking. For instance, one worker believes that the technology is too hard to learn, another thinks he can try it while the other loves it, and has no issues with embracing it. These reactions may also be triggered by the fact that some workers are just ignorant about technology. Therefore, management needs to teach and educate them about this. The problem of language difference still presents itself. It may be hard to teach people with diversified native languages how to use this and that machine. Explaining it thoroughly to his or her level of understanding is not an easy task because at the end of the day, each member will understand with the perspective of his local language. This also presents itself when trying to explain some technical terms in one language, say English, but the members do not interpret it as intended. These factors can lead to machine breakdown and injuries if not taken care of completely. The ninth goal is the achievement of the customer loyalty (Domains, 2013). This is because customers may lose confident in a firm due to poor product quality or increased scandals hence become non-loyal to the firm. Another goal is good leadership, commitment to employees and minimization of expenses. For instance, the cost of translation into other languages to achieve mutual understanding may strain the organization resources. For example a case where a manager puts a lot of effort to communicate in a shared language with colleagues in different countries, but he still ended up getting more frictional reports. Only to realize that his insensitivity and lack of tolerance for the cultural difference led to these problems. For example, one person complained that the manager never responded with a yes or no during a telephone conversation, which according to him implied that he never valued the need of building a relationship. This small act of responding with a yes or no in a conversation may seem irrelevant to some people, but it is very meaningful to others. Positive effects of multilingualism Multilingualism may have quite a number of negative impacts on the business. However, it should be noted that some firms are leveraging on it to gain export contracts in new and emerging. According to a study done by Habib (2011), small and medium enterprises are using multilingualism to gain a foothold in foreign markets. According to statistics, SME using the multilingual export strategy are 68% in Danish, 40 % in France, 27% in Germany and 27% in Sweden. It has also been established that countries that use fewer languages in their export strategy are more vulnerable to the competition. Countries like German that make use of about 12 languages have managed to increase much of their market share. The multilingual staff brings about 10.7 export countries for Germany and bout 7.8 trading countries for French SME. Multilingual firms have overcome language barrier over the time. Frankel & Rose (2002) studied and measured language difference as a trade barrier with its cost amounting to about 15%-22% i8n terms of tariff equivalent. Hence, firms that use multiple languages do not only cut down on their costs but also attract and retain larger markets (Habib, 2011). A closer analysis of the global events shows that there is a declining strength of English as a global language. In an interview conducted by NBC News, David Graddol, a language researcher confirmed that there is emerging a generation of bilingual and multilingual people. According to the forecast, English was the leading language in 1995. However, it is predicted that by 2050, Chinese will be the primary language with English trailing alongside other European languages. An analysis of the developments in the websites shows the use of many languages such as French, German and Spanish. Reports show that one out of five Americans speaks languages other than English, with Spanish Leading and Chinese growing. The massive shift from one language to many languages by firms is a proof that multilingualism has a positive impact on the income statements of entities. Businesses that restrict themselves to one language may go under with time as their market shrink coupled with high employees turn over (NBC News, 2004). Many multinational firms have realized that the only way to achieve strategic objectives is through multilingualism. Movement of services and products across borders can only be facilitated by the adoption of multiple languages. Multinationals are a multilingual community. They are made of groups of subunits that are spread across broad geographical regions. The staffs in these subgroups come from various backgrounds and cultural environments (Adler, 1983). Imposing a singular language would be suicidal for such firms. It would kill not only the morale of workers but also that of clients. Hence, multiple languages are used concurrent between subunits, within subunits and between subunits and the parent company. For example, for the Fujitsu’s joint venture in Brazil, the Portuguese is the local language, English the functional language and finally the Japanese is the Parent language. The functional language is the parent’s functional language, facilitates internal communication between the parent and the subunits, and hence facilitates global coordination. On the other hand, the subunits functional languages are aimed at the fulfilment of subunit roles. By enhancing local responsiveness and global integration, the two levels of languages facilitate the attainment of strategic objectives (Luo & Shenkar, 2006). One of the global competition strategies for multinational corporations is the multi-domestic strategy (Porter, 1980).. As