Jiří Nekvapil

On Language Management in Multinational Companies in the Czech Republic

In this paper, we demonstrate the dialectical relationship between micro and macro language planning: macro planning influences micro planning and yet macro planning results (or should result) from micro planning. The relation between the two planning perspectives is illustrated within the framework of Language Management Theory (Jernudd & Neustupný, 1987; Neustupný & Nekvapil, 2003). We deal with the relations between various levels of ‘organised management’, and with the role of the ‘simple, i.e. discourse-based management’ in organised language management. Attention is also given to the impact of organised language management on naturally occurring discourses and discourse-based management. The paper is empirically based on research carried out during the past two years in branches of multinational companies or corporations founded in the Czech Republic by German, Austrian or Swiss owners. We focus primarily on the situation in a subsidiary of a Siemens corporation. The languages which have become the subject of management activities here are German, English, and Czech. The data we work with were obtained using various types of interviews (semi-structured, follow-up) as well as audio-recordings and participant observation.

An introduction: Language Management Theory in Language Policy and Planning

Abstract In these introductory remarks, the authors deal with the metaphors “top-down”, “bottom-up” and related concepts in the Language Policy and Planning research. Furthermore, they sketch out the position of Language Management Theory in this field of study and characterize “language management” in various research traditions. Afterward, the main features of Language Management Theory are presented with emphasis placed on the relationship between “simple” and “organized” language management. Finally, these features are illustrated on the individual contributions to this special issue.

Practical historians and adversaries: 9/11 revisited

This article extends the idea of ‘structured immediacy’ (Leudar et al., 2008b) by investigating methods that adversaries use to make the past relevant and consequential in conflicts. Our strategy was to revisit our analysis of political discourse immediately following the 9/11 attacks in the USA (Leudar et al., 2004; Leudar and Nekvapil, 2007). We did this to document what the adversaries did as ‘practical historians’. We found that they used two related methods. One was to situate contemporary events relative to historical antecedents, alongside other contextual particulars, and by doing this provide these events with history-contingent meanings. The other was to attempt to constrain historical understandings of the contemporary events in the future. We interpret the results using the concept of ‘structured immediacy’ that points to how context — historical and otherwise — enters immediate settings of talk as a source of meaning.

Language Management Theory as one approach in Language Policy and Planning

Language Policy and Planning is currently a significantly diversified research area and thus it is not easy to find common denominators that help to define basic approaches within it. Richard B. Baldauf attempted to do so by differentiating between four basic approaches: (1) the classical approach, (2) the language management approach (Language Management Theory, LMT), (3) the domain approach and (4) the critical approach [Baldauf, R. B. (2012). Introduction – language planning: Where have we been? Where might we be going? Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 12(2), 233–248]. This paper takes up this classification and seeks to show the main features of LMT, while highlighting the features that it shares with the other approaches and the features that are unique to it. This is done against the background of Baldaufs works and their contribution to the spread of LMT.

Managing superdiversity in multinational companies

Multinational companies (multinationals) are characterized by the fact that they have headquarters in one country and branches in others (e.g. SAP, the German-based company specializing in software manufacturing, has subsidiaries/offices in more than 130 countries). Some multinationals are such massive economic units that their assets exceed the GDP of entire countries (Collinson & Morgan 2009). Multinationals establish branches because it is economically advantageous to them: the given country may be an attractive market for the goods produced, or there is cheap labor in it, or both. Branches are typically set up and run by a small group of employees (e.g. several tens of people), called expatriates. They are sent from the company headquarters and their main task, at least at the beginning, is to transfer the know-how necessary for successful company operations. The recipients of this know-how are employees recruited from among the local inhabitants or people from nearby regions (e.g. several hundred or even thousand people). Expatriates are often not from the same ethnic group as local employees – they were socialized in other countries with different cultural traditions, and their first language is usually a different one. The professional and communicative experiences of the expatriates are often gained from stints in several company branches located in different countries, and they are thus typical temporary migrants. They are highly qualified and usually hold managerial positions, as, among others, they organize contact with other branches and, above all, with the headquarters. They are “elite migrants” (Dong 2016). The status, professional, cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity in the branches of multinationals is essentially determined by the very existence of these two groups of people – expatriates and locals, though the membership in these two categories need not be absolutely fixed. Multinationals have significant prestige and power, manifested not only in the economic area, but also in the organizational, cultural and linguistic ones. Multinationals thus necessarily and relatively easily influence the social processes taking place within their branches and in their geographical surroundings, and can act as an important diversifying element. Though it is quite difficult to gain access to multinationals and to conduct systematic research on them, sociolinguists have explored some aspects of multinationals in several European countries, e.g. Angouri and Miglbauer (2014) dealt with companies situated in Croatia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Sweden and the UK; Nekvapil and Sherman (2009b) in the Czech Republic and Hungary; Millar and Jensen (2009) in Denmark; and Lüdi, Höchle Meier and Yanaprasart (2016) Jiří Nekvapil and Tamah Sherman

