Language as a Meeting Ground for Research on the MNC and Organization Theory
Multinational Corporations and Organization Theory: Post Millennium Perspectives
ISBN: 978-1-78635-386-3, eISBN: 978-1-78635-385-6
Publication date: 17 February 2017
Abstract
The multilingual MNC provides a promising territory for enhancing the dialogue between organization theory and International Business. We draw parallels between research on the multinational corporation and that on the multilingual corporation. Our review shows that the changing conceptualizations of the MNC toward a network model have carved space for language-sensitive research in International Business. We scrutinize this stream of research from the viewpoint of three organization theory lenses: the role of language in organizational design and architecture, in identity building and culture, and in organizational political systems, and comment on future research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Christoph Dörrenbächer and Mike Geppert for their encouragement and editorial guidance, and Sebastian Reiche and Denice Welch for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. We would also like to acknowledge the useful feedback that we have received from the participants in the following events: Language workshop, Hanken School of Economics, April 28, 2014; Symposium “Language(s) and Language Practices in Business and the Economy,” Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), October 23–25, 2014; Paper development workshop, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, November 19–20, 2015.
Citation
Piekkari, R. and Westney, D.E. (2017), "Language as a Meeting Ground for Research on the MNC and Organization Theory", Multinational Corporations and Organization Theory: Post Millennium Perspectives (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 49), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 193-232. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000049007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited