Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language‐Sensitive Research in International Management

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12354
• Date: 01 September 2018

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and S ociety for the Advancement of Ma nagement Studies

Let’s Talk about Language: A Review of Language-

Sensitive Research in International Management

Päivi Karhunen, Anne Kankaanranta, Leena Louhiala-Salminen

and Rebecca Piekkari

Aalto University, School of Business

ABST RACT This paper explores the as sumptions underlying the core concept of lan-

guage used in t he growing field of la nguage- sensitive research in internat ional manage-

ment. We reviewed 92 articles on the topic of langu age(s) in multinational corporations

published during the period 1997-2015, and applied a lingu istic lens to uncover how

these articles ‘ta lk about language’. The assumptions found in t hese articles can b e

grouped into three complementary categor ies that take a str uctural, functional or

social practice v iew of language. We go beyond the review by also reflect ing on the

consequences that these underlying a ssumptions have for the study of lang uage in

multinationals. We consider the socia l practice view the most promi sing one, and

propose a future research a genda for advancing it and thereby contributing to theor iz-

ing about the multinational cor poration more broadly.

Keywo rds: internat ional management research, langu age, linguistics, multinational

corporat ions

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 20 years the study of langu age(s) in multinational corporations

(MNCs) has developed into a distinctive stream of research in the f ield of interna-

tional business and management (Brannen et al., 2014). This corpus of studies has

advanced the understanding of how linguistic diversity permeates internal com-

munication and management processes and affects the ability of M NCs to operate

as single entities in pursuit of their overall strateg y (e.g. Barner-Rasmussen and

Björkman, 2007; Luo and Shenkar, 2006; Peltokorpi and Vaara, 2014; Piekkari et

Journal of Manageme nt Studies 55:6 September 2018

doi: 10.1111/jom s.1235 4

Address for reprints: Päivi Ka rhunen, Aalto University, School of Bu siness, Center for Market s in

Transition, P.O. Box 21230, 00076 Aalto, Finland (paiv i.karhunen@aalto.fi).

Let’s Talk about Language 981

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and S ociety for the Advancement of Ma nagement Studies

al., 2005). Important as this research has been for the international management

field, it has only begun to unpack the role of language in cross-border business.

One shortcoming of much of the international management research is its rel-

atively narrow conceptualization of language. In most studies, ‘language’ refers

to national languages such as English, French, or German (Harzing and Pudelko,

2013; Marschan et al., 1997). The emphasis on national language as a theoretical

category in international management research reflects the longstanding impor-

tance that the field has attached to the multinational corporation as an organiza-

tional form (Piekkari and Westney, 2017, p. 194).

Interestingly, international management researchers have recently started to

acknowledge that their theoretical models and approaches to the notion of lan-

guage lag behind global communication praxis as well as recent advances in lin-

guistics. Janssens and Steyaert (2014) criticize international business studies for

failing to problematize the concept of language. They argue that to date the field

has largely conceived language as a formal system with stable and fixed bound-

aries between different languages. In many studies language has been treated

almost as an ‘independent variable’ that can be ‘plugged’ into different equations

to explore phenomena in MNCs. Janssens and Steyaert invite researchers to un-

ravel – both theoretically and empirically – language as social practice, examin-

ing how employees on the micro-level mobilize multiple language resources to

achieve their communicative purpose in the course of their daily work.

This paper responds and goes beyond Janssens’ and Steyaert’s (2014) call by

posing the following research question: What underlying assumptions does inter-

national management research hold about the concept of language? For this pur-

pose, we undertook a systematic review of a dataset of 92 articles dealing with the

topic of language(s) in MNCs and published over a period of almost 20 years, from

1997 to 2015. Previous reviews have quantitatively mapped this growing stream of

research (Tenzer et al., 2017) and provided relatively circumscribed, thematic

overviews as part of editorials for special issues (e.g. Brannen et al., 2014; Piekkari

and Tietze, 2011; Piekkari and Zander, 2005), or analyses of language research

published in particular outlets (e.g. Brannen and Mughan, 2017). In this paper,

we do not only provide a review but also reflect upon the consequences that the

underlying assumptions of language have for this field of research, and for inter-

national management scholarship more broadly.

Our review makes two contributions to international management research.

Firstly, it shows the highly unreflexive use of the concept of language in the field.

We demonstrate that much of the international management research is silent

about the concept of language and thus about the underlying assumptions held

by the authors. We argue that the clarity of the core concept of language and

its underlying assumptions is fundamental for theory building and for accumu-

lating of knowledge in the field (Suddaby, 2010). By turning to linguistics, the

discipline that focuses on the study of language, we render the implicit assump-

tions of language visible and transparent. The findings demonstrate that most of

the early contributions approach language as a clearly bounded, unified system

982 P. Karhunen et al.

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and S ociety for the Advancement of Ma nagement Studies

that is used instrumentally as a vehicle for communication and independent of

context. More recently, researchers have acknowledged the embeddedness of

language in the cultural context or in social interaction. By uncovering the un-

derlying assumptions that authors of international management articles hold

about language, we further reflexivity and enrich the future research agenda of

the field.

Secondly, the paper shows that the underlying assumptions of language have

consequences for theorizing about the MNC. The structural view of language

suggests that the MNC is an organization of distinct national languages, creating

problems that the top management needs to solve (e.g. Luo and Shenkar, 2006).

The functional view in turn considers language mainly as an individual character-

istic which affects all communicative activity in MNCs. Consequently, the nature

of the MNC becomes more ‘human’ and shifts the attention from national dif-

ferences to the ways in which these differences are enacted and embodied in the

behavior of individuals in the networked MNC (Brannen and Doz, 2010; Piekkari

and Welch, 2010). Finally, the social practice view suggests that language comes

into existence in interactions between its users. By advocating this view we theo-

rize about the MNC as a social constellation, where the form that the organization

takes is shaped in everyday exchanges and gives new meaning to the concept of

context as a fluid and dynamic notion.

Since we will be advocating self-reflexivity and the surfacing of underlying as-

sumptions, we begin by being open about the position from where we speak. Our

team consists of four Finnish researchers who teach and conduct research at a

bilingual business school (Finnish and English) located in a bilingual country

(Finnish and Swedish). We are highly aware of language issues not only through

our own research interests, but also through our personal trajectories. Our dis-

ciplinary backgrounds are in international business, linguistics and international

business communication where we primarily undertake qualitative research.

While some of our team members subscribe to the social constructivist tradition

and others to the critical realist stance, these philosophical commitments inform

the way we view reflexivity in terms of the relationship between the researcher,

the research object and the research community (Hardy et al., 2001; Johnson and

Duberley, 2003). We subscribe to this broad definition of reflexivity which goes

beyond the situatedness of knowledge and the singular focus on the researcher.

In the rest of the paper we first explain our analytical procedure, which com-

prised a systematic review of 92 articles on the topic of language(s) in MNCs pub-

lished during the period 1997-2015. Our review reveals that language has been

treated as a top management problem (Category 1), as an individual characteris-

tic of MNC employees (Category 2), and as a social practice in MNCs (Category

3).[1] In scrutinizing each category, we turn to linguistics to uncover the underly-

ing assumptions of the concept of language used in international management

research. Finally, we reflect on the consequences that the underlying assumptions

of language have for the future research agenda and suggest how the view of lan-

guage as social practice might advance theorizing about the MNC more broadly.