Language in international human resource management: current state of research and future research directions

Abstract

Research on language in international business has grown substantially during the last two decades. However, research that links language to human resource management (HRM) has remained scarce. This is unfortunate because attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining a multilingual workforce is essential for the long-term success of organizations in today’s global business world. The present special issue on language in international HRM contributes to tackling this gap. We provide an overview of the current state of research on language in nternational HRM and preview the papers in this special issue. Building on and extending current knowledge, we propose future research directions in terms of 1) a nuanced understanding of HRM functions, 2) language as part of multinational diversity management, 3) consideration of different actors and different contexts, 4) robust theorizing at multiple levels, and 5) more diverse methods to capture complex realities of a multilingual workforce.

Keywords:

• Language
• human resource management
• international
• review

Introduction

Language at its core is more than just words. It influences our thoughts, attitudes, and perceptions, shaping our understanding of the world (e.g. Boroditsky, 2001; Lupyan & Clark, 2015; Sapir, 1921). Beyond that, language influences interpersonal relations, intergroup exchanges (Krauss & Chiu, 1998), and organizational processes and outcomes (Luo & Shenkar, 2006), making it relevant for management and organization scholars. With globalization, technological advancements, and rising international labor mobility making　language diversity—the use of a variety of native tongues (Piekkari et al., 2022)—commonplace in workplaces (Kim et al., 2019), language permeates every facet of international management (Piekkari et al., 2014).

The new millennium saw an upsurge of interest in exploring the role of language in international management (for reviews see, e.g. Karhunen et al., 2018; Piekkari et al., 2022; Tenzer et al., 2017). Research on language covers multiple levels of analysis including individual, team and organizational. At the individual level, studies have investigated, among other issues, foreign language anxiety (Presbitero, 2020; Wang et al., 2020), decision-making (Hadjichristidis et al., 2017; Urbig et al., 2020), emotions (Nurmi & Koroma, 2020; Tenzer & Pudelko, 2015), the social capital of multilingual employees (Barner-Rasmussen et al., 2014; Peltokorpi & Xie, 2023), social categorization (Kroon et al., 2015; Peltokorpi & Pudelko, 2021), and career mobility and success (Itani et al., 2015; Peltokorpi, 2023).

Studies at the team level (for an overview, see Tenzer & Pudelko, 2020) have shown, for example, how language can influence competence recognition (Li et al., 2019), promote subgrouping (Hinds et al., 2014; Vigier & Spencer-Oatey, 2018), create power distortions (Tenzer & Pudelko, 2017), impede trust (Tenzer et al., 2014) and hamper knowledge processing (Tenzer et al., 2021). Diversity of language abilities among team members may also influence team performance (Eisenberg et al., 2021).

Studies at the organizational level have revealed, for example, the effect of language diversity on social identity formation (Harzing & Feely, 2008; Kim et al., 2019), alliance partner selection (Joshi & Lahiri, 2015), and stakeholder relationships (Selmier et al., 2015). Organizational-level research has also established the decisive impact of language on knowledge transfer to geographically dispersed operations (Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2014; Reiche et al., 2015; Schomaker & Zaheer, 2014), on reverse knowledge transfer (Peltokorpi, 2015b; Peltokorpi & Yamao, 2017), and headquarters-subsidiary communication (Harzing & Pudelko, 2014). On the national level, international management research has ventured into ethnolinguistic fractionalization (Luiz, 2015), compared language competencies, policies, and practices across countries (Harzing & Pudelko, 2013) or explored language dynamics in multilingual nations (Berthoud et al., 2015).

