[lg policy] Workers told, ditch local languages for English

[Harold Schiffman]

Workers told, ditch local languages for English
By Rose Hoare, CNN
May 18, 2012 -- Updated 1017 GMT (1817 HKT)


    More companies mandating English as their corporate language, says
Harvard Business School professor
    Japanese company Rakuten is among those that have gone "English only"
    Expert says employees can experience performance anxiety while
making transition to English

(CNN) -- While English has long been the de facto language of
international business, more multinational companies are now mandating
that employees communicate only in English. According to Tsedal
Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, companies that don't
adopt English as a standard for their entire organization will, at
some point, "experience some form of bottleneck."

"It depends on what the company does, but if you'll have members in
different countries needing to collaborate -- whether it's to
integrate technology platforms or cater to customers worldwide -- it
will become more important that even middle managers and employees
with international assignments will need a common language in order to
interface with others."

Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Nokia, Renault, Samsung and Microsoft
Beijing have all mandated English as their corporate language, writes
Neeley in the May 2012 edition of Harvard Business Review -- and she
says more than 70 Danish companies have now migrated to English.

In 2010, Japanese internet services company Rakuten made headlines
when it announced it would become an English-only organization, with
all communication, verbal and email, in English.
If you want to become successful in other countries, you need to
internationalize the headquarters.
Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO Rakuten

"English is the only global language," CEO Hiroshi Mikitani told CNN
at the time. "We're doing a global business. I think this is the only
way a Japanese service organization can become a global organization."
"If you want to become successful in other countries, you need to
internationalize the headquarters," he added.

To help make the transition, Japanese language signage was removed
from cafeterias and elevators. Mikitani even conducts performance
reviews with his Japanese executives in English, according to Neeley.
If this sounds bewildering for employees, it can be. Two years into an
English-only implementation at one company Neeley studied, 70% of
employees reported feeling frustrated with the policy. That's why she
says businesses must plan carefully before implementing an
English-only policy.

"In the absence of language strategies, you see so many people getting
hurt and diminished," Neeley says. "When a company announces a
language change without any thought or preparation for employees, many
people lose the promotional path that they've spent their whole lives
developing."
Shifting a company's entire operations into a new language isn't easy.
But Neeley, who has studied corporate language strategy for a decade,
has some suggestions.

• Companies need a clear, well-aligned strategy and "it needs to be
supported and implemented at all levels of the organization, from the
CEO down to the supervisor/manager of every employee who is subject to
having to convert to a new language," she says.

• Off-the-rack tuition won't cut it. "English lessons alone are not
enough," Neeley says. "If you have an aggressive environment where
people work an extraordinary amount of hours and they're challenged
with goals, language vendors need to help make sure you're capable of
learning successfully while being successful at your job."

The best results come when instruction is customized to employees'
roles, with vocabulary geared specifically towards the types of emails
they write, for instance.

• Go for broke. While some companies choose to become bilingual before
adopting English wholesale, Neeley says this is "incredibly expensive
and unsustainable."
Native speakers need to learn how to dial themselves down and how to
accommodate others.
Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School

• Those with English as a first language need to make adjustments too.
"Native speakers need to learn how to dial themselves down and how to
accommodate others," Neeley says.

• Managers should adopt a zero-tolerance policy to backsliding, to
make it clear that the change to English is not only possible but
permanent.

Depending on the company's size, resources and the aggressiveness of
its pursuit of English, Neeley estimates implementation is "a four to
10-year odyssey", with ongoing maintenance required thereafter. But
she says the journey is worth it, pointing out that a company with
English proficiency across the board has greater operational agility
and "can serve all of their market seamlessly by using all of their
human capital worldwide to achieve any end."

Immediately after acquiring a Canadian company, Rakuten was able to
deploy seven of its top engineers to Toronto, to begin integration
processes, according to Neeley. "Two years ago they could have never
done that," she says. "That shows the extent to which expertise and
knowledge flows through the company in ways it wouldn't otherwise."

For individuals too, there are benefits. Depending on their fluency
and how far their career has advanced, an employee may experience
performance anxiety and job insecurity when asked to work in a new
language. But, Neeley says, as fluency increases, the emotional strain
diminishes and bilingualism becomes something enjoyable. Perhaps even
profitable.

"You also see them starting to shoot up in their careers," Neeley
observes. "They begin to take on roles that require more and more
communication in the English language."

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/18/business/english-language-business/index.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list