Language and expatriate communication in the multinational company

What is it about?

We know that expatriate-locals interactions are influenced by, among others, cultural differences, different communication styles, and languages used in the workplace. We also know that a shared language does not ensure successful communication, because cultural differences affect the ways people interpret messages, and hence complicate the construction of shared meanings. In this study, we showed what communication strategies Polish expatriates applied in a Chinese subsidiary of a Western MNC to facilitate intercultural communication and collaboration. We also showed how communication in English influenced their adjustment in the multicultural business setting.

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Why is it important?

Scholars have studied intercultural interactions involving mostly expatriates and locals from the US, China, Japan, Western Europe, and Nordic countries. However, little is still known about Central European expatriates’ communication experiences. Besides, prior studies on language in international business have mostly focused on MNC’s language policies and their influence on the headquarters-subsidiary or inter-subsidiary communication. This study focuses on an intra-subsidiary level of analysis to, among others, explore how one company language used as lingua franca in the home subsidiary influences expatriate-local personnel communication in the host subsidiary where another company language is used.

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