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For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border organizations, yet studies on corporate language strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization - the high-tech giant Rakuten - in the five years following its English lingua franca mandate. Neeley´s behind-the-scenes account explores how language shapes the ways in which employees who work in global organizations communicate and negotiate linguistic and cultural differences. Drawing on 650 interviews conducted across Rakuten´s locations in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, Neeley argues that an organization´s lingua franca is the catalyst by which all employees become some kind of "expat" - someone detached from their mother tongue or home culture. Through her unfettered access to the inner workings of Rakuten, she reveals three distinct social groups: "linguistic expats," who live in their home country yet have to give up their native language in the workplace; "cultural expats," or native speakers of the lingua franca, who struggle with organizational values that are more easily transmitted after language barriers are removed; and finally "linguistic-cultural expats," who, while native to neither the lingua franca nor the organization´s home culture, surprisingly have the easiest time adjusting to language changes.

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"In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley courageously deconstructs the greatest challenge that global companies face: language. Her breakthrough research and insights into ways people adapt to change demonstrate what is required to integrate multiple cultures and languages into a unified organization required for sustained success."--Bill George, former chair and CEO of Medtronic and author of Discover Your True North

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Tsedal Neeley is an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School

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