Claudine Gaibrois

In this article we analyze how privilege is dynamically constructed as well as contested.A positioning analysis of interviews with employees of a multinational organization reveals the construction of a hierarchy of privilege. As this hierarchy is based on English proficiency along with other diversity dimensions, privilege is multifaceted. Furthermore, privilege is also contested. Contesting English-proficiency–related Privilege is connected to the speaker's position in the hierarchy of privilege. The Analysis shows that both category membership and specific competences and skills cumulate to produce privileging effects, but also the possibilities for contesting privilege. At the same time, although the privilege gained by English proficiency is not invisible and is regularly contested, it is nevertheless silenced by those in advantage.

This article examines power issues related to language diversity in organizations, thus answering the need to investigate the role of language in cross-cultural management. More specifically, it contributes to a better understanding of how intraorganizational power relations are (re)defined through language use. Building on insights from language-sensitive research in international business, the article suggests that a further conceptual development of power is needed to study multilingual organizations and their “politics.” Inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, it aims at developing a differentiated notion of power that allows moving beyond possessive, competitive, and limitation-oriented understandings. It investigates power from a discursive perspective and thus suggests conceptualizing power as an effect of speaking acts. From this point of view, people contribute to the creation of power relations by adopting a multiplicity of subject positions when they talk about their and others’ experiences in multilingual organizations. These processes were empirically investigated by conducting a qualitative case study of a multinational company located in Switzerland. The findings show a variety of subject positions for members of multilingual organizations, ranging from “winners on the rhetorical battlefield” to “helpers paving unskilled speakers the way.” While being in the position of the “battle winner” means discursively constructing competitive power relations, being a “helper” entails the discursive construction of cooperation-oriented power relations. Adopting a discursive approach thus allows to move the focus from “having”/“not having” power and from conflicts to a broader perspective on power relations. Power is then considered as productive in a general sense, and this productivity might engender competition as well as cooperation.

To address the complexity of multilingual communication, this paper applies a discursive approach to analyze how people account for the ways that specific languages are used in multilingual companies. Through our discourse analysis, we identify six different ways of accounting for language use. Further, we map the various tensions between these accounts through which we can understand how the rise of English alters the discursive negotiation in two different organizational contexts. Inspired by Appadurai's understanding of "globalization from below", we suggest the term linguascape to conceptualize how the flow of languages that cross a specific organizational space is discursively mediated

Critical diversity studies have pointed out the need for more empirical studies on the dynamics of power and diversity in organizations. Exploring how the diverse workforce itself experiences diversity is required. This paper makes a contribution to meeting the research agenda by empirically examining the negotiation processes around privilege in linguistically diverse organizations. Based on a Foucauldian understanding of power, it investigates how organizational members experience the role of language skills for the establishment, reinforcement and change of internal power relations. In a case study of a multinational company based in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, six modes of how language competence relates to the creation of privilege, but also of access are identified. The findings show that a person's language skills have important consequences for his/her position in interpersonal relations within the organization. At the same time, organizational members find numerous ways to creatively counterbalance privileging effects resulting from different levels of language competence.