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- More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors.
hbr.org › 2012 › 05
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The international companies using only English. A growing number of global firms are using as English their main language – even if they are based in Japan or France.
Summary. Like it or not, English is the global language of business. Today 1.75 billion people speak English at a useful level—that’s one in four of us. Multinational companies such as...
- Language Frustration
- The Power Position
- What Managers Can Do
Neeley and her colleagues found ample evidence that language anxiety and frustration were common throughout many of the interviews; many reported a sense of being "other" or experiencing an "us versus them" dynamic at a work site. The researchers rated the teams as high, medium, or low, based on the intensity of this "us versus them" effect. For ex...
"Emotions around power or lack of it is a key contributor," Neeley says. Power—specifically who is perceived to have it and who doesn't—acts as a catalyst that triggers and reinforces anxieties over language and creates subgrouping. Without the power component, language differences don't seem as troublesome to team members; workers without power mi...
In a previous paper—The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of Language in Global Collaboration—the same authors outline steps managers can take to control the damage of language-motivated subgrouping. These include: Anticipate challenges and employee reactions.Managers must prepare for the communications challenges brought on by a new lingua franca system and watc...
Mar 21, 2017 · The International Companies Using Only English. A growing number of global firms are using as English their main language – even if they are based in Japan or France. By Bryan Borzykowski. Nearly every meeting Keiko Claassen must attend at work is held in English. No big deal – except that her company is based in Italy and she’s Dutch.
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Sep 10, 2021 · The language of business is often said to be English, and it’s true that many global conglomerates like Airbus, Renault, Samsung and Microsoft in Beijing communicate in this fashion. But as ...
Nov 13, 2019 · Among them are the airline Lufthansa, car manufacturers Audi and Honda, tyre-maker Bridgestone, pharmaceutical company Aventis, telecoms manufacturer Huawei, and Fast Retailing, which owns the Uniqlo fashion company. They are just some of the many companies that expect their staff to speak English.
A 2020 study found that 75% of global consumers want product information in their native language, and more than half will avoid websites that are English-only. That’s why a growing number of organizations looking to unlock sustainable growth on a global scale are using language solutions to enhance their multilingual capabilities.