While language has been extensively studied within the broader management and organization literature, we know considerably less about its role in international human resource management (IHRM) (for a review, see Peltokorpi, 2015a). This gap is notable, considering that language is often seen as the medium through which HRM policies are developed, disseminated, and implemented (Francis et al., 2014). Prior studies have investigated the role of foreign accents and language proficiency in areas like recruitment (Hosoda et al., 2012; Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012, 2014), promotion (Hosoda & Stone-Romero, 2010; Huang et al., 2013; Peltokorpi, 2023), compensation (Davila et al., 1993; Peltokorpi, 2023), and retention (Froese et al., 2016). Additionally, scholars have examined the outcomes of language training (Peltokorpi, 2017), the influence of language skills on global staffing (Tenzer et al., 2020), and how these skills affect employees’ career mobility (Itani et al., 2015; Pudelko & Tenzer, 2019). Studies have also explored linguistic influences on employees’ willingness to accept foreign assignments (Kim & Froese, 2012; Li et al., 2020), expatriate-host country national (HCN) relationships (Zhang & Harzing, 2016), and the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates (Froese & Peltokorpi, 2013; Selmer & Lauring, 2015; Zhang & Peltokorpi, 2016).

Despite these efforts, the theoretical and empirical focus on language lags behind management practice (Neeley, 2017). This relative neglect of scholarly attention constrains our understanding of the role of language in organizations and its potential to refine HR processes, policies, and practices, thus improving overall employee experiences and productivity. To address the abovementioned gap in the literature, we have compiled a Special Issue that emphasizes the relevance of language for IHRM. We summarize the papers of our Special Issue in the next section. On this basis, we then provide thought-provoking ideas for future research directions.

Overview of the papers in this Special Issue

Our Special Issue puts together five papers focusing on the role of language for IHRM. In the following, we discuss each paper and highlight the key contributions.

Approaching or avoiding? Mechanisms of host-country language proficiency in affecting virtual work adaptivity during COVID-19

Liu, Shen, Zhao, and Sekiguchi examine how expatriates leveraged their host-country language (HCL) proficiency to cope with the challenges of virtual work during the pandemic. They draw on job demands-resources theory to suggest that while virtual work can be demanding, HCL proficiency is a valuable resource for coping. Their survey of 994 expatriates in eight countries shows that expatriates more fluent in the host country language more actively sought the positive aspects of their work and the resources available to them, which helped them to better cope with virtual work. The study also reveals that language related HRM practices strengthen expatriates’ orientation to seeking the positive aspects of their work and help them understand that support is available despite the demands of virtual work. This article contributes to the literature by highlighting the value of language-related HRM practices (i.e. language training support; rewards for enhancing HCL proficiency) for expatriates working both in-person and virtually.

Antecedents and consequences of host nationals’ attitudes towards hybrid language in MNCs: the case of MNC-tone

Shen, Zhang, Bordia, and Bordia examine how host country nationals (HCNs) form attitudes toward hybrid language use in MNCs and what are the outcomes of these attitudes. Drawing on intergroup contact theory and survey data from two interconnected studies with 342 and 502 participants, respectively, they describe how Chinese HCNs form attitudes towards the hybrid English-Chinese language (mixed use of both languages) popular in MNCs in China and chart the consequences for HCNs. Their findings suggest that hybrid language shapes HCNs’ language attitudes, thus influencing their attraction towards MNCs that use hybrid language and their exercise of interpersonal guanxi with others that use the hybrid language. This study advances the literature by highlighting the mechanisms of attitude formation relating to hybrid languages in international businesses, thus generating implications for talent attraction.

A fifth wheel? Local language skills and work-related outcomes among foreign employees

Koveshnikov, Björkman, and Kähäri examine the effects of local language proficiency on two work-related outcomes—workplace social support and perceived overqualification—and how these outcomes are related to job satisfaction among foreign academics. They draw on person-job fit theory and adopt a mixed method design including a survey of 496 foreign academics working at 18 universities in Finland, Norway, and Sweden and interviews with 50 others. Interestingly, better HCL proficiency is found to increase perceived overqualification, but has no direct effects on workplace social support. Feeling overqualified was found to reduce job satisfaction, while feeling supported boosted it. The study also highlights the nuances of HCL skills among foreign academics and the unique context in which they operate. In doing so, this study exposes the contextual nature of language and its implications for HRM practices to ensure that foreign workers thrive.

