Importance of Language Diversity on Multinational Organisations - Term Paper Example

IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE DIVERSITY ON MULTINATIONAL ORGANISATIONS Introduction: During the past fifty years, rapid growth in Europe has made the continent more diverse than ever before. This is considered to be a big challenge itself. Diversity brings out a lot of complications regarding daily life, and requires a solid political and financial investment. Although the investment may be huge, it smoothly pays off in the long run. (Orban, 2008) The various languages are a significant part of the diversity the Union has to deal with. The question often arise that why should there be 23 different official languages of the Union. Why not just one common language At first thought, it does seem to us that a single language might make it a lot easier for us to understand each other. But if we flip back to the pages of our history, the very idea of a single language has not proved to be so beneficial. For example, there was a time when Latin was enforced as the common language. But due to the various kinds of people living in Europe, a variety of languages sprang out of this one language and provided us with the different cultures that we look upon today. (Orban, 2008) Problems of Language Diversity in Multinational Organisations: In order for the European economy to run smoothly, it is mandatory to recognize the various lingual problems faced by the multinational firms. These types of companies operate on worldwide basis involving constant exchange of goods and manpower among their subsidiaries. Due to the number of countries included, various languages are functional in this business. Hence, language problems arise, and the big challenge is to remove these linguistic and communication problems without causing any harm to the largely depended upon socio-economic infrastructure of the firm. (LINEE, n.d) A very fine example that demonstrates causes and consequences of linguistic problems is the multinational operations held by the military. Cultural diversity in a military army can have both positive and negative impacts on a mission. The effectiveness of a mission can be reduced by lack of proper communication due to the use of a variety of languages and inability to communicate in a single language. Lack of the required level of coordination along with the lingual limits on the exchange of information is also a result of language diversity, leading to a weakening of the task. For example, the multinational mission at the Kabul International Airport (KAIA), although it was successful, had to face problems due to lingual differences. For instance, people were forced to receive medical help outside the Headquarters, as the Spanish medics had no command on English. (Picciano, 2007) Impact of Culture on Language Diversity: Culture refers to the ways information is exchanged in a particular group in order to conceive the desired meaning among the people. These ways include solid goods and non-verbal language. Cultures may be divided at a national level, religious level, racial level, gender level, etc., and their goal is to express themselves as superior to the others. (Diversity RX, 2003) Language is actually one of the most important components that define a culture. The other factors include the way of dressing, greeting, eating, etc. hence, if members of a group unanimously agree to change the whole system of their culture, the language goes with it. To demonstrate this, let us take the example of a group of rich teenagers belonging to Pakistan. This group includes children from different areas of the country, speaking a variety of languages. Through media, they are deeply influenced by western culture causing them to eat, greet, dress, and even talk like the westerners. So down the sewers goes lingual diversity. Culture has such a deep impact on language diversity that even if a group of people try to adopt a second language, cultural differences prevent them to do so. For instance, Japanese people struggle with learning English, while English people also find it hard to learn Japanese. The reasons may be differences in teaching criteria and communication tactics. (Hidasi, n.d) Theoretical Concepts regarding Language Diversity: Since ancient times, linguistics has been a very fascinating subject to all scholars, as it never had a solid law to fall upon. Therefore, different theories concerning language have been created since the last few centuries. For example, Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, led the Structuralist theory in the early 1900's. Later, in the 1950's, Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, launched the Generative theory of language, which said that every grammar had certain rules to follow. (Martin, 1990) Following are some concepts affecting language diversity: High/Low Context Cultures High/Low Context communication refers to the level a speaker depends upon elements other than explicitness to communicate a piece of information. This theory, developed by Edward Hall, says that the meaning depends upon the context. A phrase can be low context, like "shut the door", because it gives a message but not the why, which will have to be deduced from some other source. Similarly, a