instrumental benefits of a common corporate language for communication, collaboration and information sharing, assuming that language diversity can be easily managed. However, our in-depth investigation of the emotional implications of language barriers has shown that MNCs cannot erase lan- guage barriers by simply adopting a common corporate language. These findings lend strong support to the emerging view that the traditional, “instrumental” concept of language as an easily managed, neutral code is becoming outdated. Reinforcing view that “the role of natural languages in social life can hardly be overestimated”, our study demonstrates that this concept needs to be replaced by a more nuanced perspective on language which gives justice to its complex effects.
Contributions to research on emotions in organizations
Answering to the call that “theories of emotion as well as empirical research need to take into account the context wherein emo- tions occur”, our study contributes to emotion-sensitive organizational studies by contextualizing previously established emotion management models to multilingual environ- ments. Interestingly, our exploratory investigation only yields parallels to those emotion management strategies which characterize as antecedent-focused. If MNT leaders reduce the impact of language bar- riers on communication, redirect subordinates' attention away from language barriers or encourage a more positive appraisal of lan- guage barriers, they address the causes (or antecedents) of language-induced emotions. In contrast, response-focused strategies of emotion regulation, which merely aim to manipulate emotional expressions (responses), but leave their causes unaffected, did not seem to be employed by the MNT leaders in our study. Hence, our study shows that successful MNT leaders actively address the causes of language-induced anxiety and resentment rather than merely suppressing the symptoms. Consequently, it supports the assump- tion that employees' emotions need to be effectively mitigated rather than repressed, possibly also because the latter may result in job dissatisfaction and burnout. Huy believes that repressing emotions is particularly harmful in fast-paced environments, as it blocks creativity, impeding the emergence of new ideas. Given that creativity and innovative capabilities can be a key strength of multinational and multilingual teams, blocking emotions would be particularly harmful in these contexts.
Managerial relevance
Managing emotional conflict is not only of theoretical, but also of highest practical importance, as this type of conflict can distract teams from their tasks, lower decision quality and diminish employee satisfaction and performance. Negative emotions may also cause risk-aversion, absenteeism and turnover, thereby impeding MNC employees' performance potential. Our investigation of leader- ship strategies helping to mitigate negative language-induced emotions therefore carries significant implications for leaders of MNTs, their superiors and human resource managers in MNCs.
Being aware of the emotional impact of language barriers
In terms of recommendations, our findings highlight the importance for MNT leaders to know about and reflect on the emotional impact of language differences. Particularly MNT leaders speaking their team's working language with high or native proficiently need to engage frequently in perspective taking to recognize how less fluent subordinates are affected. Since we found that MNT members of all nationalities and mother tongues tend to hide self-directed emotions, MNT leaders need to rely very much on indirect cues when monitoring their subordinates' language-induced emotions. Rather than expecting their subordinates to communicate their negative emotions directly, they need to observe team members' behavior to evaluate possible emotion