HBS CASES
HBS Cases: Overcoming the
Stress of ‘Englishnization’
Published: March 19, 2012
Author:
Kim Girard
CEOs of global companies increasingly
mandate that their employees learn English.
The problem: these workers can experience a
loss of status and believe they aren't as effective
in their learned language, says Assistant
Professor Tsedal Neeley. Key concepts include:
• One of the most powerful ways for
non-American companies to compete
globally is to madate that employees speak
English.
• Employees learning English share a
universal experience of status diminution
and believe they'll never be as sophisticated,
as influential, or as articulate as they are in
their native language.
• Employers can ease this process by
underscoring that nonnative speakers don't
have a problem. All workers have to be
invested in working and speaking together.
• Managers should consider testing and
offering benchmarks as a method for easing
anxieties
In March 2010, CEO Hiroshi Mikitani
(HBS MBA '93) stood in front of his employees
at online retail giant Rakuten's Tokyo
headquarters and dropped a bomb: all 7,100
workers would have two years to become
proficient in English—the "language of
business"—or risk demotion.
"I was simply astonished," said an engineer
interviewed after the announcement. "Many
Rakuten employees are allergic to English."
"If they don't have a
language strategy, they'll
regret it"
In a company where just 10 percent of all
workers at the time spoke English, Mikitani's
move was radical and divisive. He even coined
a term for the conversion: "Englishnization."
"This issue is explosive," says Assistant
Professor Tsedal Neeley, who tracks Rakuten's
journey in her case Language and Global
"Englishnization" at Rakuten. "Students have
strong reactions to this. Some insist that this is a
poison pill that you have to swallow—there's no
other choice. Others say: 'This is impossible,
the CEO is crazy. How can you do that?' "
Neeley argues that chief executives of
global companies will have no choice but to
confront the language issue as they extend their
global reach.
"If they don't have a language strategy,
they'll
regret
it,"
she
says.
"Even
American-based companies with operations
overseas need a language strategy. One of the
most powerful ways to globally compete today
is to make your company an English-speaking
company. This takes years to achieve."
The problem is that teaching non-English
speakers a new language risks drops in
productivity, causes some employees to lose
status, and can engender belief that they aren't
as effective in their second tongue—all
significant hurdles employers must overcome to
make a program successful.
Neeley, who has studied this unmined
subject for nearly 10 years, worked closely on
the case with Mikitani, described by some as
Japan's Bill Gates.
Mikitani expected that the initial global
English-only conversion would be difficult for
his company. "This is going to be a long-term
effort for us," he said. "Starting this month, my
own speech will simply be in English."
All workers were required to take a
two-hour 200-question test to assess their
reading and listening comprehension of
business English, and continue to take the test
until they passed. A second phase involved
bringing in lecturers to discuss with employees
how to study and manage learning the language.
The last phase was encouraging workers to use
English in meetings.
In line with a do-it-yourself culture, one
early problem was that Rakuten offered little
initial training or support to workers, who were
expected to pay for their own English classes
and learn during off-hours.
Neeley, who drafted some best practices
that the company began to implement, says
Rakuten has quickly moved to make substantial
changes, including paying for language classes.
While workers in their 40s and older
typically resist language mandates more than do
20-somethings, Neeley says the older workers
at Rakuten also shared advantages: they often
had more education and money to pay for
COPYRIGHT 2012 PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
additional private or small-group classes.
"Higher education is correlated with stronger
language education," she says. "If you have a
second language already it is so much easier,
and people in their 40s can make inroads."
While it's challenging for workers to start
from scratch it is "absolutely doable," she says.
English in a French firm
In a separate, forthcoming Organization
Science article titled "Language Matters: Status
Lost and Achieved Status Distinctions in Global
Organizations," Neeley interviewed workers at
a $25 billion Paris-based high-tech company
about its two-year-old English-only language
mandate. (She uses the pseudonym Frenchco
for the company in the case.)
