In our qualitative investigation, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 leaders and 67 members of 15 multinational and multilingual teams as well as 8 superordinate managers in three MNCs, allowing us to triangulate different perspectives on language- induced negative emotions and their management through MNT leaders. Our article will first reveal that MNT members' various emo- tional reactions to language barriers fall into two discrete categories: self-directed anxiety and other-directed resentment. Second, and more importantly, we will systematically investigate strategies to mitigate the emotional impact of language barriers. Consequently, the main thrust of this article lies in exploring the measures MNT leaders have at their disposal to manage their subordinates' negative language-induced emotions. As we will show, these measures form part of three major strategies: reducing the impact of language bar- riers, redirecting MNT members' attention away from language barriers, and reducing the negative appraisal of language barriers. These measures benefit the MNT through improved sensemaking, a more productive team climate and an increased willingness of MNT mem- bers to follow their leader.
Our study is the first to build on, contribute to and systematically connect research on leadership, language barriers and emotions in MNCs. As such, it contributes to research on MNT leaders' emotion regulation strategies by investigating the specific challenges MNT leaders face in multilingual settings, a leadership context which has despite its relevance been surprisingly neglected by prior studies. We advance leadership research with a fine-grained analysis of MNT leaders' cross-lingual bridge-making activities and pro- vide an extension of leadership skills with cross-lingual competencies. We extend the growing literature on position power in teams by demonstrating the positive outcomes of MNT leaders leveraging their power through active emotion management. Our study also contributes to the investigation of language barriers in international management by highlighting the complexity of language effects and confirming that the instrumental view of language as an easily managed, neutral code has become obsolete. Furthermore, it con- tributes to emotion-sensitive organizational studies by contextualizing previously established emotion management models specifi- cally for multilingual environments. In terms of practical recommendations, our study highlights the importance of MNT leaders' emotional awareness in multilingual settings, shows that emotions need to be actively managed rather than suppressed and draws important conclusions for global leadership development.
Theoretical framework
Our study is based on leadership research in multicultural and multilingual settings, the investigation of language barriers in MNCs and research on emotions in organizations. Below we will review selected findings and models from previous studies in these areas, which indicate connections between these three streams and therefore provide core references for our study.