{"title":"Weak in ability but still follow what the headquarters asks: a legitimacy-based view of MNC employees' adoption of English","authors":"Anna JC Hsu, Kevin Au, Marta K Dowejko","doi":"10.1111/1744-7941.12396","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper advances a legitimacy-based view on what factors determine multinational corporation (MNC) employees' adoption of English at work. We posit that legitimacy judgment represents an alternative mechanism, other than language ability, for explaining MNC employees' response to headquarters' corporate language policy. The hypotheses were confirmed in two studies with mixed-methods (experiments; semi-structured interviews), involving MNC employees in China. Our findings verified that corporate language policy increases positive legitimacy judgment, which in turn enhances employees' adoption of English at work. Further analysis showed that language ability moderates the mediating effect of legitimacy judgment, such that this effect is stronger for employees with lower language ability. Semi-structured interviews confirmed the experimental findings and brought more insight into why and how Chinese employees adopt English in daily work. This paper contributes to the research on corporate language policy, legitimacy judgment, and cross-border management in Asia Pacific.</p>","PeriodicalId":51582,"journal":{"name":"Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1744-7941.12396","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper advances a legitimacy-based view on what factors determine multinational corporation (MNC) employees' adoption of English at work. We posit that legitimacy judgment represents an alternative mechanism, other than language ability, for explaining MNC employees' response to headquarters' corporate language policy. The hypotheses were confirmed in two studies with mixed-methods (experiments; semi-structured interviews), involving MNC employees in China. Our findings verified that corporate language policy increases positive legitimacy judgment, which in turn enhances employees' adoption of English at work. Further analysis showed that language ability moderates the mediating effect of legitimacy judgment, such that this effect is stronger for employees with lower language ability. Semi-structured interviews confirmed the experimental findings and brought more insight into why and how Chinese employees adopt English in daily work. This paper contributes to the research on corporate language policy, legitimacy judgment, and cross-border management in Asia Pacific.
期刊介绍:
The Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources is an applied, peer-reviewed journal which aims to communicate the development and practice of the field of human resources within the Asia Pacific region. The journal publishes the results of research, theoretical and conceptual developments, and examples of current practice. The overall aim is to increase the understanding of the management of human resource in an organisational setting.