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From dilemmatic struggle to legitimized indifference: Expatriates’ host country language learning and its impact on the expatriate-HCE relationship

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  • Zhang, Ling Eleanor
  • Harzing, Anne-Wil

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Ling Eleanor & Harzing, Anne-Wil, 2016. "From dilemmatic struggle to legitimized indifference: Expatriates’ host country language learning and its impact on the expatriate-HCE relationship," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 774-786.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:worbus:v:51:y:2016:i:5:p:774-786
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2016.06.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Shen, Jie & Wajeeh-ul-Husnain, Syed & Kang, Haiying & Jin, Quan, 2021. "Effect of outgroup social categorization by host-country nationals on expatriate premature return intention and buffering effect of mentoring," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2).
    2. Helene Tenzer & Siri Terjesen & Anne-Wil Harzing, 2017. "Language in International Business: A Review and Agenda for Future Research," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(6), pages 815-854, December.
    3. Vesa Peltokorpi & Markus Pudelko, 2021. "When more is not better: A curvilinear relationship between foreign language proficiency and social categorization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(1), pages 78-104, February.
    4. Panda, Madhusmita & Pradhan, Rabindra Kumar & Singh, Sanjay Kumar, 2022. "What makes organization-assigned expatriates perform in the host country? A moderated mediation analysis in the India-China context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 663-673.
    5. Lauring, Jakob & Selmer, Jan, 2018. "Person-environment fit and emotional control: Assigned expatriates vs. self-initiated expatriates," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 982-992.
    6. Allen D. Engle & Zsuzsanna Szeiner & Sylvia Molnár & József Poór, 2024. "Key Factors of Corporate Expatriates' Cross-Cultural Adjustment - an Empirical Study," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2024(4), pages 39-58.
    7. Michalski, Marina P. & Śliwa, Martyna, 2021. "‘If you use the right Arabic…’: Responses to special language standardization within the BBC Arabic Service’s linguascape," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(5).

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