跨國公司的語言管理

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(1)Language Management in Multinational Corporations. by Chang-Ming Vic Tu. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRAION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Chih-Chien Steven Lai, Ph. D. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan June, 2012.

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(3) ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to ETS, which is the main sponsor for this latest topic in management. Their interests as well as vision make it possible to become the pioneer one in Taiwan. Also, the willingness and sharing from the participants are critical in this research. I want to thank for their participation and help in providing abundant information and practical insights. Secondly, thanks to the guidance from my committee members and advisor, I could finally handle this topic smoothly. I appreciate their endless patience and practical suggestion during the research process, for which is especially important to me in learning how to write a well-constructed thesis. Special thanks to my family, although they don’t exactly understand what my research is, they still give me trust and fully support in the period of my studying. With their warmest backup, I could conquer many difficulties that lay ahead..

(4) ABSTRACT The rise of multinational organizations during last decades has become a common phenomenon and brings out new communication challenges in the world today. Language issues affect the daily operations and societal interactions in multinational corporations widely, especially for HR practitioners. However, there are gaps on the linkage between language management and organizational performance in the multinational corporations. By way of qualitative approach of in-depth interview, this research portrayed the communication challenges in HR function of multinational corporations, which reveals English is the core competency for HR practitioners. Secondly, this research observed that multinational corporations allocate less resource on development instead of recruiting competent talents in practices of language management. Lastly, suggestions such as the establishment of international environment were proposed by HR practitioners for managing languages in the future. The main contribution of this study is to provide practical insights for both multinational corporations and HR practitioners in managing languages. In a way, multinational corporations are able to improve their managerial capability in managing languages.. Keywords: language management, human resource, multinational corporations ! !. !. !. I!.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................I TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................II LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................IV LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................V APPENDIX ................................................................................................................VI. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 1 Background of the Study ...................................................................................1 Research Purposes .............................................................................................8 Research Questions ............................................................................................8 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................9 Delimitations and Limitations............................................................................10 Definition of Terms............................................................................................11. CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................... 13 Strategic Importance of Language Management ...............................................13 The Development of Language Management ....................................................15 Relevant Studies Review and Findings..............................................................19. CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ........................................................ 27 Research Framework .........................................................................................27 Research Method ...............................................................................................28 Research Subjects ..............................................................................................29 Data Collection and Analysis.............................................................................36 !. II!.

(6) Validity and Reliability ......................................................................................38 Research Procedure ............................................................................................40. CHAPTER VI. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS................................ 43 Communication Challenges ...............................................................................43 Practices of Language Management ..................................................................51 Feedback ............................................................................................................58. CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS......... 65 Conclusions ........................................................................................................65 Suggestions ........................................................................................................68 Managerial Implication ......................................................................................71. REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX A-Coding of the Study ..........................................................................83 APPENDIX B-Interview Questions ..........................................................................87. ! !. !. !. III!.

(7) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................28 Figure 3.2 An Example of Coding Steps ...................................................................37 Figure 3.3 An Example of Coding and Categorizing Steps .......................................38 Figure 3.4 Procedures of the Study ............................................................................41. !. IV!.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Summary of Interviewees..……………………………………………. 35 Table 3.2 Comparison of Technology Industry & Service Industry..……………. 63!. !. V!.

(9) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION The purpose of the introductory chapter is to provide an outline of the study with following sections: background of the study, purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations and limitations, and the definition of terms.. Background of the Study Common Language Becomes a New Issue in Management With the development of technology and Internet in the past decades, the way of doing business transform to a new pattern such as multinational organizations which run business around the world. According to the statistic of the United Nations, the sales of foreign subsidiaries of multinationals were nearly twice as high as world exports in millennial era, while in 1990 both were about the same. In 2008, 810,000 foreign subsidiaries of about 82,000 parent firms amounted approximately one third to world sales, while the number of employees in foreign affiliates has increased more than doubled in the last two decades (UNCTAD, 2009). If we take a closer look at the structure of biggest economy power, we could also find that U.S. multinational corporations rank among the largest U.S. firms. These large parent firms account for 95% of the total number of people employed by U.S. multinational corporations. Employment abroad is even more concentrated among the largest foreign affiliates of U.S. parent firms: the largest 2% of the affiliates account for 90% of affiliate employment (Jackson, 2011). The data reveals an important message that the multinational organizations become the dominant majority and a common phenomenon in today’s world economy structure that is affecting all walks of our life.. 1.

(10) With the development of technology and Internet, multinational organizations become borderless and have more frequent interaction between global partners. Data suggests that as many as three out of four multinational companies now manage networks of twenty or more overseas operations (John, Grimwade, & Cox, 1997). With the growing trend of the increasing numbers of organizations that run globally, the communication intensity becomes much higher than before. As Thompson (2003) states, “communication is the basic feature of social life, and language is a major component of it.” The success communication is based on the share language that has been identified as an essential part of an organization’s effectiveness. That is the reason language is of great significance in international communication scenario (Harzing & Feely, 2008). This inevitable trend causes a huge impact on those organizations that implement their daily practices throughout the world. Such cross-border management involves not only issues of culture and geographical dispersion but also linguistic challenges. The common problem is language barrier when expatriates communicate with their local business community and built up their network relationship (Adler, 1983; Brannen, 2004; Herbert, 1984; Hofstede, 2001; Ronen & Shenkar, 1985; Triandis, 1982). In terms of language, multinational organizations face following challenges. Firstly, most multinational parent companies are not located in countries that speak English. Secondly, future investments are mostly targeted at rising powers in developing countries, which means a shortage of parent company language skills (John et al., 1997). The fact shows that the changing power of language induces new issues that we should turn to. Previous research point out that 60% of 1000 German companies have no business with 2.

(11) enterprises in the UK. For the further question, if they want to establish the connection, 80% prefer to speak their own language (Coleman & Cree, 2000). It suggested that language dominant power is shifting faster than we expected. This shapes new picture for our understanding and incurs the intention to look into about how different and serious the language problem is today. Some multinational organizations have already aware of this issue such as Nokia and Phillips. They all choose English as their corporate language to facilitate global coordination, internal communication, and better transfer of information although their parent language is Finnish and Dutch (Fredriksson, Barner-Rasmussen, & Piekkari, 2006). This strengthens the notion of the study on investigating English as a common language and how it affects the multinational organizations in the international setting. Taiwan is an export-oriented country of a large portion of small and medium enterprises, which requires different languages in order to trade with partners all over the world (Industrial Bureau, 2012). With the coming pace of the globalization, the multinational organizations face with more local languages in adopting the transnational model (local responsiveness allied to strong global direction) as their strategy to strengthen the coordination abilities than they used to be. Although we could infer the problems existing in the multinational companies in Taiwan, limited of the related research has been done to know the current situation as well as measures accepted to tackle the language problems in multinational scenario. That motivates the intention of this research on knowing how multinational organizations in Taiwan manage language issues when conducting business worldwide.. 3.

