English as Official Language for Many Multi-National Companies - Essay Example

English has been adopted as the official language for many multi-national companies. This decision can generate communication difficulties when companies operate in many countries that have different national languages Contents Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 5 Recommendations 9 Conclusion 10 References 12 Executive Summary English has been made the global language for many businesses. A global language is one that achieves global status through developing a specific role that is appreciated and recognized in every country. Such a role can be mostly identified in places where people use the language as their mother tongue in case of English, like in USA, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia etc. Mother tongue itself cannot give a global status for any language. To achieve it has to be accepted across the world, and should place itself amongst the communities where very few native or mother tongue speakers exist (Crystal, 2003, p.98).There are two ways by which a language can be given the global status; firstly this can be done by making the language an official language so that a common platform of communication can be established amongst the different language speakers. Such an official language is also termed as the second language for a person as it is complement to its initial first language o mother tongue. Secondly, the language can be made a compulsory foreign language teaching so that the language being given a global status can be easily adopted by everybody. All of the multinational companies are mandating English as a corporate language. This practice of using English as an official language attempts to facilitate performance and communication across geographically diverse business and functions endeavor. Selecting a language that is a common mode of speech is not only the best idea for a company in America who has got certain operations overseas but also for a company in France who are focused on domestic customer (Harvard Business Review, 2014). Any company that expands into other countries will experience a language barrier which does not share a common home country language. Often MNCs are termed as multilingual. Language difference is a major issue in any MNC. The introduction of a common corporate language will ultimately facilitate communication and will not render the firm ‘monolingual’ as stated by Fredriksson in his studies. The use of an official language has advantages in enhancing informal communication, facilitating formal reporting, strong information flow and even helps in developing a common corporate culture (Caligiuri, Lepak and Bonache, 2010, p.167). The multinational companies have people coming from different background and speaking in different language in that case it is very important to adopt a common language, so that the communication can be both ways. Many international companies have adopted English as their official language though it is still not a regular practice in local sectors. According to earlier research studies not any other language but English will grow and maintain its dominance from being a marker of the elite in the past years to a basic skill needed by the entire workforce (Vance, 2013, p.56). This reports deals with the advantages and disadvantages that the company has to face by adopting English as their official language. As the benefits indicates that there is a need for adopting a common language in order to have improved performance and better communication. As MNCs mainly have operations worldwide there is a need to have a common language this will even help the management to control the diverse work culture. But there are certain disadvantages also in setting up a common corporate language (Hua, 2013, pp.125-126).The major disadvantage is power authority distortion between the employees and the leaders as some people will have a better grasp over the language due to it being their mother tongue and the rest will have problem in communicating. There are many difficulties a company has to face while adopting a common language policy specially the resistance that comes from the employees. Many people working in the organization might feel inferior whose English is not as good as others, national pride can also create an obstruction; this in turn will bring down the performance and team dynamics (Jenkins, 2007, pp.77-79). By today’s scenario English will remain a common ground for the companies to survive in the global economy, and they need to overcome the language barriers. In order to handle operations in Japan and Germany it is essential for a company to give language training to its employees firstly as the diverse work culture can only be managed when they have common mode of communication. In Japan especially people are very restricted in adopting any foreign language but there also many organizations today have employees who speak English as common corporate language. English is spoken by almost 1.75 billion people worldwide and is the fast spreading language in the human history (Flaitz,1988 , p.114).The major issue of a multinational enterprise is to handle the people from diverse culture in this people management can only be achieved through a common language. Though it has the difficulty of being sustained for a longer run and even the practice may not be adopted easily by the employees and may take a longer time. Hence the company has to try and overcome this language barrier if it is planning to do operations worldwide, the adopters will find advantages but need to face various obstructions too. There are communication difficulties of operating in any countries with other national languages. This report highlights the pros and cons of selecting English as an official language, and illustrates the method through which people are managed in multinational companies. It even details out the solution for these MNCs whether to opt for a common language or to have different languages for operations in different countries. Introduction The structure of managing the people in multinational enterprises differs from one company to another as they have their own business styles and management attitudes. There are basically four models through which the people are managed in these companies. Firstly it is the decentralization hub in which each national entity of the corporation has its own guidelines in order to seek performance