Language-based discrimination in multilingual organizations: A comparative study of migrant professionals’ experiences across physical and virtual spaces

Hilla Back and Rebecca Piekkari

Journal of World Business, 2024, vol. 59, issue 3

Abstract: We compare migrant professionals’ experiences of language-based discrimination across physical and virtual spaces. The minority status of these professionals stems from their foreign origin and lack of proficiency in the local language of their new country of residence. We conducted a case study of a multinational corporation after a shift to remote work triggered by COVID-19. Our findings indicate that while language-based discrimination takes more interpersonal and overt forms in physical spaces, it becomes more organizational and subtle in virtual spaces. We shed light on how technology dependency and dispersion affect the forms and experiences of language-based discrimination in different spaces. Our contribution lies in defining language-based discrimination as a construct of modern discrimination, which has received scant attention in previous research.

Keywords: Language-based discrimination; Modern discrimination; Language diversity; Migrant professional; Equality, diversity and inclusion; Virtual work; Minorities; Multinational corporation, multilingual organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951624000026
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:worbus:v:59:y:2024:i:3:s1090951624000026

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620401/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 620401/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101518

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of World Business is currently edited by David Collings and Jonathan Doh

More articles in Journal of World Business from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().