(12) English Is the Main Language Adopt in HRM Language is the medium for us to communicate as well as a tool to interact with others in our daily life. It carries the information as well as personal feeling within their cultural and linguistic context in the communication process (Von Glinow et al., 2004). It is also an essence related to one’s national identity in many countries (Hill, 2002). The spread of most common used language, namely English, has been promoted by the following factors: the worldwide competition of the multinational organizations; the development of modern information and communication technologies; and the growth of international mergers and acquisitions (House, 2002). In response to this trend, several multinational corporations have adopted English as their corporate language to facilitate internal communication between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries as they enter new markets (Feely, 2003; Marschan, Welch, & Welch, 1999a; Nickerson, 2000). For those that require intensive communication in a global environment, language is the crucial factor that should be conquered when conducting business over different countries. Bossard and Peterson (2005) also supported this point that a lack of background knowledge and language skills to understand foreign markets was the most frequent reason for companies decide not to explore. Further, Cyr and Schneider (1996) found that senior manager had more language-related problems than frontline employees. As a result of loss of rhetorical skills, misunderstandings are therefore easily caused, resulting in uncertainty and anxiety (Gudykunst, 1995; SanAntonio, 1988). In this background, language is thought of as the key strategic factor for the future development regarding how to integrate these dots without missing core information or causing misunderstanding in the international settings. This incurs the research to know further about 4.

(13) how multinational organizations deal with language related issues in practice and whether the language is the key and which role it plays in multinational organizations on the perspective of improving organizational performance.. Language Capability Becomes the Critical Qualification for HRM Shifting the focus on human resource management, the common way for multinational organizations managing local talents tend to send the expatriate to implement the policy from headquarters (Manev & Stevenson, 2001; Salter & Niswander, 1995). As multinational organizations seek to cut costs and disperse their department throughout the world to strategically response to a globally competitive marketplace, the local workforce plays an increasingly important role to implement organizational objectives (Ely & Thomas, 2001; Hofstede, 2001). From the human resource development point of view, the language competence is critical when sending expatriate in dealing with the communication problems existing in different branches. So we could note that the importance in building HRM process for multinational organizations could select, train, and build their competence in coping with the daily task (Marschan et al , 1997). Furthermore, the importance of language that also has a huge impact on the scenario in the human resource management process such as training effectiveness (Tung, 1982), conflict management in cross-cultural teams (Von Glinow et al., 2004). In the aspect of communication across the broader, language is the facilitator regarding headquarters–subsidiary relations (Gupta, 1987; Harzing & Feely, 2008), knowledge transfer and diffusion (Ghoshal & Nohria, 1989), and the efficiency of the global value chain (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2001). The overall effects of language provide some implication for top management and HR practitioners in the changing world today. That is to 5.

(14) say, language is becoming a more significant and urgent issue for the multinational organizations on the effect of globalization and diversity. What this all means for HR practitioners? How language affects the human resource management and development process? And how HR practitioners handle language issue in human resource development decision process (MARSCHAN, WELCH and WELCH, 1997)? Such questions are aroused in this research in the hope of providing some insights for HR practitioners.. Researches on Language Management is Lacking Mainstream of the international management literature fell on the cultural or institution context and inappropriately exclude of language differences since multinational organizations became the majority structure affecting our life (Harzing, 2004). Trace back of the language management literature, in 1987, San Antonio was touted as the first one to investigate the issue of how language skills empowered employees and language served as a group-identity marker within the multinational organization. Since the late 90’s, more researcher were interested in the related topics on language diversity management seems to be growing in the past decades, most of them were case studies. Although these finding provide us some insights on how language functions in the international management, the need of more empirical research on how language affects multinational organizations should be testing are aroused by many researchers!(Harzing & Feely, 2008; Louhiala-Salminen & Rogerson-Revell, 2010; Tietze, 2007; Welch et al., 2001). In recently years, language management is the field being discussed with the progress of the increasing numbers of multinational organizations (e.g. Ammon et al., 2009; Nekvapil 6.

(15) & Nekula, 2006; Nekvapil & Sherman, 2009a, 2009b; Vaara et al, 2005; the ELAN report, 2007). The academic development in discussing about relationships between language and organization management or HR policy is still in its early development (Piekkari et al., 2005). However, language is rarely emphasized in recent research or in management field. As Luo and Shenkar (2006) point out, language is rarely addressed in the strategy literature for that should regard as a strategic asset. The fact induces scholars’ notions such as Marschan-Piekkari et al.’s (1997) regarding language as the “forgotten factor” (p.591) in international management environment, also thought of as ‘‘the management orphan’’ (Verrept, 2000) and ‘‘the most neglected field in management’’ (Reeves and Wright, 1996). This situation has been changed by recent researches into human resource implications of a shared medium across the global organization (Feely & Harzing, 2003; Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1999a, 1999b; Nickerson, 2000). Brannen (2004) pointed out that language is depicted as the barriers that impair market entry, integration and coordination between headquarter and local branch; however, the relationship between language design and global strategy is not discussed (Graham, 1985; Hofstede, 2001; Triandis, 1982).. Language Issues Should Be Considered in Management Practice Globalization brings new challenges for multinational organizations. Whether to select a corporate language or sending the expatriate gradually becomes a strategic choice in global management. Especially for HR practitioners, from recruiting to developing all involve language diversity as well as barriers when communicating and managing across the nations. Although some pilot study has been made, how language management affect the organizational performance is still the uncharted territory lacking of focus in academic field, 7.