Managing legitimacy in a cross-border post-merger integration context: the role of language strategies

Malik, Sinha, Budhwar, and Pereira explore ways in which companies, after international mergers and acquisitions (M&A), can use language strategies and HR practices to gain legitimacy for integration from their internal stakeholders. Drawing on social identity theory, this conceptual article establishes that language influences social categorization and social identification of organizational members in important ways—a process M&As can disrupt. However, based on legitimacy and strategic integration literature, the authors argue that language strategies and supportive HR practices can facilitate the integration process for managers and employees post-M&A. They propose for bidder firms to employ IHRM practices that can facilitate appropriate language strategies to better manage the legitimacy of the acquiring firm. This includes investing in language-specific training and enhancing socialization practices between employees of the merging entities to improve legitimacy for integration. Furthermore, the research offers guidance on designing, implementing, and communicating HR practices such as recruitment and selection as well as performance and rewards management to increase post-M&A integration success.

Mind your language: an empirical investigation into the role of language in Indian expatriate professionals’ adjustment abroad

Varma, Pereira, Jaiswal, Patel, Ma and Vaz delve into the role of language in expatriates’ adjustment. Building on social learning and linguistic relativity theories and utilizing data collected from 20 Indian expatriates in different countries, their study illuminates the nuanced ways in which factors like accent, contextual meaning and linguistic relativity influence expatriates’ adjustment. The study furthermore showcases the mechanisms and support required to overcome language-related challenges and issues among expatriates. The authors underscore the critical role of organizational support, of investing in language training, and of tapping into social networks to ensure effective adaptation and success for expatriates.

Future research directions

This Special Issue highlights the relevance of research at the intersection of language and IHRM. Yet, we have only begun to uncover the vast intricacies of this topic and more remains to be explored. Thus, more research is clearly needed to fully understand the role of language in IHRM. Building on recent developments in the field and related research, we propose promising avenues for future research on language in IHRM. We organize future research directions into five overarching dimensions: (a) HRM functions, (b) diversity management, (c) different actors, (d) theory, and (e) methods (see Table 1). We discuss each of these future directions in more depth in the following.

Table 1. Overview of future research directions.

Theme	Core idea	Future directions
HRM functions	More nuanced understanding of HRM functions and language	More fine-grained analysis of specific HRM policies and practices under a language lens
		Deeper understanding of (language) training
		Investigate country differences
		Study outcomes of language policies and practices
Diversity management	Language is part of multinational diversity	Consider language policies and practices in diversity and inclusion agendas
		Investigate how language diversity can hinder or promote inclusion
Different actors	Language is important for various actors and in different contexts	Investigate language abilities, including accents, and outcomes of migrants
		Explore cultural and linguistic competencies of multiculturals
		Investigate the role of language in HCNs’ relationships and career success
		Understand the use of AI in multilingual global virtual teams
Theory	Robust theorizing at different levels	Individual-level: Linguistic relativity theory, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic theories
		Meso-level: Social identity, anthropological and sociolinguistic theories
		Macro-level: intra- vs. inter-country, evolutionary linguistic theories
Methods	More diverse methods to capture complex reality	Qualitative: ethnography, fuzzy-set
		Quantitative: Multi-country, multi-level analysis
		Experiments

Exploring language effects on conventional HRM functions and related outcomes

The HRM literature has extensively examined HRM practices such as recruitment and selection, training and development, remuneration, and promotion. Although a few studies have touched on the role of language in these areas, there is a need for more fine-grained insights into how language affects specific HRM policies and practices. For example, one could examine how organizations use language policies and practices related to recruitment, training, and other HRM functions as an employer branding tool. Recognizing the critical role of training and development in developing human capital (Pinnington et al., 2022) of which language capital is an integral part (Welch & Welch, 2018), future studies can also delve deeper into the forms and impact of language training. Such studies might explore how global leaders and expatriates can be equipped with not only language-specific skills, but also with language-general competencies including “more general cognitive skills such as cross-linguistic awareness, high levels of tolerance, and emotional management” (Mughan, 2015: 81). Given that language training approaches differ across countries, their applicability and effectiveness in diverse cultural contexts also deserves more attention.

