Corporate Language Policy Change: The Trajectory of Management Discourse in Japan, the oppressed or the oppressor?

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study investigating interaction in a meeting held in a Japanese subsidiary of a U.S.-based multinational business corporation. Participants were the company’s president,  managers, and human resource staff. The data were collected from an intercultural management meeting as well as interviews and e-mail exchanges with participants. The paper first describes the socio-political changes in the Japanese business environment that influenced the choice of English as the official corporate language in the research site. The data indicated the participants’ command of English might have determined the hierarchical relationship in the organization after setting English as the official corporate language. I focused on effects of the institutional context, including the organizational power relation and the corporate language policy decision, and on the participants’ turn-taking frequency in the meeting. Furthermore, the paper suggests a bi-directional, two-way relationship between turn-taking frequency and the images of superiority and inferiority in the organization.