(16) especially in Taiwan. That fact incurs the intention for more into the issue of how language strategy affects multinational organizations in daily routine when running business all over the world. For the practical use, this research is trying to provide a practical definition for multinational organizations reference. In doing so, multinational organizations could improve their performance as well as international managing capacity by way of taking language management measures.. Research Purposes According to previous discussion, the main purposes are addressed as follows. Firstly, this research is to investigate what are the communication challenges in HR function of MNCs. Secondly, exploring practices of language management in HR practitioners in MNCs is another purpose. Lastly, after knowing more about the detail of language issues in the multinational setting, the research hopes to capture the feedback form HR practitioners for managing languages in the future. In the end, providing practical insights to increase the performance of HR practitioners.. Research Questions The main purposes of this study will explore what are the communication challenges in HR function of MNCs and exploring practices of language management in HR practices in MNCs. Attach to those purposes, the research questions are stated as follows: 1. What language challenges (barriers) do HR function encounter when doing business worldwide? 2. What are communicating elements (system) that HR function uses in MNCs? 3. How do MNCs react to tackle with the language challenges in recruiting (HRM)? 8.

(17) 4. How do MNCs react to tackle with the language challenges in HRD? 5. How does your organization evaluate the effectiveness of HR department in managing language issues? 6. What are the strengths and weakness of your organization in managing languages? 7. What are your suggestions for your organization in managing languages?. Significance of the Study In Taiwan, language management is the field that has not been done before in the academic area. As the increasing numbers of multinational organizations in Taiwan, this research is trying to provide actual practical insights for them as reference. For top management, language should be touted as strategic issue when operate in the global environment. By looking into the practice, the result tries to provide different ways of thinking and shape new mindset in concern with language issues strategically. To HR practitioners, the result is hoping to reinforce the importance effect of HR policy in facing of the competitive international environment. At the same time, practical measure will be proposed by analyzing the collected data, providing the alternatives for further management application with cross-discipline when multinational organizations going global. In this way, multinational organizations in Taiwan could find out a way in improving communicating problems and enhancing the management capability in the complex world today. Lastly, the result of this study can be a pioneer in the field of language management and obtain more attention on the issue of language management in Taiwan.. 9.

(18) Delimitations and Limitations Delimitations In this study, HR practitioners are the target samples whose daily task involves in dealing with languages. These samples are set to collect within several multinational organizations based in Taiwan during the same period of time. The research scope is focused on HR functions and the practices related to language issues to portray the scenario of the effects that caused by languages during the daily tasks. For discussing specific language issues, English is the current focus language of the research.. Limitation In order to portray the overall practices in MNCs, this research mainly selected two representative industries consisting twelve middle level HR executives as the interview samples. Due to the nature of qualitative approach, the result can not infer to all MNCs in technology manufacture and service industries, even for all MNCs in Taiwan in the respect of language practices. Findings are only applicable for those under similar circumstances and conditions. Without considering the different globalization phases and different organizational structures for each MNCs, this research probably causes some bias on the discussion of language issues. Also, different understandings and perceptions during the interview process may cause bias of the collected data, which were confirmed and reviewed by interviewee for consolidation. The language issues discussed in this study are merely English. Further generalization is limited to other cultural or language settings.. 10.

(19) Definition of Terms Business Communication Organizational communication is the different communication practices that take place between people within an organizational setting, including internal communication practices that occur from headquarters to subsidiaries, subsidiaries to headquarters and between (O’Rourke, 2010). Not only within subsidiaries but also external communication, meaning from the organization to its external environment, such as customers or shareholders (Bovée & Thill, 2001). Both above definitions apply to this study.. Communication System According to Weik’s (1995) definition in "Communications Standard Dictionary". Communication system means a system or facility capable of providing information transfer between persons and equipment, which usually consists of a collection of individual communication, transmission systems and equipment capable of interconnection and interoperation so as to form an integrated whole. These individual components must serve a common purpose, be technically compatible, employ common procedures, respond to some form of control, and generally operate in unison.. Language Management Language management includes whether changes are being made to the school organization, their placement processes, curriculum design and pedagogical philosophy (Spolsky, 2004). Any measures or policy adopted by the organization to tackle with language related issues are defined as language management in this research. According to Feely and Winslow, language management is defined as “the extent to which the company is able to 11.

(20) satisfy its language needs through prudent deployment of a variety of language management tools” (Feely and Winslow, 2005 in CILT). The above definitions are all applicable in this research.. Language Strategy Strategy refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, and is concerned with how different engagements are linked (Heuser, 2010). Following this concept, language strategy refers to an overall organizational strategy dealing with language barrier or related measures in response to solving the language issues such as policies are defined in this study.. Language Worker Language worker is defined as an employee who has an educational background in modern languages or languages for specific purposes, and whose tasks involve professional language usage (e.g. corporate communications, translation, proofreading, and technical writing) (Tange, 2009), which is applied to the sample criteria in this study.. 12.

(21) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW To serve the study’s need, the following literature review focused on the history of management on language related issues and how language related problems been recognized and positioned within multinational organization. This chapter is divided into following three sections: strategic importance of language management, the development of language management, and relevant studies review.. Strategic Importance of Language Management Language Is a Strategic Choice and Organizational Asset In the international environment, multinational organizations have to communicate through different regions where the branches or customers are located. Therefore, various languages and barriers could be easily seen to happen in the process of global communications. Occasionally, lacking of specific language skills will first become the issue that these organizations have to conquer for following steps. Such barriers resulting from language diversity will impede the communication fluency and knowledge flow further causing the impact on functioning as well as performance within the multinational organizations (Feely & Harzing, 2003). Authors like Welch et al. (1999b) and Feely and Harzing (2008) had discussed how language difference impairs the communication flow and influence the management system. This is especially evident in cross-cultural joint ventures as well as relationship between headquarter and subsidiaries in which documents and personal contact are major medium for building trust in a new collaboration network (Feely & Harzing, 2008; Luo, 2001). Therefore, the concept of an overall well-designed language. 13.

(22) strategy is emphasized by these observations. Luo and Senkar (2006) echoed the notion and pointed out that language diversity should be regarded as a corporate asset and be integrated into organizational strategy since language affects daily practices in the organizations. Balanced with global integration and local adaptation, language should be taken as a variable mechanism in line with corporate strategy and gradually evolve with changing environment according to them. Their statement stressed the language are dynamic instead of static and proposed that the language policy is a delicate outcome closely link with the strategy. Therefore, an integrated language design will improve organizational performance by effective communication and exchanging information within the organization, better integration and coordination between headquarter and subsidiaries, higher group cohesiveness and reducing the cultural distance among employees (Luo and Senkar, 2006). Furthermore, knowledge flow will be smoothly transmitted within the organization for which are recognized as the competitive advantage of multinational organizations in recent management literature (e.g. Björkman et al., 2004; Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000; Gupta & Govindarajan, 2000; Luo & Shenkar, 2006; Mudambi, 2002).. The Overall Impact of Language Diversity Marschan et al. (1997) also note that language policies should match its strategies for the language affects everywhere thought the organization. Deepening this concept, other scholars shift the focus on a more micro view on the human resource perspective that this language diversity could cause a sense of loneliness and exclusion of people without proper language skills (Harzing & Feely, 2008; Welch et al., 2005). It was the turning point for increasing the research scope of language from institutional to personal aspect. On the 14.