Moreover, research on reward systems can leverage previous findings about linguistic future-time reference on individual behaviors. For example, building on Di Pietro et al. (2023) argument that weak-future languages such as Chinese present the future as temporally closer than strong-future languages such as English, it could be worth examining whether such linguistic nuances can shape preferences for seniority-based pay structures, corporate health insurance, and pension plans across different language communities. In a related vein, future studies on performance management could hone in on how language can be utilized to reinforce desirable behaviors at work. Given that corporate expatriates are often evaluated by both home and host country raters, it would also be intriguing to examine how an expatriate’s host country language proficiency, coupled with the HCNs’ mastery of the corporate language, influences their performance assessments by their HCN peers.

Furthermore, the relationship between language proficiency and career outcomes for expatriates and HCNs should be investigated in more detail. Research suggests that foreign language proficiency is positively related with career mobility (Itani et al., 2015) and career success outcomes in terms of career satisfaction, wage increases, and promotions (Peltokorpi, 2023). At the same time, prior research also suggests that HCN employees with high English proficiency are more likely to leave their organizations (i.e. voluntary turnover) (Peltokorpi, 2022; Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2012). Furthermore, Peltokorpi and Pudelko (2021) inquiry suggests, rather counterintuitively, that high proficiency in the local language is not always appreciated by locals.

Extending this line of inquiry, additional HRM-related outcome factors of language policies and practices could be further unpacked. At the individual level, employee engagement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and voluntary turnover are constructs worth investigating. At the team level, aspects such as team cohesion or team conflict, and team cognition (e.g. transactive memory systems or shared mental models) should find more attention. Finally, at the organizational level, the challenging but highly relevant task of how to link language policies and practices with organizational effectiveness and productivity could be addressed in future research.

Investigating the role of language in diversity management

Future research could also examine organizations’ language policies and practices in the context of their diversity and inclusion agenda. Discrimination based on language is a sensitive but important aspect worth being explored in more depth. While language diversity is apparent in most—if not all—MNCs (Brannen et al., 2014; Luo & Shenkar, 2006), international management research has overlooked language-based discrimination, i.e. unfair treatment of individuals based on their language use and comprehension (Lee & Rice, 2007) and the extent to which it has manifested in various HR practices such as recruitment, performance evaluation and promotion. Furthermore, previous research suggests that linguistic gender marking—the variance in how languages denote gender for nouns and pronouns—influences the success of female expatriates (Malul et al., 2016) and the representation of women on corporate boards (Santacreu-Vasut et al., 2014). There is potential to further investigate its influence on IHRM policies and practices. Additionally, taking a more optimistic perspective on language diversity within the scope of diversity and inclusion, it would be intriguing for future research to examine the implications of Hadjichristidis et al. (2017) recent assertion that stereotypes, while deeply rooted in cultural learning within a native linguistic environment, may hold less sway when one interacts in a foreign language.

Focusing on different actors

The majority of prior research focused on expatriates and employees working in full-time, permanent positions within MNCs. However, the reality of global work has become much more complex in recent years (Blay & Froese, 2022; Caligiuri et al., 2020; Selmer et al., 2022). Thus, it would be important to consider different actors and contexts. Doing so would not only result in the description of interesting phenomena but should also unearth important conceptual and practical implications for IHRM. In the following, we identify some actors and contexts that can provide fruitful grounding for studying language and IHRM.