opposed to the global strategy where one approach is used to compete globally, the multi- domestic strategy focuses on the competition with each country. Foreign markets are segmented with national boundaries. Each section is empowered to make strategic and operational decision. As a result, products and services are tailored according to the local markets. The strategy puts pressure on multinational corporations to adopt multiple functional languages for communication within the multinational network (Prahalad & Doz, 1987). Use of local languages improves efficiency within the segments, In addition, the segments can respond to the local needs way in advance before their competitors can do so. The world is very diverse. Preferences differ among countries and even people within a country. Gone are the days when one marketing mix would be offered to all types of customers (Baker, 2012). For firms that want to stand out globally, the multi-domestic strategy is the only way to go. Hence, adoption of multilingualism will not be an option but a key growth driver (Luo & Shenkar, 2006). Leonard Orban, the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, explores the benefits that accrue to an organization that adopts multilingualism. He terms language as a bridge between cultures and the only way through which people can express themselves. He reckons that by learning new languages, people in an organization acquire new ways of thinking, new value systems and open their horizons to reaches of other cultures (Orban, 2009). Therefore, a multilingual organization reaps the benefits of greater innovation, increased ideas and increased understanding of the clients of different types. The mobility of employees increase and they may be moved from one unit to another as need be. Recommendations Unrestricted multilingualism is greatly inefficient. As we have seen above, inefficiency occurs in form of low competitiveness, loss of sales and language friction. Multinational corporations are required to embrace a one-language policy in operating its businesses overseas. English is the most recommended language since it is the most spoken language widely. Many successful international companies have embraced common language and this has led to their tremendous success. Examples include Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia airbus etc. Adopting this strategy may not be easy as a firm is likely to face many obstacles and resistance along the way. However, the only way to achieve international competitiveness, global mergers and acquisition and globalization of tasks and resources is by adopting the common language, whose benefits outdo the cost (Neeley& Kaplan, 2014). The issue of multilingualism should be dealt with at all organizational levels since it affects all the functional units of an organization. There is need to develop a comprehensive language management strategy to enable harmonization of language differences in an organization. Introduction of a lingua franca improves how employees interact across borders, probably increasing collaboration. The strategy should fit a firm’s position and align to its goals. During the recruitment process, trainees should be chosen based on their knowledge, skills and competitiveness and not on their language fluency. Just identify the global language the employee should know and support their effort to become more fluent. The firm should also manage proficiency on global levels to make it in the international market. Multinational firms should deal with these inefficiencies by adopting a one-language system. Language is such an important factor in any business. It performs various functions for a corporation including the determination of the organizational culture. This is why a company with diversified languages may fail to achieve a common organizational culture since each member reinforces his/her own culture. Language is an important factor when it comes to achieving corporate competencies. To serve its stakeholders in a knowledge economy, corporations must acquire general understanding of global and local environments, communication skills, interpersonal and team skills and stakeholders orientation. Conclusion It is true that multilingualism if not restricted, can lead to great inefficiency and failures in the business world. Therefore, a common language policy should be put in place if any organization is to achieve an international stand in global business. However, this does not imply that language diversity should be ignored. It should be reflected in the senior management of an organization to ensure balance. Talent management should be done carefully to ensure no talent is not neglected in order to promote global leadership. Managers need training in order to be held responsible for the development of cultural and language skills throughout the organization. Employee performance evaluation should be done with respect to the diverse cultural differences respecting their different levels of fluency. Global leadership conferences should be held to expose employees to the cultural aspects of their colleagues. This is an important step since it will ensure co-existence within the organization despite the cultural differences. Senior leaders should undergo cultural and language training programs. Finally, organisations ought to realize that due to global changes, some firms are reaping on the benefits of multilingualism. As a result, a firm should be flexible enough to use multilingualism or one-language system depending on the economic benefit to be derived. References Adler, N.J. 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