(23) team-building and socialization basis, language is a critical element for employees forming as one unit and acquiring belongingness (Henderson, 2005). Without dealing with language diversity, the informal communication will be lessened and it further damages the knowledge transfer process (Charles, 2007; Marschan et al., 1997; Tsai, 2002). These standpoints enable us to see more clearly about the importance of how language influences individual and social interactions. These all strengthen the need for multinational organizations to take language issues into strategically account. Unlike culture, language is a strategic choice that embedded in culture and evolving with institutional realities. Communication, coordination, and knowledge sharing in multinational organizations could be improved by way of aligning language systems with organizational strategy (Barner-Rasmussen, Fredriksson, Piekkari, 2006). For forming a global strategy, a strategic approach should be adopted in order to integrate and set up a control mechanism to better coordinate the worldwide management (Björkman and Piekkari, 2009). In this way, multinational organizations could avoid the unnecessary misunderstandings and potential risks in the management process. We could conclude that the calls of all authors that language has an overall and huge impact in the administration of multinational organizations and should be taken as a strategic issue rather than merely language.. The Development of Language Management Brief History of Language Management Researches on language use and how language affects the performance of multinational organizations is scarce in past few decades. In the academic field of culture and communication, we could obviously find the fact that even in the well-known Hofstede’s 15.

(24) cultural dimensions, which is dominant in cultural study for decades, the most visible factor, namely language difference, is excluded in this tool used for measuring cultural difference. The credibility of this scale was criticized by some researches for ignoring such critical factors (Feely & Harzing, 2008). Traced back the history of language management, San Antonio (1988) was regarded as the first one to discuss issues on language use within a multinational corporate and how language barriers affect the daily operation. In her sample of one American company in Japan, she took language as a important source of power and career development for local employees with the English fluency, at the same time, language also be thought of as a significant factor for group identity. The original value of this research is to propose the notion that these barriers could be broken through by HRM process such as staffing, training and development (Von Glinow, 1988; Gibson & Hodgetts, 1991), which became the foundation for future related studies. On the effect of globalization in the late 90’s, sending expatriate is a common practice for multinational organizations in order to manage business networks around the world. More researches like Marschan-Piekkari et al. (1997, 1999a, b) and Neal (1998) involved in language issues within the multinational organizations by conducting the case study in Finland and United Kingdom. Through interviews, they identified the frustration, misunderstanding, and feelings of outsider are mostly resulted from language problems. That is to say, behind the act of sending expatriates to deliver management policy without considering language contains potential risks for the multinational organizations. After some empirical cases, many complicate forms of interaction were conducted following previous findings, trying to confirm or bring out different points on language issues. In the relationship 16.

(25) between headquarter and subsidiaries, Barner-Rasmussen and Bjo ̈rkman (2005) and Buckley et al. (2005) discuss the role of language skills in facilitating communication and knowledge transfer. They echoed the concept that language is the critical factor that should tackle with in this form of communication process. Topics like the role of corporate language choice in merged companies were also conducted by some authors, showing the fact that whether a common corporate language was chosen to fasten the management was interpreted as a political choice by the organization for this is mostly the result of disintegration in the organization (Vaara et al., 2005; Piekkari et al., 2005). Other studies on language use have also been done in the area of external relationships such as sales negotiations (Planken, 2005) or distributor relations (Poncini, 2003). In addition, issues such as overall language strategy, knowledge transfer within the organizations, and international business communication that adopted English as a lingua franca (Nickerson, 2005) have been noticed (Janssens et al., 2004; Luo & Shenkar, 2006). Overall, the role of English in the internal communication of multinational organizations is currently the popular issue in this field (Kankaanranta, 2005; Louhiala-Salminen et al., 2005; Nickerson, 2000; Sørensen, 2005).. Language Diversity Brings New Issues for Global Management While language issues become increasing important with the inevitable trend of globalization, international management researchers recently shift their focus on the effect of choosing a common language in the international management setting (Andersen & Rasmussen, 2004; Barner-Rasmussen, 2003; Feely & Harzing, 2003; Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1999b). As Sørensen (2005) defines a common corporate language as “an administrative managerial tool”, which is also considered a strategic choice for multinational organizations 17.

(26) (Luo & Senkar, 2006). Various practical ways in response to communication problems such as enacting a specific corporate language, developing a language training courses, or even outsourcing, which had been overall discussed by Feely and Harzing (2003). The reason for why the emerging numbers of this topic is possibly the most common practice for multinational organizations to react in the face of language diversity. Those researches provide the insights on discussing whether this policy indeed solving the language problems and how it affects the employee interactions on a more micro view. In this vein, Henderson (2005) launched the investigations in the field of interpersonal communication in multinational teams and trying to reveal the importance on the interplay between language and cultural diversity. More specifically, Zander (2005) distinguished the similarity between language and culture and come up with major differences in communication style preferences between countries using the same language. Using different approach, Lauring and Selmer (2010) adopted the quantitative method to introduce a social element by including group cohesiveness variables. The result shows that creating a supporting environment and encouraging strategically using common language on daily meetings and personal communication will benefit the group cohesiveness within the organizations. By doing this way, the language diversity seems to have less impact on communication than we expected. The result may suggest that the use and management of a common language has a more positive impact on social life in multicultural organizations than previously presumed. In consequence, this pioneering study provides novel information that can be used by HR executives and policy-makers in managing their multicultural staffs.. 18.