Migration has recently attracted increasing attention among management and organization scholars. Considering that a substantial portion of workforce growth in developed countries currently comes from immigration (Fitzsimmons et al., 2020), this constitutes an important context to study language. Previous research has highlighted both the benefits migrant employees can bring to their employers (Liu et al., 2015) and the challenges they face due to being non-native speakers of the host country language (Fitzsimmons et al., 2020; Peltokorpi & Xie, 2023; Syed & Murray, 2009). On this basis, future research might relate (skilled) migrants’ language proficiency in their host country language with their adjustment, assimilation, and career success. There are also avenues to study language barriers and their implications for the relationships that migrants form at the workplace with locals, given that prior studies suggest language barriers to distort and damage relationships (Feely & Harzing, 2003; Zhang & Harzing, 2016). This would have implications for team processes including teamwork and team cohesion—areas that are within the purview of IHRM. Interesting in this context would also be to investigate whether differences in migrants’ foreign accents lead to the formation of stereotypes and influence how locals react to them.

Multiculturals and multilinguals also provide an important context to study language aspects in relation to IHRM. These individuals have been ascribed unique skills and abilities, making them effective in global business (Brannen & Thomas, 2010) and valuable for their employers (Liu et al., 2015). While multilingualism has frequently been conceptualized as a particular characteristic of multiculturalism, research by Augustin and Pudelko suggests that this is not necessarily the case and that both phenomena, while interlinked, should be regarded as distinct in the analysis of bridging activities (Augustin & Pudelko, 2020a) and social capital building (Augustin & Pudelko, 2020b) of multiculturals and multilinguals. Prior research also suggests that multilingual employees are not always multicultural, and that higher host country language proficiency is accompanied by higher expectations of host country cultural competencies (Peltokorpi, 2010). Future research could examine more closely the complex interrelations between language and cultural competencies. For example, it would be worthwhile to clarify the role and positioning of language within the cultural intelligence framework.

Host country nationals (HCNs) provide another interesting context to examine the role of language in IHRM. Studies have emerged, among other topics, on HCNs’ language proficiency (Peltokorpi et al., 2021) and their reactions to corporate language policies (Bordia & Bordia, 2015; Michalski & Śliwa, 2021). However, more research on their IHRM implications could and should be done. For example, from a career perspective, there is still much to explore about how local employees in non-English speaking, developing country contexts leverage their foreign language proficiency such as English skills. They might enhance their careers locally either by working for foreign subsidiaries that use English or domestic companies that are in the process of internationalization. Oftentimes language-sensitive research focuses on interactions between expatriates and local employees (Zhang & Harzing, 2016). However, HCN employees’ foreign language skills constitute a form of career capital that can be used for their career mobility and progression not only outside but also inside their home countries. This has implications for talent retention given that HCNs’ foreign language skills can open up many career opportunities increasing the likelihood of them abandoning their current jobs and employment.

Global virtual teams provide another interesting context to examine language in IHRM. Language in global virtual teams has already been examined in various studies (e.g. Klitmøller et al., 2015; Presbitero, 2020; Taras et al., 2019; Tenzer & Pudelko, 2016), which all highlight particular impediments in computer-mediated communication across language barriers. Worldwide virtual communication is increasingly facilitated through artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated communication technology. Glikson and Asscher (2023) have ventured into this novel field by exploring the implications of AI-mediated communication for interpersonal relationships among employees. HRM scholars could expand on this by studying, for example, the extent to which automated translation tools may alleviate language barriers in virtual communication. Considering that AI applications are rapidly expanding these days and gaining importance for HRM (Pan et al., 2022; Pan & Froese, 2023), the HRM implications of AI in multilingual settings will provide ample research needs and opportunities for the coming years.

More robust theorizing at multiple levels

While the papers in the SI draw on a range of theories including job-demands resources theory, intergroup contact theory, person-job fit theory, social identity theory and social learning theory, future research should also be guided by robust theorizing on language to generate more meaningful and widely applicable insights for IHRM. At the individual level, future research can build on linguistic relativity theory, which is based on the idea that different languages shape different worldviews (Sapir, 1921; Whorf, 1956). This theory can sensitize organizations about the difficulty of correctly interpreting the meaning of messages across different contextual settings such as national and organizational cultures. A particular HRM practice where linguistic relativity theory can be used is employee performance management. More specifically, looking into language and how it can shape an employee’s worldview can guide supervisors in better framing and charting the performance goals of their subordinates. Furthermore, sociolinguistic theories on the symbolic value of language and the ethnocultural stereotypes particular language choices evoke among listeners (for a review, see Hornikx et al., 2023) can also yield valuable insights for recruitment and employer branding. Psycholinguistic theories on language processing and comprehension in the human mind (Hornikx et al., 2023) can help refine training delivery and support supervisor-subordinate communication during performance evaluations.

