Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5107202 | Journal of World Business | 2016 | 13 Pages |
Abstract
We address the lack of knowledge concerning the role of host country languages in multinational corporations based on an inductive qualitative study involving 70 interviews with Nordic expatriates and host country employees (HCE) in China. Building on the strongly discrepant views of expatriates and HCEs, we demonstrate how expatriates' willingness to learn and use the host country language lead to different types of expatriate-HCE relationships, ranging from harmonious to distant or segregated. In doing so, we emphasize the subtle and fragile connection between expatriates' attitude towards HCEs' mother tongue and trust formation in addition to the construction of superiority-inferiority relationships.
Keywords
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Business, Management and Accounting
Business and International Management
Authors
Ling Eleanor Zhang, Anne-Wil Harzing,