With the increasing globalization of trade and business in the knowledge-based economy, nowadays almost three out of four multinational companies (MNCs) manage networks of twenty or more overseas operations (Feely & Harzing, 2003; John, Cox, Ietto-Gillies &
Grimwade, 1997). They have the co-ordination burden of managing such geographically, culturally and linguistically various networks. The co-ordination is especially the key source for competitive advantage; it makes global communication capability necessary for success (Feely & Harzing, 2003).
The importance of global communication capability makes the issues such as cross- cultural competence, language ability, communication skill, talent management and development more crucial. The use of an appropriate language has especially become critical for the acquisition of competitive advantage. Language affects the ability of multinational organizations to function in the global market (Dhir, 2004). The management of the diverse languages has become an important issue today.
In recent years not only corporations face the language management issue, but also the sport affairs in whole world face the same challenge. Many countries are seeking the opportunities of holding the international sport events, Taiwan is no exception. Taiwan government is advancing internationalization in these years. Many international activities are subsidized by the government such as international conference and sport events. The international events bring many benefits, such as promoting the reputation, increasing the soft power and social capital; cultivate more international talents and building the competitiveness.
Holding the international sport events especially promotes the competitiveness of nations. The competitiveness of nations comes from the competitiveness of cities. There are
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two kinds of factors in competitiveness of cities: fundamental and advantage factors (Chiang
& Huang, 2006). The fundamental factors are the infrastructure, laws and regulations construction. Advantage factors are others, such as human capital, innovative ability, knowledge capital, etc. These factors are essential for cities to hold the international sport events. Taiwan has strived for the opportunities to hold the international sport events for several years; therefore, there have been many events in Taiwan for recent years. For example, The 21th Summer Deaflympics Taipei and World Games in 2009, ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships and Tour de Taiwan in 2011. In the future, many units, such as tennis, baseball and football will hold the international sport events. In 2017, Taipei is going to hold World University Games. The participants, judges, medium and even the audiences are from diverse countries and cultures. Facing the different languages, the language management is crucial for the success of the international sport events.
Furthermore, there is a group of people playing the key role in the international sport events: the volunteers. The issue of volunteer service has become more and more popular in recent years. Their efforts make the events successful and gather the social capital more.
Therefore, this research will also emphasize on different dimensions of volunteer management.
Statement of the Problem
Generally, there are three aspects about the problem. First, although there are many researches about volunteer management in international sport events, few or even no researches is related to the language management in sport events. There are diverse cultures and languages in an international event, so the importance of the language factor should be addressed. The lack of research may influence the quality of language in the events and further affect quality of the event.
The second aspect is about the language management in early international sport events in Taiwan. The organizing units did not pay much attention to the language factor. For
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example, in volunteer management, they used to ask teachers to bring students to assist with the competitions, instead of recruiting great amounts of volunteers. About training, the level of training depends on the organizations. The language and culture competences often lack of training. As for others components in the volunteer management, they did not involve language factors much. In the business field, companies try to ensure the language quality with diverse methods and tools. A company may make better use of existing language-skilled staff; recruiting new staffs that already have the necessary English language skills, and organizing English training for those who need it. Most companies use the last two options simultaneously (Charles & Marschan-Piekkari, 2002). How about the field of international sport event in these days? Hence, the researcher would like to explore the current situation in Taiwan. She wants to know whether the language quality can be ensured in these events with the current volunteer management or event management.
The third one is related to language barriers, containing the standardized language and the usage of language. The language management may have been discussed much; however, the language barriers may still exist in communication. Such barriers would cause misunderstanding, distrust and even conflicts between people. There are two items for the language barriers. The first one is standardized language. Many events in Taiwan adopted the popular language, English as the main language in the competition, but actually there are more languages and cultures exist and the adoption of a standardized language is not always the optimal strategy (Dhir, 2005). Within an MNC, the use of English as a company language seems to provide an obvious solution to the problem of communicating with each other. A company language is helpful to internal and external communication since it provides a common medium for all members of the organization and offers easy access to official information channels (Tange & Lauring, 2009); however, it seemed to be creating kinds of problems. Take the Siemens case for example; they have indicated both the positive and negative effects of combining a foreign language with a technical or industry language. Such
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a language allows communication on a specific subject with particular vocabulary, but may also create misunderstandings (Charles & Marschan-Piekkari, 2002). Therefore, the researcher would like to know if international sport events have the same situation.