There are also opportunities to do more theorizing at the meso level. For example, language-based social identity (Peltokorpi & Pudelko, 2021; Tenzer et al., 2017) can be explored at the team level through the theoretical lenses of social identity and self-categorization theories (e.g. Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, 1985). Anthropological and sociolinguistic literature on cultural differences in speech pragmatics (i.e. how speech is used to create specific meaning, Pütz & Neff-van Aertselear, 2008; Wierzbicka, 2003) and prosodics (i.e. acoustic speech characteristics such as intonation, speech rhythm and accent, Sporer & Schwandt, 2006; Ueyama, 2000) could also result in valuable insights on team communication and interactions, adding value to the IHRM literature at the group level.

More theorizing should also be done for language studies at the macro level. This relates to intra-country studies (e.g. exposing the language dynamics within a country that has more than one official language; Barner-Rasmussen & Aarnio, 2011; Berthoud et al., 2015; Steyaert et al., 2011) as well as inter-country studies (e.g. investigating linguistic differences between national languages, specifically between English as the lingua franca and various native languages; Lauring & Selmer, 2013). However, such investigations could benefit from further theoretical anchoring and linking to IHRM. For instance, evolutionary linguistic theory (Croft, 2008) might be utilized to better understand how a country’s colonial past influences the language use of its citizens and how these cultural heritages are manifested in the way they work. The perspective of multilingual organizations as ‘linguascapes’ (Steyaert et al., 2011) and resulting implications for IHRM can equally provide a fruitful starting point for future research.

Adopting novel research designs

While early research on language in business and management was predominantly based on qualitative research methods (Harzing & Pudelko, 2013), Tenzer et al. (2017) noted an increasing prevalence of quantitative studies in the field. While a more significant number of language-related publications recently are based on quantitative methods including two papers in this SI, their dominance is still less pronounced than in business and management research at large (Piekkari et al., 2022). Within qualitative language research, there are opportunities to expand beyond the dominant interview methodology. These can include, for example, employing organizational ethnography (Lauring & Klitmøller, 2015; Nurmi & Koroma, 2020), which would also involve observations of language use in-situ, or fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (Suzuki et al., 2023). These approaches have the potential to add more depth to our understanding of linguistic diversity in organizations and its implications for IHRM.

There are also opportunities to enhance quantitative methods by embracing multi-country, large-scale studies, ideally a multi-level country design (Stoermer et al., 2021) that would test the generalizability of language use and its impact on key work-related outcomes (Harzing & Pudelko, 2013). Experimental studies are rare in the international management literature (Zellmer-Bruhn et al., 2016), which is also reflected in language-related research. We encourage more studies like Akkermans et al.’s (2010) application of a prisoner’s dilemma game to explore cultural accommodation and language priming, because experimental methods are suited to isolate language effects from other variables and establish relationships on this basis. Lastly, combining various methods in a mixed-methods approach would also be valuable in increasing the reliability and validity of future research on language in IHRM.

Conclusion

Research on language in MNCs has grown substantially during the last two decades (Karhunen et al., 2018; Piekkari et al., 2022; Tenzer et al., 2017). At the same time, research that links language to HRM has remained scarce (Peltokorpi, 2015a). This is unfortunate because attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining a multilingual workforce is essential for the long-term success of organizations in today’s global business world. In this paper and the corresponding Special Issue, we have introduced recent studies that have advanced our knowledge of language in IHRM. Moreover, we have offered useful directions for future research on this important but currently under researched topic. We hope that this paper will inspire further research to increase our understanding of language in IHRM.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.