Language Policies and Practices in Wholly Owned Foreign Subsidiaries: A Recontextualization Perspective

Peltokorpi, Vesa; Vaara, Eero

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42745-4_5

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…In a multinational firm setting, language skills influence the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates (Selmer and Lauring 2015;Zhang and Peltokorpi 2015) and individual employees' career mobility (Itani et al 2015;Latukha et al 2016). Moreover, multilingual employees find it easier to create social capital (Barner-Rasmussen et al 2014), enabling them to function as boundary spanners, language nodes, and information gatekeepers (Heikkilä and Smale 2011;Peltokorpi and Vaara 2012). Furthermore, individuals who are bilingual and bicultural in their ability to navigate institutional environments are more likely to pursue entrepreneurial activity, often as transnational entrepreneurs (Light et al 2002).…”

Section: Individual Level Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

2017

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A fast growing number of studies demonstrates that language diversity influences almost all management decisions in modern multinational corporations. Whereas no doubt remains about the practical importance of language, the empirical investigation and theoretical conceptualization of its complex and multifaceted effects still presents a substantial challenge. To summarize and evaluate the current state of the literature in a coherent picture informing future research, we systematically review 264 articles on language in international business. We scrutinize the geographic distributions of data, evaluate the field's achievements to date in terms of theories and methodologies, and summarize core findings by individual, group, firm, and country levels of analysis. For each of these dimensions, we then put forward a future research agenda. We encourage scholars to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to draw on, integrate, and test a variety of theories from disciplines such as psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience to gain a more profound understanding of language in international business. We advocate more multi-level studies and cross-national research collaborations and suggest greater attention to potential new data sources and means of analysis.

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Section: Individual Level Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

2017

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“…Thus, language should not be separated from the cultural context in studying IKT (Peltokorpi, 2010;Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012). Several scholars (e.g.…”

Section: The Language and Cultural Context And The Process Of Inter-fmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of highly skilled migrants in the process of inter-firm knowledge transfer across borders

Liu

Gao

Liu

et al. 2015

Journal of World Business

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“…For example, as introduced in Chapter 2, Angouri (2013) applies interview and questionnaire data to discuss the employees' perceptions of language practices in their workplace context and the perceived implications of the companies' official policy. Peltokorpi & Vaara (2012) examine language policy and practice in multinational company subsidiaries with data from semi-structured interviews, field notes, and annual reports. These two studies share a similar focus with this study, particularly with regard to research question 3.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Peltokorpi & Vaara (2012) examine language policy and policy implementation in multinational company subsidiaries from the perspective of recontextualisation, which "highlights the ways in which the meaning of ideas, resources and practices change when they are adopted in a new context" (Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012, p. 811), with data from semi-structured interviews, field notes, and annual reports. They demonstrate the dynamic individual and unit-level interactions of recontextualisation processes by elucidating how subsidiary presidents "instead of being regarded simply as at the receiving end ….…”

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confidence: 99%

Japanese co-workers’ view of their communication with EPA foreign nurse trainees

Kusunoki¹

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Japanese language education for non-native speakers of Japanese (NNSJs) has attracted much attention with the growth in the number of NNSJs living in Japan. The employment of nurse trainees from Southeast Asian countries under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which commenced in 2008, has elicited a strong reaction from the public and media due to three significant points:1) it provides a path to permanent residency for these foreign workers;2) the Japanese government officially supports Japanese language training for foreign workers; and 3) the foreign workers enter medical fields that require a high level of Japanese proficiency.However, nearly a decade after the commencement of the scheme, the trainees' national nursing exam pass rate remains below15% and there are even some trainees who pass the exam but do not stay in Japan.This study investigates Japanese co-workers' view of their communication with EPA nurse trainees from the perspective of language policy and planning (LPP). I examine the government's resources regarding the EPA scheme to highlight the issues and reveal the government's view of the scheme. I conducted a survey targeting the Japanese co-workers of trainees at three host hospitals to reveal the scheme's implementation from the perspective of individual stakeholders. Questionnaires completed by 34 Japanese co-workers and follow-up interviews with 7 co-workers capture their evaluation and perception of the trainees, their communication with the trainees, and their views on issues surrounding the scheme. This study takes the Japanese co-workers as its focus since they communicate with the trainees most often at work, and so are likely to influence and be influenced by the trainees' work training and Japanese language learning. This study among the first to discuss Japanese language education policy for EPA nurse trainees from the viewpoint of Japanese coworkers.The results indicate that although the scheme's general objectives are simple and clear, their interpretation varies among the four Japanese ministries that are involved in the scheme's operation.I demonstrate that the government and each ministry have different objectives and intentions as they operate at different levels of the language policy and they have different needs and agendas according to their positions and roles within the scheme. In addition, the survey results reveal that the Japanese co-workers treat trainees as guests rather than colleagues, which is an example of Japanese native-speakerist practice. Japanese co-workers evaluate the trainees' Japanese proficiency relatively positively and the trainees as effective workers only because the trainees work as nurse's ii aides under the scheme. The trainees' low exam pass rate and the number of returnees do not meet the Japanese government's expectations which are stated in the scheme's general objectives.

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Language Policies and Practices in Wholly Owned Foreign Subsidiaries: A Recontextualization Perspective

Cited by 14 publications

References 64 publications

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

The role of highly skilled migrants in the process of inter-firm knowledge transfer across borders

Japanese co-workers’ view of their communication with EPA foreign nurse trainees

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