The second one is the usage of language. The language competence does not merely involve a linguistic ability to select the correct form of a given language (e.g. grammatical, syntactic, or morphological knowledge), but also a pragmatic capacity to adapt language to particular social situations and contexts (Tange & Lauring, 2009). In business, a dominant, proper or natural language depends on the occasion at hand, which makes the ability to define what is considered legitimate speech in any given situation or setting crucial to the continuous struggle for resources and recognition within an organization. The sociological theories offer a valuable insight into the use of language and mostly based on interaction between speakers of the same, national language (Brubaker, 2002; Jenkins, 1997; Tange &
Lauring, 2009). In oral comprehension, the difficulty of understanding different kinds of
"Englishes" exists, particularly the accents used in different parts of the world (Charles &
Marschan-Piekkari, 2002). In international sport events, members come from diverse countries and with different backgrounds; furthermore, a great amount of communication will occur in a short period. Facing the different usages of language, how to communicate smoothly is a big concern. How to manage communications across the language barrier is the question that every function would like to ask (Feely & Harzing, 2003). Consequently, the researcher would like to understand cross-cultural communication of volunteers. To sum up, this study was focused on language management and cross-cultural communication.
Purposes and Questions of the Study
Due to these problems, this study aimed to explore the language management of international sport events in Taiwan, practically in volunteer management process. From the perspectives of organizers and volunteers, the implementation about the language management and volunteer management in the sport events were enquired. This research
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provided Taiwan’s government, sport associations and volunteers the information of language management in volunteer management of international sport events in the future. Therefore, this study intended to respond the following research questions:
1. In volunteer management of international sport events in Taiwan, What are the strategies, policies, implementation of language management of the organizers?
2. In volunteer management of international sport events in Taiwan, what difficulties do organizers meet in the language management
3. In the international sport events in Taiwan, how do volunteers experience the language management?
4. During the international sport events in Taiwan, how do volunteers manage language barriers in communication?
Significance of the Study Language as a Forgotten Factor
The issues of global and cultural diversity have been discussed and researched largely in the past years; however, language is viewed as the “forgotten factor” in international management (Charles & Marschan-Piekkari, 2002; Tange, 2009). Luo and Shenkar (2006) also pointed out that language is rarely emphasized in the strategy literature. Writers have primarily discussed language management about transnational relationships, leaving the issue of micro-level implementation relatively unexplored. In spite of the significant role of foreign languages and international communication, few studies emphasize specifically on foreign language skills and their role in enhancing communication in the MNC environment (Charles
& Marschan-Piekkari, 2002).
The Increasing Intercultural Communication
In today’s world, the opportunities for intercultural communication are increasing.
Intercultural communication has many difficulties to conquer. Language users’ orientation of social interaction towards the members of their own speech community illustrates an obstacle
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to cross-cultural communication; furthermore, the language problem is not necessarily removed by adopting English as a standardized language (Tange & Lauring, 2009). In multinational settings, communication often takes place between speakers whose fluency in English varies and who may use other languages alongside English. Physical distance makes effective communication necessary and cultural distance makes effective global communication essential (Feely & Harzing 2003; Spinks & Wells, 1997). Although there are many tools and methods for solving the language problems, in our modern age of sophisticated technology, the efficiency of communication still requires human input through language (Charles & Marschan-Piekkari, 2002). Therefore, the language system and the contents of communication should be enquired.
The Significance of International Sport Events for English Ability
Although researchers have indicated that viewing English as the standardized language have problems, English is still influential. The ability is viewed as one of the indexes of the competitiveness of nations. With English, people can experience the international view and learn new information (Yen, 2010). Not only education is important, but also the learning environment is principle. The opportunities to speak English are necessary. The English village should be built as an environment for people to “use” English, not to “learn” English.
It is suggested that the government should improve systems, laws and regulations instead of spending budgets on English village or scenario classrooms. The international sport events indeed provide great numbers of people to “use” English. However, English is merely a tool for understanding other cultures (Yen, 2010). The key of the competitiveness of nations is the viewpoint and creativity. The international sport events provide the opportunities for people to participate the international affairs. Furthermore, this research is one of the few researches to connect language management and international sport events.
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Definition of Terms Language
Language is a symbolic resource that individuals use in order to achieve and express cultural and social notions of behavior, in which the process includes conversation, setting, function and social identity. English and other rare languages are included here.
Language Management
Language management is a succession of explicit and implicit actions including verbal and nonverbal language policies, strategies, implementations; usually not written in a formal document (Blommaert, 2003; Spolsky, 2004; Senkar, 2006; Tange & Lauring, 2009).
Volunteer Service
Under free wills and choices, in approved organizations, without pay, people devote themselves to the behaviors which are benefit to others or society, but the necessary expenditures could be subsidized (Lu, 2002).
Volunteer Management
This research defined it as a system and application which develop human resources of volunteers, including recruiting, selecting and training in short-term events.
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