phrase can be high context if it does give the reason to shut the door; for example, "shut the door because it is cold". Now, it depends on your bringing up whether you need the context or not. (LeBaron, 2003) Collectivism & Individualism Collectivism denotes a system consisting of a group of people that form the fundamental unit of economic, political, and social concern. This commonly refers to a country or state (Encarta, 2007). Hence, all the members of the group would normally agree to a single spoken language for the whole group eliminating any chance for lingual diversification. Individualism, on the other hand, states that society is only present for the sake of its occupants, as individuals, and that they have the right to think and judge independently (Encarta, 2007). So, existence of individualism does promote lingual diversity in a group. Immediacy & Expressiveness These denote the availability for exchange of information. High immediacy cultures, also known as high contact cultures, are largely located in areas of warm climate like the Middle East, while low immediacy cultures are found in areas of cold climatic conditions (CBA, n.d). People here stay put to certain parts of the land and so develop various languages, while people in warm places are in constant communication with each other, reducing chances of diversification. Non-verbal Language: This refers to the different ways of communication among members of a group without the use of dialogue. This is actually deeply associated to the culture of the group, as it includes body language, greeting a person, way of eating and dressing, etc. This non-verbal communication can result in a mutual understanding between people of different cultures speaking different tongues. Management of Language Diversity: Language is a vital factor that differentiates one culture from another. Hence, there is always tension between two people speaking different languages. So, the various cultural languages can be taught at schools and language institutes to maintain unity and good relations among the people. Conclusion: Languages are rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth. Since the 1500's, 15% of the total languages have reduced. Our survival as one species living in a vast range of environments, such as the jungle, forests, deserts, arctic, etc. has been due to the conveyance of ideas through language. Loss of language diversity is greatly erasing our ability to adapt properly, as it reduces the sea of knowledge, which is the root of our intellect. (Bernard, 1997) Works Cited 1) Beer, Jennifer E. (2003). "High and Low Context". Culture At Work. [Internet]. Available from: http://www.culture-at-work.com/highlow.html [Accessed 23 March 2008] 2) Bernard, H. Russell. (1997). "Preserving Language Diversity". SIRS Inc. [Internet]. Available from: http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/jmatthew/articles/langdiverse.html [Accessed 23 March 2008] 3) "Collectivism". (2007). Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia. Microsoft Corporation. Available from: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557951/Collectivism.html [Accessed 23 March 2008] 4) "Culture and Non-verbal Communication". (n.d). CBA. [Internet] Available from: http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/nonverbal/Culture.htm [Accessed 23 March 2008] 5) Hidasi, Judit. (n.d). "The Impact of Culture on Second Language Acquisition". [Internet]. Available from: http://www.childresearch.net/RESOURCE/RESEARCH/2006/exfile/HIDASI.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2008] 6) "Individualism". (2007). Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia. Microsoft Corporation. Available from: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577619/Individualism.html [Accessed 23 March 2008] 7) LeBaron, Michelle. (June 2003). "Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences". University of Colorado. [Internet] Available from: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/communication_tools/ [Accessed 23 March 2008] 8) "Linguistic Diversity in large Multinational Companies and their Regional Allocation". (n.d). [Internet]. Available from: http://www.linee.info/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/WP_12_description.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2008]. 9) Martin, Larry W. (1990). "Linguistics". The World Book Encyclopaedia, World Book Inc. 10) Orban, Leonard. (3 March 2008). "Enlargement and Diversity in the European Union". [Internet]. St. Anthony's College, Oxford. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/orban/news/docs/speeches/080303_speech_Oxford/Enlargement_and_Diversity_in_the_European_Union_Oxford_speech.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2008]. 11) Picciano, Nicasia. (7 June 2007). "Cross-cultural Challenges in Peace Operations: Notes on Bi-national and Multinational Examples". [Internet]. NATO Defence College. Available from: Academic Research Branch. http://www.ndc.nato.int/download/publications/resnotes04.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2008]. 12) "Why Language and Culture are Important". (25 March 2003). Diversity RX. [Internet]. Available from: http://www.diversityrx.org/HTML/ESLANG.htm [Accessed 23 March 2008] Read More