(27) Relevant Studies Review and Findings Language Barrier within Multinational Organizations According the definition, multilingualism describes the condition of more than one language exist within an organization (Tange & Lauring, 2009). It has become a common phenomenon for most of the organizations even for those without the branches in other countries. Despite the fact that multinational organizations dominate the economic structure, language diversity is still the area that lack of thoroughly attention in academic research field (Maclean, 2006). This situation changes when Feely and Harzing (2003, p 39) propose the definition that language diversity as, “the number of different languages a company has to manage”, which provide a measureable tool for organizations to portray the diversity of language use within the organizations. The scale is also developed into application for discussion language used issues. Echoing the concept, Welch et al. (2005) identified the different types of languages used within an organization into three layers, which are 1) Everyday spoken/written languages, 2) Company “speak” and 3) Technical/ professional/ industry language. Base on the different occasion, first layer describe the different languages used for internal communications, the second represents the company jargon used only in the organization, and the third is other professional language involved in a specific position (Welch et al., 2005). Connected to this three level communication concept, Feely and Harzing (2003) proposed that finding the language barrier within the organization should be prior to manage languages for specific layers (Feely & Harzing, 2003). Language barrier occurs when multinational corporate communicate in using different languages. These miscommunications 19.

(28) result in the loss of resources and time to deliver the message during ordinary practice. In order to audit the language problems, three dimensions are addressed to reflect the language barrier existing the multinational organizations. These are: (Feely & Harzing, 2003) 1) Language diversity –the number of different languages the company use and has to manage 2) Language penetration –the number of functions and the number of levels within those functions that are involved in cross-lingual communication 3) Language sophistication –the complexity and refinement of the language skills required. Language diversity Language diversity is related to the numbers of languages organizations need to manage, which is determined by the organizational global network such as subsidiaries, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. According to the studies, only small portions of languages are taking into account by multinational organizations since there are more than 5000 languages around the world. Some multinational organizations gradually sense the importance of how language difference becomes a critical problem affecting the global operation. An internalized megacorporation like Microsoft had enacted language strategies to tackle with 80 languages in response to the global effect of languages (Feely & Harzing, 2003). However, this seems not the common case for most multinational organizations. Mostly, multinational organizations will adopt the philosophy to manage their international networks in the leading languages according to global Influence such as population, demographic and economic power. Cases show that several multinational organizations have. 20.

(29) adopted English as their common corporate language to fasten internal communication between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries when extending their territory (Feely, 2003; Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1999a; Nickerson, 2000). Therefore, we could broadly conclude that only a limited amount of languages have the overall impact in international context. Language penetration According to definition by Feely and Harzing (2003), language penetration is the number of functional areas within a MNC that have to operate across linguistic boundaries. Times when multinational organizations haven’t become the majority, cross-lingual communications could have been dealt with through a small and exclusive group of language specialists, the so called language note (Feely & Harzing, 2003). During the period of time, only those specialist were the involved in language issues and in charge of the communicating channel, filtering, delaying, and distorting the communications flow to their own advantage and also affect the chain of command (Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1997, 1999a; SanAntonio, 1988). However, with the highly development of Internet and technology, now global coordination touch almost every function of at multiple levels. Nowadays, it is common to find a software engineer working with another computer expert from different country via Internet. Language penetrates every aspect of the organizations and might become the curial factor when communicating detail job content. The notion penetration provides us different perspective on practically measuring language barrier. Language sophistication The complexity, refinement and type of the language skills required will vary from different position for its job characteristics within an organization. As Cyr and Schneider 21.

(30) (1996) mention, a senior manager had more language-related problems than production employees. For lacking of rhetorical skills, misunderstandings are therefore easily caused, resulting in uncertainty and anxiety (Gudykunst, 1995; SanAntonio, 1988). Also, Vaara et al. (2005) emphasize these problems in the merger scenario, lacking skills such as negotiation, persuasion, motivation and humor, which is especially harmful for the HQ-subsidiary relationship. The capability level might well exceed that of a typical training of needed English skills (Feely and Harzing, 2003). The impact of the language barrier The impact of the language barrier could not be measured easily because it breeds the uncertainty and mistrust within the organizations regarding the relationship between subsidiaries and headquarter, buyer and seller, and most commonly on the aspect of staffing policy (Feely & Harzing, 2003). As previous study has found that most parent companies will prefer to set up subsidiaries where the international language is widely spoken (Welch et al., 2001). Also, organizations that select English as the corporate language rely fewer expatriates than those select other languages (Harzing, 1999; Yoshihara, 1999). On the joint venture aspect, those with better communications tend to have higher trust and collaborating interaction between the employees (Luo, 2001). Reasons for such outcomes in previous case are assumedly for reducing the misunderstanding and the potential risk caused by different languages. To sum up, language barrier has an overall impact on issues of extending the foreign market, maintaining the internal and external relationships, and most importantly, the potential cost on daily routine in the international settings.. 22.

(31) The Role of Language Language is increasingly important while enormous international organizations turn into multilingual. Linguists regard language as a social capital which helps to create of community value, improve the communication and understanding, while economists and the decision analysts think of language as an asset, which would become an intellectual capital for creating advantages (Dhir, 2005). In recent years, international management researchers involve in issues on discussing the role of language diversity and the use of common language in multinational corporations (e.g. Harzing and Feely, 2008; Holden, 2002; Moore, 2005; Welch and Piekkari, 2006; Welch et al., 2005). The role of language is discussed with a more comprehensive overview into different angles. From the viewpoint of knowledge sharing and organizational effectiveness, communication has been thought of as the key element for realizing those beneficial interactions within the organizations (Burgess, 2005; Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1988, Ghoshal, Korine & Szulanski, 1994). As Thompson (2003) states that “communication is the basic feature of social life, and language is a major component of it”, language is the essential element to facilitate the communication process, which is the reason why language is regard as a significant factor in international communication setting (Harzing & Feely, 2008). Deepen the notion, some researchers proposed the role of language could be a source of power, which implicate that the choice of the language is closely connected to the authority as well as the control system in the organizations (Marschan et al., 1997, Marschan-Piekkari et al., 1999a, 1999b; SanAntonio, 1988). Such as Singapore, language diversity is understood as the obstacle in the creation of a national identity, the factors that decrease administrative and economic efficiency. Facing with such language 23.

