The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

Tsedal  Neeley

Book | 2017

The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

Abstract

For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border organizations, yet studies on corporate language strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization—the high-tech giant Rakuten—in the five years following its English lingua franca mandate. Neeley’s behind-the-scenes portrayal explores how language shapes the ways in which employees who work in global organizations communicate and negotiate linguistic and cultural differences.

Bringing together 650 interviews conducted across Rakuten’s locations in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, Neeley argues that an organization’s lingua franca is the catalyst by which all employees become some kind of “expat”(someone detached from their mother tongue or home culture). Through her unfettered access to the inner workings of Rakuten, she reveals three distinct social groups: “linguistic expats” who live in their home country yet have to give up their native language in the workplace; “cultural expats” or native speakers of the lingua franca who struggle with organizational values that are more easily transmitted after language barriers are removed; and finally “linguistic-cultural expats” who, while neither native to the lingua franca nor the organization’s home culture, surprisingly have the easiest time adjusting to language changes. Neeley demonstrates that language can serve as the conduit for an unfamiliar culture, often in unexpected ways, and that there are lessons to be learned for all global companies as they confront language and culture challenges. Examining the strategic use of language by one international corporation, The Language of Global Success uncovers how all organizations might integrate language effectively to tap into the promise of globalization.

Keywords: Communication; Residency; Corporate Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Brazil; France; Germany; Indonesia; Japan; Taiwan; Thailand; United States;

Format: Print

Find at Harvard Purchase

Citation:

Neeley, Tsedal. The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.

Despite the recognition that knowledge sharing among employees is necessary to enact knowledge strategy, little is known about how to enable such sharing. Recent research suggests that social media may promote knowledge sharing because they allow social lubrication and the formation of trust. Our longitudinal and comparative analysis of social media usage at two large firms indicates that users who participate in non-work interactions on social media catalyze a cycle of curiosity and passable trust that enables them to connect and share knowledge. Paradoxically, the very non-work related content that attracts users to social media and shapes passable trust can become a source of tension, thwarting a firm’s ability to encapsulate knowledge in the form of routines and to use it to enact its strategy.

Article | Harvard Business Review

What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate

Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley

Workplaces have adopted internal social tools—think stand-alone technologies such as Slack, Yammer, and Chatter, or embedded applications such as Microsoft Teams and JIRA—at a staggering rate. In an ambitious study of 4,200 companies, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, 72% reported using them to facilitate employee communication. We have studied internal social tools in various work settings, including banking, insurance, telecommunications, e-commerce, atmospheric science, and computing. The mounting evidence is clear: These tools can promote employee collaboration and knowledge sharing across silos. They can help employees make faster decisions, develop more innovative ideas for products and services, and become more engaged in their work and their companies. Over the past two decades, organizations have sought some of these benefits through knowledge management databases but with limited success. That’s because determining who has expertise and understanding the context in which it was created are important parts of knowledge sharing. Databases do not provide that type of information and connection. Social tools do. But we have found that companies that try to “go social,” as many of them call it, often fall into four traps. In this article, we look at those traps and share recommendations for capitalizing on the promise of social tools.

Keywords: leadership; management; social tools; Social and Collaborative Networks; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Improvement; Management;

Citation:

Leonardi, Paul, and Tsedal Neeley. "What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 6 (November–December 2017): 118–126. View Details

Cite View Details Find at Harvard Register to Read

Research rarely addresses how change recipients respond to radical change across affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions over time. We examined a radical change in a recently acquired subsidiary of a U.S.-based global organization over a two-year period. With the aim to standardize communication across borders, the subsidiary changed its native working language from Spanish to English. External experts were embedded to support the acquisition by ensuring that all employees learn English. Using latent class growth modeling, our results suggest that change recipients followed distinct trajectories in their demonstrated ability, efficacy and affect. Further, we show that affective states—more so than demonstrated ability or efficacy—influence change recipients’ willingness to adopt the change. By contrast, change recipients’ turnover intentions are driven by their levels of demonstrated ability and efficacy rather than their affective states.

Faculty & Research

The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author