Corporate language, social interaction and the problem of

”dilute” communication

By Hanne TangeDepartment of Language and Business Communication

Aarhus School of Business

Moments of silence

• First encounter: an open office landscape in a Danish multicultural organisation where for some reason employees do not talk.

• Second encounter: the momentary wall of silence that met the British lecturer at the end of a talk on parallel language usage.

This paper explores the practice of ”thin” or ”dilute” communication that seems to emerge in response to the demand that non-native

speakers perform everyday routines in English, as well as its implications for information flows

and networks within the multilingual workplace.

Program

• Corporate language – in theory and practice

• Behaviour 1: ”dilution” as a change in the quality of messages

• Behaviour 2: ”dilution” as communication withdrawal

• Conclusions

Corporate language- in theory and practice

Why corporate language?

• To increase the speed and effectiveness of internal and external communication.

• To make communication transparent – accessible to all members.

• To improve organisational information flows and knowledge sharing.

• To establish a sense of corporate membership among the employees.

What happens . . .

• Welch, Welch & Marschan-Piekkari: the practice of language clustering – with members of the dominant speech community often ending up in the powerful position of language nodes.

• Tange & Lauring: the practice of linguistic dilution - or ”thinning” – as language users cut certain elements out of their messages or withdraw from interaction in the second language.

Empirical basis

• An exploratory, qualitative study of the impact of diversity on Danish multicultural and multilingual companies.

• An ongoing, qualitative inquiry into Danish university lecturers’ experiences inside the multicultural classroom.

Preliminary findings

1: Messages change when people are requested to work in a second language.

2: Certain messages simply disappear in an English-language environment.

1. Messages that change

There is no doubt that the students sometimes feel – which they express very clearly to me as course coordinator – that they are afraid that some parts of the message are lost. That they are missing linguistic details that would be available in Danish. If you just look at the nonverbal communication . . . we are contained within a language that we would not normally use. In addition, the international students do not have English as their first language either, which means that we have two poles that will have to meet on a common linguistic platform that is unnatural to both. (lecturer, engineering)

What changes

• Messages in English become simpler, more professional and very task-oriented.

• Scientific concepts and expert knowledge rather than social roles and relationships.

• Reduced amount of story-telling – the personal experiences, anecdotes and jokes used to ”wrap up” the message.

A linguistic ”shortcut”

Because my vocabulary is larger in Danish, I think I find it easier to express myself. So there will be things that I cannot say in English – which I cannot express and which I therefore choose not to mention. So in this respect I think my lectures become more of a shortcut than when they are in [Danish]. Well, they may include more stories and things like that – where it may be difficult to find the correct terminology [in English], which means that you cannot cover quite as wide an area as you would in Danish. Because linguistically speaking, you do not feel comfortable. So I definitely believe I have a more flourishing language in Danish. (lecturer, business studies)

Consequences

• The code-switching into English results in a formalisation and professionalisation of workplace interaction; the delivery of a message that is less ”thick” or detailed.

• According to the respondents, this change mainly affects the quality of a message - the tone and style of delivery rather than the contents.

2. Missing messages

I have experienced a change from Agricultural Economy, which I used to teach, and which was a Danish-medium bachelor program. . . . When I taught Agricultural Economy, I interacted with the students in the lectures. I have no such dialogue when I teach in English. . . . Even the Danish students, whom I first met in a Danish-medium course and later in an English one. And those who had been very keen to talk in the Danish class, they were silent as the grave in the English class. So really, they might as well watch the lecturer on a movie as there is little interaction anyway. (lecturer, life sciences)

What messages are affected?

• In the business organisations, informal exchanges such as humour, small talk or gossiping, which are not essential to employees’ work performance.

• In the multicultural classroom, students’ questions, doubts and the ping-pong discussions lecturers associate with Danish-medium courses.

Why messages go missing

This is what makes it so absurd – that you are able to discuss inflation and unemployment and issues like that, using the correct terms for this, and yet you are unable to tell someone you meet at a conference about your skiing holiday because you have no clue as to what a ski binding may be called in English. So you develop a very uneven vocabulary. (lecturer, business studies)

In other words

• Messages disappear because of second language users’ uneven linguistic repertoire – the discrepancy between professional and/or scientific English and the discourses employed for informal exchanges and relationship-building.

• A second factor is linguistic uncertainty – if second language users fear that poor English reflects badly on their social status and prestige, they may withdraw from unnecessary exchanges in the corporate language.

Consequences

• As members of the dominant speech community, the Danes can afford to remain silent without losing access to information flows and networks.

• In comparison, linguistic and cultural outsiders are cut off from informal information flows, which has implications for their ability to learn and thus partake fully in the social life of the organisation.

Retreat into Danish

And then I try to explain to them - I simply say in English that from now on we will use English in here because I can see that there are people who do not understand anything. Then they just shut up – like oysters – and some five minutes will pass, and then they start talking back to me and each other [in Danish]. And there have been various things - such as when we had to form some groups, or they had to form some groups. Where we may have three here, and is there another one who can join and so. . . Where they are simply speaking in Danish over the head of the poor French girl, who just sit there. (lecturer, business studies)

Conclusions

• A code-switching into English affects the quantity and quality of social interaction within the Danish workplace.

• This ”dilution” is most evident in relation to informal exchanges, removing the ”buffers” speakers would normally use to deliver their message.

• ”Dilution” has social implications – since a lack of access to informal communication can become an obstacle to social integration and learning.

In other words . . .

Corporate language policies are not enough; who needs a shared medium when they don’t talk anyway!

Thank you!