(32) diversity, Singapore selected English as the most neutral language for working and combined with multilingual policy to implement national strategy and further create new national identity to response the diversity within the country (Kuo and Jernudd, 1993). Through such policies, Singapore creates the competitiveness in the south Asia for a friendly environment for multinational organizations in conducting business or attracting talents. English acts as an impartial language to eliminating disharmony inside the multinational organizations (Coleman, 2010). In contrast of native English-language speakers who see language as just a means of communication, language is recognized as a critical element reflecting national identity in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere (Hill, 2002). On the strategic perspective, language is considered a choice for multinational corporations in creating competitive advantage (Vaara et al. 2005), which echoes the development of Singapore.. Language Role on Organizational and Individual Level To the organizational level, language plays the role in facilitating communication within multinational corporations and functions as the medium for communication (Barner-Rasmussen and Björkman, 2005; Buckley et al., 2005). Language is also the standard elements of the enacted organizational environment. Findings of Gibson and Zellmer-Bruhn (2001) show different definitions of ‘teamwork’ based on diverse cultures, while there is no equivalent word in other languages especially expressing emotions according to the findings of Von Glinow et al. (2004). This loss in translation can result in misunderstanding of information transfer, while keeping the parent language can preserve the originality from distortion. Down to the individual level, language skills not only increase the employability but 24.

(33) also provide the access to global information. English language skills are mostly emphasized especially in service economies, whilst relatively small portions of employee such as international trader need to possess English skills (Coleman, 2010). For the self-competitiveness, language is the asset that enables employees to smoothly transfer between different professions which involve in international collaboration and cooperation. One could have better career advancement and opportunities when managing language himself.. Summary In the discussion above, we could find that several studies have addressed the importance of language management and should be further align with organizational strategy to implement an overall measures or policy in dealing with language challenges. Although several findings have proposed frameworks or definitions to portrait language management, empirical research is still lacking to form a well-accepted definition of language management. Hence, three dimensions consist of practical language challenges which multinational organizations are facing, enacted HR policy, and organizational performance are proposed to investigate the organizational strategy as the framework in this study. Through the practice, we could have a more comprehensive overview on how multinational organizations define language management and whether the language causes a huge impact on them or not. Thus, by comparing practices, the content of language management could be further specified, adding more constructive insights in this field.. 25.

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(35) CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY To achieve the study goals, the study constructed the study tools and systematically designed and planed the process of the research. They are discussed as the following sections: framework of the study, research methods, research subjects, data collection and analysis, and research procedures.. Research Framework Research framework of this study is designed on the basis of research purposes and questions. Based on the literature review, organizational strategy could be observed and formed by practices related to language issues such as communication challenges, practices of language management, and feedback in HR function. Extracting form those practices, we could analysis how HR practitioners of multinational organizations react to tackle with the problems resulting from languages. Lastly, through this exploratory study, feedbacks for managing languages in the future are proposed in this study for future reference. The conceptual framework of the study is as Figure 3.1.. 27.

(36) Figure 3.1 Conceptual framework. Research Method For fulfilling the research purposes, a qualitative approach was chosen in this research for the nature of topic as the academic field of related topic were mostly adopted this approach to explore the effect of languages. Qualitative interviews consist of open-ended questions and provide qualitative data, also called depth interviews due to its use to obtain in-depth information about a research subject’s thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, reasoning, motivations and feelings about a topic.. 28.

(37) In-depth interview can provide rich result that can better present the whole picture of practices of how HR practitioners tackle with language issues for those details that can not be fully answered by quantitative approach. Therefore, this research was mainly adopted on in-depth interviews with HR practitioners to grasp the practices in managing language issues within the organization. Twelve samples were interviewed for specific questions.. Research Subjects HR practitioners within the multinational corporations were the population in the present inquiry. Judgmental sampling was utilized to help select appropriate interviewees. The interviewees should be HR people whose daily tasks are involved in language related issues. The goal of the study is to explore what are the communication challenges in HR function of MNCs and exploring language implementation in HR practices in MNCs. In order to gain a more comprehensive overview, the numbers of research participants were set at twelve and not limited to several benchmark multinational organizations in Taiwan. The criteria set at the HR practitioners whose job related to languages within MNCs. Also, the year of experience of the research participants was not limited. Working with Chun-Shin Limited, ETS Taiwan Representative, which provided the referral samples as reference since it had been conducted the related investigation. A diversity of perspectives from different industries and different years of experience were encouraged to better target and explore language practices.. 29.

(38) Introduction of the Cases To fulfill research purposes, the cases are focused on two main industries of Taiwan economy which are technology manufacturing and service industries. Taiwan is known for its export-oriented economy such as OEM and ODM model in the world’s computer supply chain. According to the annual statistic by ministry of economic affair in 2011 (Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2012), technology industry took about 40% of total export and 30% of GDP of Taiwan and service industry shared around 67% of GDP. The changing economy structure incurs the focus of these two major industries in this research. Also, the twelve cases consist of six technology based (Company A-F) and six service based (Company G-L) MNCs, which are on the list of top 500 companies in Taiwan economy chosen by Common Wealth Magazine in 2012 (Common Wealth Magazine, 2012). The cross-broader operation practices are suitable to investigate the language management issues in this research. Case A Founded in 1979 with its headquarters in Taipei, company A is the representative engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm in Taiwan. Over the decades, numerous landmark achievements were built in Taiwan and all over the world. Nowadays, company A has a strong global presence with approximately 7,000 employees distributed in more than 30 affiliates worldwide. In 2011, the paid-in capital reached at its historical peak.. Case B Company B’s worldwide network of sales and technical support teams are located in customers in Asia, the USA, and Europe. It has long implemented green manufacturing. 30.

(39) processes, recycling, waste management programs and has constructed environmentally-friendly green buildings. In 2010, the management team received honors "Entrepreneur of the Year" and "CSR Entrepreneur" awards and more. These teams are operated by centrally based design-engineering centers that detect and further solve problems in the design or production stages. It has also successfully established and implemented a technical system to facilitate and enhance its linkages with customers and suppliers around the world. Case C Founded in 1997, company C is a leading semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions in Taiwan. The company is a market leader and pioneer in delivering cutting-edge SOC system solutions for wireless communications, high-definition TV, optical storage, DVD and Blu-ray products. The headquarter is based in Taiwan and conduct business or research subsidiaries in Mainland China, Singapore, India, U.S., Japan, Korea, Denmark, England, Sweden and Dubai. Case D Established in 1987, company D is the world's dedicated semiconductor foundry. As the leader of the dedicated IC foundry segment, it has built its reputation by offering advanced wafer production processes and manufacturing efficiency. Company D served more than 600 customers, manufacturing more than 11,000 products for various applications covering a variety of computer, communications and consumer electronics facilities all over the world. The headquarter is based in Taiwan, and has account management and engineering service offices in China, Europe, India, Japan, North America, and, South Korea. 31.

