Publication
The invisible factors that can make the difference. Language management and knowledge transfer in multinational sites
| dc.contributor.author | Albuquerque, Alexandra | |
| dc.contributor.author | Costa, Rute | |
| dc.contributor.author | Esperança, José Paulo | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2013-11-27T10:49:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2013-11-27T10:49:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2013 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The knowledge-based society we live in has stressed the importance of human capital and brought talent to the top of most wanted skills, especially to companies who want to succeed in turbulent environments worldwide. In fact, streams, sequences of decisions and resource commitments characterize the day-to-day of multinational companies (MNCs). Such decision-making activities encompass major strategic moves like internationalization and new market entries or diversification and acquisitions. In most companies, these strategic decisions are extensively discussed and debated and are generally framed, formulated, and articulated in specialized language often developed by the best minds in the company. Yet the language used in such deliberations, in detailing and enacting the implementation strategy is usually taken for granted and receives little if any explicit attention (Brannen & Doz, 2012) an can still be a “forgotten factor” (Marschan et al. 1997). Literature on language management and international business refers to lack of awareness of business managers of the impact that language can have not only in communication effectiveness but especially in knowledge transfer and knowledge management in business environments. In the context of MNCs, management is, for many different reasons, more complex and demanding than that of a national company, mainly because of diversity factors inherent to internationalization, namely geographical and cultural spaces, i.e, varied mindsets. Moreover, the way of functioning, and managing language, of the MNC depends on its vision, its values and its internationalization model, i.e on in the way the MNE adapts to and controls the new markets, which can vary essentially from a more ethnocentric to a more pluricentric focus. Regardless of the internationalization model followed by the MNC, communication between different business units is essential to achieve unity in diversity and business sustainability. For the business flow and prosperity, inter-subsidiary, intra-company and company-client (customers, suppliers, governments, municipalities, etc..) communication must work in various directions and levels of the organization. If not well managed, this diversity can be a barrier to global coordination and create turbulent environments, even if a good technological support is available (Feely et al., 2002: 4). According to Marchan-Piekkari (1999) the tongue can be both (i) a barrier, (ii) a facilitator and (iii) a source of power. Moreover, the lack of preparation for the barriers of linguistic diversity can lead to various costs, including negotiations’ failure and failure on internationalization.. On the other hand, communication and language fluency is not just a message transfer procedure, but above all a knowledge transfer process, which requires extra-linguistic skills (persuasion, assertiveness …) in order to promote credibility of both parties. For this reason, MNCs need a common code to communicate and trade information inside and outside the company, which will require one or more strategies, in order to overcome possible barriers and organization distortions. | por |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/2976 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | por |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | por |
| dc.publisher | Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto | por |
| dc.title | The invisible factors that can make the difference. Language management and knowledge transfer in multinational sites | por |
| dc.type | conference object | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.conferencePlace | Póvoa de Varzim | por |
| oaire.citation.title | 2100 Projects Association Joint Conferences | por |
| person.familyName | Albuquerque | |
| person.familyName | Costa | |
| person.givenName | Alexandra | |
| person.givenName | Rute | |
| person.identifier | 1034310 | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | BA19-9BC5-825A | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | 9E16-EBBC-21A0 | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0002-9234-5174 | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0002-3452-7228 | |
| person.identifier.rid | O-2689-2015 | |
| person.identifier.scopus-author-id | 57223010733 | |
| rcaap.rights | openAccess | por |
| rcaap.type | conferenceObject | por |
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