The role and effects of language(s) have increasingly been acknowledged as an important domain of inquiry in organization studies. Research into multilingualism, corporate languages and linguistic diversity at both organizational and individual level contributes to enhancing our understanding of the impact of language(s) on organizational processes and practices in globalized contexts. The aim of this sub-theme is to extend and enrich the debate on language and organizations by developing interdisciplinary approaches to exploring how language(s) produce organizational effects. We are specifically interested in notions of linguistic diversity; both in terms of the diversity of languages used in globalized organizational contexts, and in terms of the diversity of ways of speaking or otherwise communicating in a particular language. For this purpose we call for the development of interdisciplinary approaches which allow for rich insights into the practices and effects of linguistic diversity.

There is no doubt that the processes of globalization have transformed the way we think about society and organization. Especially since the 1980s, previously unprecedented expansion of global mobility coupled with intensified commercial and cultural exchanges have brought about a qualitatively new hybridity, multiplicity and social complexity at a global level. As a result, contemporary societies and organizations have been described as characterized by superdiversity, with linguistic diversity constituting an important aspect of it.

Within international management and organization studies, international firms have repeatedly been demonstrated to be, in effect, multilingual organizations. Scholars have discussed linguistic diversity as a potential challenge to communication and trust or a barrier that might be overcome through the introduction of a common corporate language. At the same time, attention has been paid to how efforts to manage a multiplicity of languages by introducing a common language might also bring about disintegrative outcomes and the emergence of an organizational hierarchy of languages and competing language uses.

Researchers have also pointed to the prevalent choice of English as the corporate language that follows from its status as the globally dominant lingua franca in business, and the consequences this has for different groups of organizational members. Examples include divisions between native versus non-native English speakers in organizations and the relative position of non-native speakers with varying fluency, such as corporate elites versus blue-collar employees. Further, the widespread use of English has resulted in so-called World Englishes, which are valued differently in organizational contexts. Variations in speaking English that exist within organizations have potentially significant but hitherto little studied consequences.

Building on extant contributions that have addressed organizations from a linguistic perspective, we suggest there is still scope for further research. As such, we are looking to investigate how linguistic diversity intertwines with the production of organizational hierarchies through drawing on relevant bodies of work that have so far been underexplored by scholarship addressing linguistic diversity in organizations. Against this background, the specific aim of this sub-theme is to reflect on the processes associated with, and implications of, linguistic diversity in organizational contexts. We suggest doing this through an interdisciplinary engagement with theories and concepts from, for example, sociolinguistics.