(40) Case E Company E is an engineering-based technical service provider delivering hi-end product development services to worldwide leading companies. From initial product conceptualization to volume manufacturing and after-sales services, it supports customers with the products and related services reaching international standards for innovation and quality levels. Focus on information and communication technology (ICT) products, company E provides distinct competitive advantages to customers. Its subsidiaries are located around the world to quickly response needs of international clients.. Case F. Founded in 1972, the mission of company F is to manufacture and improve the cycling experience. It has pioneered advancements in both aluminum and composite engineering. Over the last four decades, it has grown well beyond its manufacturing roots to become the world's leading brand of quality gear. With more than 12,000 retail partners worldwide, company F aim to inspire adventure in all customers, from casual to competitive.. Case G Company G is the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through its two operating units, it provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services. Its pretax earnings in 2009 outperformed all other foreign banks. For past years, the outstanding performance has been recognized by. 32.

(41) Finance Asia as the Best Foreign Commercial Bank in Taiwan and by Common Wealth Magazine as The Most Respected Bank in Taiwan for 15 years consecutively. Case H Company H boasts 124 domestic and three overseas branches, with an extensive product line covering corporate and consumer banking, wealth management, credit card, financing, trust, and public treasury, enabling the bank to offer all around financial services. Set up in 1961, it was Taiwan's first privately property insurer. Adhering to the corporate mission, company H aims to offer diversified and innovative insurance products, create optimal customer satisfaction and achieve stellar performance, with the company leading the sector for 25 straight years and commanding over 20% market share. Case I Company I is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations. The Group has around 8,000 offices in 87 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. It provides a comprehensive range of financial services through four customer groups and global businesses: Retail Banking and Wealth Management; Commercial Banking; Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets; and Private Banking. It is the Group's flagship in the Asia-Pacific region and the largest bank incorporated in Hong Kong. Case J Company J was founded in Copenhagen in 1901 and has grown to become one of the world’s leading Facility Services companies. It provides integrated service solutions for clients all over the world. It has more than 530,000 employees and local operations in over 50 33.

(42) countries across Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America and the Pacific, serving thousands of public and private sector customers. Case K For more than three and a half decades, company K has been the leader in database software. It serves customers from more than 80 countries. And as it has further developed technologies and acquired best-in-class companies over the years, that leadership has expanded to the entire technology stack, from servers and storage, to database and middleware, through applications and into the cloud. Throughout its history, it has proved it can build for the future on the foundation of its innovations and its knowledge of customer challenges and successes analyzed by the best technical and business minds in the world. Case L Founded in 1991, company L is the largest and most profitable hotel company in Taiwan. Company L has 11 existing and pipeline hotels in some of the most exciting regions of Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, is an highly respected and pioneering luxury hospitality brand whose legacy dates back to the early 1970’s and a flagship hotel in Hong Kong. It is now actively pursuing a strategic global growth strategy to introduce in key business and leisure destinations throughout the world.. Following table concludes the summary of the interviewees in this study, which reveal the critical information for research reference such as age, position, education level, and most importantly work experience. Almost all participants have master background and at least. 34.

(43) four years experience in human resource function. Overall, the interviewees matches our sample criteria. Table 3.1 Summary of Interviewees Company. Age. Position. Education Level. Work Experience. Interviewee A (M). 36. Manager. Master. 12. Interviewee B (M). 37. Director. Master. 13. Interviewee C (M). 33. Assistant Manager. Master. 9. Interviewee D (M). 35. Manager. Master. 13. Interviewee E (M). 28. Specialist. Master. 4. Interviewee F (M). 32. Manager. Master. 8. Interviewee G (S). 38. Assistant Manager. Master. 15. Interviewee H (S). 37. Assistant GM. Master. 14. Interviewee I (S). 37. Vice Director. Master. 14. Interviewee J (S). 46. Director. Master. 25. Interviewee K (S). 48. Director. Master. 27. Interviewee L (S). 35. Manager. Master. 12. Note. (M)=Manufacture Technology Industry, (S)=Service Industry.. Instrumentation of the Study The interview guideline was developed according to the finding in the literature review; four main issues: language challenges investigation, reaction to tackle with the language 35.

(44) challenges (strategy), the effect after conducting these measures to language issues, and the meaning of “Language Management” to multinational organizations are the base of the interview guide. The guidelines of interview guide developed according the four dimensions into research questions (See also Appendix B): Communication challenges dimension Language barrier Communication elements Language implementing dimension Recruiting criteria setting (HRM) Language training (HRD) Evaluation Feedback dimension Strengths & Weaknesses Suggestions. Data Collection and Analysis The present inquiry utilized in-depth interview as the major research method. With specific agenda to follow and fundamental questions to answer, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Then, qualitative data from interviewees were collected, and later on described and analyzed. Before the interview, the interviewees were introduced the content of the research, including the purpose and relevant terms. In the process of the interview, the. 36.

(45) data was recorded by a voice recorded with the permission of the interviewees. After interview, the basic procedures for data analysis were as follows: 1. Transcribing data into transcripts 2. Reading and rereading transcript. 3. Segmenting and coding the data. 4. Comparing, categorizing, and inducing 5. Identifying relationships and answer the research questions. Figure 3.2 An example of coding steps. 37.

(46) Figure 3.3 An example of coding and categorizing steps. Validity and Reliability This research is based on both exploratory and qualitative method for collecting data. Therefore, the quality of research is crucial and determined by its reliability and validity (Yin, 2009). According to Yin’s (2009) definition, reliability of a study refers to the question of whether the same data can be obtained if a different researcher conducted the research at a different time. Validity, by definition is how accurately the data depicts the phenomenon. 38.

(47) being researched (Collis and Hussey, 2003). In following paragraph, the validity and reliability of the study are addressed.. Validity The following procedures are followed to obtain the validity. The emphasis of validity in qualitative study refers to the being plausible, trustworthy and defensible. To achieve these characteristics, it is important to develop some strategies that strengthen the validity of the study. The researcher lists the strategies to be used here:. 1. Reflexivity: To avoid subjective bias from researcher, it is important to reflect carefully on the interview process, procedure, and analysis. 2. Expert consultation: The results of the study, its interpretation, and conclusions are discussed with the advisory professor, committee members, outside subject matter expert, and interviewees to make better judgment on the research result and arguments. 3. Perspectives from different positions: The interview participants are from different positions whose daily tasks related to languages. By seeing from different position toward the same job, the researcher had clear angles to better target the goal.. The interview guide was developed based on the purpose and goal of the research and on the theoretical framework extracted from the literature review. This guideline was discussed with professors with yearly experience and modified by conducting pilot study. The interviewees were interviewed face-to-face and recorded by the researcher. After transcribing, the interviewees were further notified to confirm the interview result content and asked to provide feedback. 39.