Sociolinguistic perspectives on English in business and commerce

For many decades, English in its multiple forms has served as one of the most important languages of business, both in Europe and worldwide. Though it originally emerged in this role given the economic and political power of countries where it is spoken as a native language (the UK and later the US), over time it has come to be understood as the most widely used lingua franca in international business transactions, from the simple sale of a hot dog on the street to the trans-continental merging of large companies. The selection of English as the language of these transactions may pass unnoticed, may be carefully negotiated beforehand, or may be the result of strict top-down regulation. It typically occurs in a multilingual milieu, encompassing the individual repertoires of the speakers involved, their expectations regarding language choice, and the broader sociolinguistic context. There has been no shortage of inquiry into the varieties of English used in this communication, the textual structure of business genres, the micro-analysis of interactions in BELF (Business English as a lingua franca), or mapping out the needs that contemporary employees have as regards English and the resulting proposed methods for organizing and teaching it (for overviews, see Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen 2007, 2013; Kankaanranta, Louhiala-Salminen, and Karhunen 2015). Though these strands of research have been highly productive, they tend to draw attention away from a number of basic realities. These include: (1) differences in the extent and significance of English as a lingua franca in specific contexts, (2) the use and value of languages other than English in business communication and (3) the particulars of the selection and use of various languages in conjunction with specific sectors and organizational levels. As for the first point, the often-declared function of English as a neutral language in a broad range of business situations may somewhat misleadingly suggest that this neutrality is of a universal character. It also may gloss over the fact that speakers enter these situations with different levels of competence (Ehrenreich 2010) and varying language biographies (Nekvapil and Nekula 2006a, 2006b; Nekvapil and Sherman 2009a, 2009b). Here, we acknowledge two concurrent research findings: (a) the fact that language choice tends not to be neutral and typically reflects power relations (cf. Vaara et al. 2005; Gazzola and Grin 2013; Lüdi et al.

The Problem of Relevance in Thematically Oriented Biographical Interview: The Case of Oral History Interviews

The thematically oriented biographical interview (TOBI) is a research tool used frequently in contemporary qualitative research. Compared to other interviewing techniques, its main advantage is its combination of a thematic focus and sensitivity to the perspective of the interviewee. The authors demonstrate that TOBI is made up of several constituents: fi rst, it is a speech infrastructure (comprising a conversational and a narrative component), and second, it encompasses three kinds of relevance (biographical relevance, identity relevance and specifi c thematic relevance). The main part of the article is devoted to an analysis of the types and forms of relevance that occur in the corpus of oral history biographical interviews. The analysis shows that, contrary to the common effort of researchers to increase the signifi cance of a respondent’s testimony by emphasising the specifi c thematic relevance, the biographical and identity relevances are equally important for successfully capturing the actor’s perspective and smoothly conducting a TOBI. In their explication of relevance and its forms the authors draw on the theory of relevance developed by Alfred Schütz.The thematically oriented biographical interview (TOBI) is a research tool used frequently in contemporary qualitative research. Compared to other interviewing techniques, its main advantage is its combination of a thematic focus and sensitivity to the perspective of the interviewee. The authors demonstrate that TOBI is made up of several constituents: first, it is a speech infrastructure (comprising a conversational and a narrative component), and second, it encompasses three kinds of relevance (biographical relevance, identity relevance and specific thematic relevance). The main part of the article is devoted to an analysis of the types and forms of relevance that occur in the corpus of oral history biographical interviews. The analysis shows that, contrary to the common effort of researchers to increase the significance of a respondent’s testimony by emphasising the specific thematic relevance, the biographical and identity relevances are equally important for successfully capturing the actor’s perspective and smoothly conducting a TOBI. In their explication of relevance and its forms the authors draw on the theory of relevance developed by Alfred Schutz.

Book review: CARMEN TALEGHANI-NIKAZM, Request Sequences: The Intersection of Grammar, Interaction and Social Context. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2006. ix + 125 pp. EUR90 (hbk)

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