The Effects of Globalisation on Corporate Communication

One important effect of globalisation for the multinational corporation (MNC) is the increasing diversity of the workforce, which becomes clear through the variety of different language backgrounds found among employees at all levels of the organisation. In order to overcome the linguistic barriers presented by the multilingual workforce, MNCs may try to implement various language policies or strategies to regulate the internal communicative environment, for example by adopting a common corporate language, or deploy language management tools such as language training for employees or use of translation services. However, these language policies may have consequences unanticipated by the management, and could possibly affect the company in ways far beyond the scope of the linguistic-communicative area.
This paper attempts to examine the role of corporate language policies and their effects for the internal communication patterns of a MNC. It is argued that the importance of language as a precondition for successful employee collaboration implies that language policies should not be
developed in isolation from the organisational context, but instead be employed with the purpose of supporting the overall goals and objectives of the corporation. If the MNC fails to adequately address the language issue of its organisation, the problems may potentially escalate to the extent that they negatively affect the operation of the firm and its economic performance. Finally, it is argued that language policies can be both reactive, building on previous language experiences, and proactive, as a management tool to help shape the future language practices of a company and its employees.