(48) Reliability To achieve the reliability, the researcher utilized the same procedure to collect, categorize, and analyze data in an effort to reduce the possible biases that may happen during the progress of the research. With the same research standard and procedure, the correctness and consistence of the data analysis can be achieved, thus avoiding potential biases. In addition, the researchers tried to search for interview data from different position as mentioned in the third part of the validity, the researcher believes that the data could be better supported through different angles and interpretation.. After collecting the data, peer review was applied to maintain the correctness of the interpreted data. Through different perspective, this analysis minimized the subjective of the researcher. Therefore, the consistency of the interpreted data was achieved to increase the reliability of this study.. Research Procedure This section explains the procedures of this study, and the procedures are as Figure 3.4 shows. Reviewing literature the research topic is the first step. After, identifying the purpose and significance of this research is the next stage. The interview questions are developed according the literature to facilitate as the research tool of the investigation. For increasing the validity, questions are reviewed by committee members. Methods of data collection as well as research samples are decided after literature review and pilot interview was conducted first to fine-tune the interview questions. Since then, interviews were conducted for collecting. 40.

(49) data. Analyzing those data and further interpreting were preceded next. Finally, suggestions and conclusions were proposed to answer the research purposes and questions.. Figure 3.4 Procedures of the study. 41.

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(51) CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS The chapter has four sections which comprise findings and discussions presented in the three latter sections. The major finding categories of this study are communication challenges for HR professional, practices of language management, and feedbacks which answer the research questions respectively. Tables showing the answered question and its relevant categorization are given in each section. The findings and discussions are shown as follows.. Communication Challenges Communication issues nowadays become the challenging problems in business administration on the effect of globalization. Focus on HR practitioners, the paragraph is divided into two sections discussing about the language challenges in HR people and the communication system adopted by MNCs within the cross-broader communication. Combining with the interview feedback, a couple of dimensions are illustrated for further specification.. English Proficiency Is HR’s Needed Competency English is widely spoken and managed in MNCs, especially in corporate level. Since Taiwan is an export-oriented economy, Chinese is only needed when doing business in local market for MNCs. MNCs need to coordinate branches located in different parts of the world, it is common that they adopt English as their main language to easily communicate and deliver policies from headquarter to branches. As previous researchers like Welch have stated 43.

(52) that the real challenge for multinationals is to develop mechanisms that encourage mixed voices and messages, and support a diversity of perspectives (Welch and Welch, 1997). The essences of such mechanism firstly involve with languages. Most of interview feedbacks showed that English is the main issue they face for cross-broader communication. For headquarter, each of our jobs involves with English since we provide services to branches in our group all over the world. The common language is English in communication. So that is the issue we will face in this respect... (AAR006, BAR056, CAR058, DAR060, EAR043, FAR209, GAR053, HAR195, IAR011, KAR012, LAR070) For HR professions, English seems to be the widely accepted and an evitable trend in business practice. English is mostly regarded as a logical and cost-saving choice for business communication because of the dominant place of the United States in the world economy and in international education (Charles & Marschan-Piekkari, 2002; Nickerson, 2005; Rogerson-Revell, 2007). But inquiring it deeper, the proficiency level differs according to the communication targets, which are mostly business targets. Take service industry for instance, corporate banking requires higher level of language proficiency because their customers are mostly middle or higher-level managers in banking industry. In another field of consumer banking, English proficiency is not that kind necessary since target market are local residents who seldom speak English. In the consumer financial business, the target market is mainly local resident. It requires less English proficiency. So only supervisor would have more chances to communicate with regional headquarter using English via email or conference call… (GAR114, FAR182, HAR072, IAR028, JAR085, LAR061) 44.

(53) Management level workers and those who are involved in international communication are frequently English spoken population. A Korn/Ferry International survey of international recruiters indicated that over 80% executive recruiters believe that the ability to speak another language is critical to success in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. In their sense, they believe that executives who are multilingual competent have significant competitive advantage (ELAN, 2007). The rest of employees within MNCs are not necessary English users. It is really hard to calculate the exact percentage regarding this language transfer. According the observation of samples, overall the percentage of all positions is over 50% for the use of English in most MNCs. Comparing with two industries, more jobs in service industry are required language proficiency than technology industry since the first-line workers are the majority in the technology industry. In this respect, we infer that the level of language penetration in service industry is higher than technology industry. Since part of the colleagues are international practitioners, basic communicating and listening skills are required. English writing and reading are basic skills in daily operation in using email and paper work. For those workers who are highly involved with cross-national communication, they have to meet the higher language standard such as negotiation or bargaining. In most cases, managers or above are asked to acquire better language sophistication than those are not. Furthermore, the communication density as well as frequencies is increasing in MNCs nowadays. In Katambwe & Taylor’s mind, language use should be touted as a dynamic and dialectical interactive process involving in relationship building and knowledge sharing (Katambwe & Taylor, 2006). It meant that the language fluency affect the organizational performance greatly through communication. As stated 45.

(54) below: If HR practitioners don’t possess the English capability to communicate, the organizational communication flow will imped and control by a small group of people. It affects greatly in the dimension of organizational performance…(BAR099, CAR091, HAR368, IAR060). Recruiting and Selection Are Most Affected Functions Language is the medium for communication. It carries information as well as transfers message from one to another. Narrowing down to the human resource function, recruitment and selection is of strategic importance, because hiring a competent workforce is a major source of competitive advantage (Som, 2006). HR practitioners are critically affected in both dimensions of recruiting and selection practice. In order to fulfill corporate needs, language is regarded as the basic qualification in the first recruiting phase, which is the common practice to proceed. In selection process, language proficiency is the major criteria to assess the applicants in MNCs. Echoing to the Aminuddin’s findings (2005), the requirement of communication skills and the ability to speak and write effectively in English are given prominence in HR function. I think it truly affects every aspect in HR function, but most importantly is selection…(IAR060, BAR199, HAR368) Definitely the recruiting function, if we could find someone who is competent in both profession and language is a plus. But mainly we would focus on their profession as the priority…(AAR006, BAR199, DAR100, EAR154, LAR036). 46.