in the local market. In this concept people working at different subsidiaries of the company work under different policies set by their national heads and not by the company as a whole. The second concept is of coordinated federation, in this the company as a whole controls the overall activities of the subsidiaries, it is a centralized approach. But the subsidiaries of the firm are given some flexibility to adopt practices best suited for the local market conditions. Hofstede’s cultural dimension of power distance states that there will always exist a distance between the superior and inferior in a cultural diverse workforce. This distance can only be shortened by having a centralized workforce policy that is common for all. The recruitment and retention policies of employees in these MNCs are always coherent with the corporate goals (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, pp.105-106). The people management within MNCs is in terms of global standardization with respect to the local adaptation of practices. The successful working of a MNC is by incorporating the views and opinions of different people who are having diverse cultural background. This can even lead to a conflict has people will have different views on a common topic. But this can be managed by selecting those ideas which will benefit the company and serve the common goal. The people working in multinational enterprise often undergo training and assessment programs so that the diverse cultural people can communicate with each other. In order to communicate effectively the company even organizes separate language training programs so that there is no barrier in the information flow (Minkov, 2011, pp.105-106). Often in many MNCs the management communicates through written documents rather than any verbal speech to avoid any misconception but this not a very efficient technique for long run. The multinational enterprise has different leadership style or behavior in managing their people. The human resource strategies, policies and practices are often regarded as a major risk for the multinational enterprises as they need to handle diverse culture people (Stahl, Bjorkman and Morris, 2012, pp.190-191). The leaders who manage these people working in MNCs are termed as global leaders and they should be cosmopolitan in nature, and should possess the skills and abilities required to manage people from diverse backgrounds. They should have sufficient knowledge about local cultures and social institutions, and should also encourage intercultural performance of the subsidiaries. A mode of cultural synergy is an effective tool in managing these people in the multinational enterprise. There are two major leadership behaviors, one is the task centered leadership, and the other is person centered leaders. The kind of behavior observed in managing people in multinational enterprise is task centered leadership behavior where the leaders gives directions and sets standards for all its employees. There is an issue of high power distance in managing people in MNCs, which can be handled by the leader trying to be more like the people in that case both people centered and task centered behavior of the leader is necessary. The other way of managing these people by reducing mobility is reward systems and appropriate management development, and having shorter deployments. The leader of these organizations has both internal and external attribution in managing people. Through internal attribution they try to correct or reward the workers, and by external attribution they attempt to modify the work environment (Garzone and Iire, 2007, pp.167-168). According to the Path Goal theory an achievement oriented leadership style is observed in managing the people working in the multinational enterprise as the focus lies more on high achievements then on social needs. Generally the leadership style that is observed in most of the MNCs is the democratic leadership in which the members of the organization share their ideas and opinions but ultimately the final decision lies on the shoulders of the leader. This method makes the people feel more engaged in the work process and they are even encouraged and rewarded for their creativity. There are certain factors external to the organization that affects the human resource management of these multinational enterprises. These external factors basically include labor market conditions, trade unions, government and economic trade policies. The power and regulation of the trade unions are in context with the employee relation and their safety and health at work. The various multilateral and bilateral international conventions and obligations that is associated with employee related issues. All these external and internal factors greatly impact and influence the human resource strategies of these multinational enterprises. In the present scenario there is a shortage of international managers which results into poor management of the human resources. An implementation of global strategies requires efficient and experienced international managers. Since the people to be managed are of diverse culture appropriate skills are required by the leaders to understand the culture and thinking process of their workers (The Economist, 2014). There even can be a difference in the level of job expectation of a host country employee compared to the home country employee. Labor laws and regulations of host country can differ completely from the home country which requires effective strategies to be developed by the company in regard to employee relation which can be different for different subsidiaries of the organization. The root of all these effective management practices is based on the degree of communication that exists. There is a need for all the multinationals to adopt English or have a lingua franca (common language). The main reason is it makes easy to recruit global stars, and they could reach out to global markets and assemble the production team to integrate the foreign acquisitions. An example of such MNC who has adopted English and is running efficiently is Lenovo. The boss Yang Yuanqing of Lenovo could not speak English at all but still he implemented this language in his organization in order to have a common ode of communication with his team and to enhance the performance. English is used as an official language in all board meetings and also in the official papers of Lenovo (Northrup, 2013, pp.57-58). Though adopting a