With about 40 percent of Frenchco's
210,000 employees based outside France,
pressure had mounted to change to
English-only. The company's customers,
partners, suppliers, and competitors were using
English exclusively; its operations were
becoming increasingly global; and it had made
recent acquisitions in Poland and the UK and
opened a subsidiary in China.
"In English I am not
myself. My personality is
much smaller in this
context."
Neeley, who speaks five languages,
conducted in-depth interviews in English and
French with workers at all levels of Frenchco,
in particular studying status loss among workers
learning a new language. She searched for key
words in her interviews with workers such as
"diminished,"
"devalued,"
"reduced,"
disqualified," and "less sophisticated."
All employees whose native language was
not English experienced a status loss under the
mandate, she found, regardless of their level of
English fluency.
"There's this universal experience of status
diminution when people compare their
native/formally trained language to this new
language," Neeley says. "So no matter how
fluent some people are in English, they believe
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HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | WORKING KNOWLEDGE | HBSWK.HBS.EDU
they'll never be as sophisticated, as influential,
or as articulate as they are in their native
language."
Interestingly,
Neeley
found
the
French-to-English-only transition was most
difficult for workers with midlevel fluency.
They shared the most anxiety about their
language abilities, which were neither stellar
nor poor.
One
low-fluency
worker
painfully
summarized his experience: "If you cannot
express your ideas because you lack language
skills, the collaboration becomes a nightmare.
You lose interest to continue, and you feel you
are being devalued."
Most of these language-anxiety issues
remained under the surface at Frenchco, Neeley
says. These workers often suffered silently,
worrying about disclosing a deficit, being
passed over for promotions, being left out of
conversations that they couldn't understand, or
simply not being able to show their true selves
through humor and discussions in English at the
same level they were able to in French.
Neeley's
forthcoming
Organizational
Dynamics article, "The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of
Language in Global Organizations," written
with Pamela J. Hinds and Catherine D.
Cramton, addresses the hidden nature of
language struggles.
These problems created an "us and them"
class of native and nonnative English speakers,
which sometimes led to resentment and distrust
among nonnative speakers toward the native
speakers.
Working with English speakers from the
UK or America was more difficult for the
Frenchco workers than working with
English-speaking colleagues in Poland, the
Netherlands, or Spain, Neeley found. In one
interview a Frenchco worker said: "A real
English person is in a stronger position, and I
find myself justifying myself much more in
those interactions."
Native speakers can also dominate
conversations, workers said in Neeley's
interviews. "Sometimes it's hard to get our
American colleagues to be quiet but we
manage," a high-fluency speaker reported in an
interview. "I say, 'If you don't stop we're going
to talk in French.' "
While many Frenchco workers were angry
about the English-language mandate, Neeley
says a small number of highly fluent workers
viewed the change as a chance to perfect their
English by asking for feedback from native
speakers, participating in meetings as often as
possible, repeating key phrases, and seeking out
English speakers in their groups.
Helping employees learn
There's a number of techniques companies
can employ to reassure and help workers with
this transition. First, it's crucial for CEOs and
managers to be firm that nonnative speakers
don't have a problem. All workers have to be
invested in working and speaking together,
COPYRIGHT 2012 PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
Neeley says.
Managers should also be aware that workers
often underestimate their language capabilities.
In many cases, testing and offering benchmarks
helps calm anxieties, as can limiting meetings
for low-confidence English speakers until their
language skills improve.
Future research, Neeley says, includes
exploring the role of language as the
mechanism by which companies transform from
a domestic to a global player-the fulcrum of
language.
When teaching the Rakuten case at HBS,
where 35 percent of her students are
international, Neeley says, students were
passionately engaged. There is no topic that is
more personal than language. You just need
human experience to "get it."
"I had an American student who couldn't
stop thinking about what a nonnative classmate
said in class: 'In English I am not myself. My
personality is much smaller in this context.' So
many people have said the case taught them
about themselves."
Aside from the deep personal connection,
the case is also powerful for students because
they have such an intense interest in
globalization. "Language is emblematic of
that," she says.
About the author
Kim Girard is a writer based in Brookline,
Massachusetts.
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