Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of language ideologies in negotiating organisational relationships in a Korean multinational company (MNC). By adopting an interactional sociolinguistics (IS) approach, this paper illustrates how language becomes part of a mechanism of negotiating group membership and of perpetuating or challenging power asymmetries through social and ideological processes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on interview data from an ethnographic case study of a Korean MNC to understand language ideologies in one working team. The interview data are analysed through an IS framework to connect the situated interaction to the broader social context.

Findings

This paper shows that participants’ discourse of linguistic differentiation becomes an interactional resource in challenging the organisational status quo. Linguistic superiority/inferiority is constructed through particular sequencing and the systematic production of a dichotomy between two groups – expatriate managers and local employees – at various levels of their company structure. Group membership is enacted temporarily in positioning the self and the others.

Originality/value

This paper offers a methodological contribution to international business language-sensitive research on language and power by conducting interactional analysis of interview talk. Through the lens of IS, it provides insights into how discourse becomes a primary site of negotiating power and status and a multi-level approach to the study of organisational power dynamics and the complex linguistic landscape of any workplace.

中文翻译：

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“他们甚至很难理解我们在说什么”(.) 跨国工作场所的语言和权力

目的

本文的目的是讨论语言意识形态在韩国跨国公司 (MNC) 谈判组织关系中的作用。通过采用互动社会语言学 (IS) 方法，本文说明了语言如何成为协商群体成员资格机制的一部分，以及如何通过社会和意识形态过程永久化或挑战权力不对称。

设计/方法/途径

本文利用来自一家韩国跨国公司的人种学案例研究的访谈数据，以了解一个工作团队中的语言意识形态。访谈数据通过 IS 框架进行分析，以将情境互动与更广泛的社会背景联系起来。

发现

本文表明，参与者关于语言差异的话语成为挑战组织现状的互动资源。语言优势/劣势是通过特定的顺序和系统地在公司结构的不同层次上的两个群体——外籍经理和本地员工——之间的二分法来构建的。群体成员资格是暂时确立自我和他人的定位。

原创性/价值

本文通过对访谈谈话进行交互分析，为国际商业语言敏感的语言和权力研究提供了方法论贡献。通过 IS 的视角，它提供了关于话语如何成为谈判权力和地位的主要场所的见解，以及研究组织权力动态和任何工作场所复杂语言景观的多层次方法。