common language can make the company face a lot of restrictions from the employees who come from different cultures. Even if there is no such restriction there will be a power distance force that will make the employees who cannot communicate well in English fell inferior to them who are able to this in turn might result into decrease in the level of performance. However having multiple languages will result into more of miscommunication and a non standardized work culture where as a lingua Franca enables a company to work on a standardized module for all the workers. It is very essential for companies to have a common corporate language as it would help in meetings and other gatherings (Baumuller, 2007, pp.155-156). If a French company does not train its employees on a common language say for example English they will lose on to many market opportunities due to lack of communication. Recommendations It is recommended for any MNC who might have operations across Japan and Germany to share a common platform for communication. English should be adopted by the company as an official language to reduce the various difficulties that will arise if different national languages are kept across its subsidiaries. To have a standardized structure and to avoid complexity it is highly recommended to follow a common language by the firm. Example of a success story of a company who adopted a common language is of Rakuten Japan’s largest online market place. Hiroshi Mikitani the CEO of the company in 2010 mandated English as their official language though he knew it would affect some Japanese employees but it was important according to him for his expansion plans. He announced his new policy not in Japanese but in English and changed the entire cafeteria menu and elevator descriptions which were written in Japanese (Eibel, 2006, p.14). He even implemented an international English scoring system on which the employees have to show their competence in two years or risk dismissal or demotion. Mikitani was criticized greatly for his new policy but he was confident on the initiative he had taken. The new policy of taking up a common language as made him establish a diverse and powerful organization. The company today has three out of six senior executives who are not Japanese and could not even speak that language. The company can seek the beast talent from across the globe and the half of Rakuten’s Japanese employees can effectively communicate in English internally as well with the foreign subsidiaries. The benefit of having a common language is well described with the above example. So for a company who has operations in Germany and Japan should have a common language for effective communication and to support the future expansion plans of the multinational enterprise. Conclusion There has been an increasing interest in the language in the MNCs from the late nineties. This report highlights the impact of adopting a common language by the organization. The MNCs should have efficient managers in order to implement such policy. It is the responsibility of the senior managers to inform the employees the need of switching to English as a common language. The employees should be provided with classes and conversation groups to effectively implement the policy without causing any impact on the emotions of the people. The people working should be provided with incentives to improve their fluency. The employees who are proficient in the language should speak slowly so that they do no dominate the conversation. It is the key responsibility of the managers to resolve conflicts and to discourage the employees to converse in their native tongue. Thus, if the following criteria are taken care of properly then implementing the new policy by the MNC of having a common language will not cause any harmful impact. As this report clearly indicates that the adoption of English as an official language had been done by many companies over the years. It is a very important aspect and even necessary for the organizations as different national languages can result into a lot of confusion while communicating externally. Though flexibility should be given to employees to meet the local market conditions but a platform should be established for a common mode of communication both internally as well as externally. This adoption method of a common language would require different trainings, coaching classes to be attended by the employees. There will be a cost associated with this training program but would help the organization in long run. Hence English being a global language is being adopted by many companies as an official language even when they have operations in different countries with different national languages. References Baumuller, M. 2007. Managing Cultural Diversity. USA: Peter Lang Caligiuri, D., Lepak, D., and Bonache, D. 2010. Managing the Global Workforce. UK: John Wiley & Sons. Crystal, D. 2003. English as a Global Language. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Dowling, P. J., Festing, M. and Engle, A.D. 2008. International Human Resource Management. UK: Cengage Learning EMEA. Eibel, S. 2006. English, the lingua franca, as a global language and the decline of German as an international language of science. UK: GRIN Verlag. Flaitz, J. 1988. The Ideology of English. Germany: Walter de Gruyter. Garzone, G., and Iire, C. 2007. The Use of English in Institutional and Business Settings. Germany: Peter Lang. Harvard Business Review, 2014. Global Business Speaks English. [Online]. Available at: http://hbr.org/2012/05/global-business-speaks-english/ar/1 [Accessed on 8th March 2014]. Hua, Z. 2013. Exploring Intercultural Communication. New York: Routledge. Jenkins, J. 2007. English as a Lingua Franca. California: Oxford University Press. Minkov, M. 2011. Cultural Differences in Globalizing World. UK: Emerald Group Publishing. Northrup, D. 2013. How English Became the Global Language. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Stahl, G.K., and Bjorkman, I., Morris, S. 2012. Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management. UK : Edward Elgar Publishing. The Economist, 2014. A growing number of firms worldwide are adopting English as their official language. [Online]. Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21596538-growing-number-firms-worldwide-are-adopting-english-their-official-language-english [Accessed on 8th March 2014]. Vance, C.M. 2013. Managing a Global Workforce. USA: M.E. Sharpe. Read More