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Do multilingual employees better adjust to work environment changes? Examining the case of a credit union during the COVID-19 pandemic

Timothy Veach (School of Business, Leadership and Technology, 0Bushnell University, Eugene, Oregon, USA and George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon, USA)
Yeongjoon Yoon (College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University – Central Texas, Killeen, Texas, USA)
John D. Iglesias (School of Business, Leadership and Technology, Bushnell University, Eugene, Oregon, USA)

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN: 1934-8835

Article publication date: 26 April 2022

Issue publication date: 7 November 2023

198

Abstract

Purpose

Organizations have been challenged to identify antecedents to improved employee adjustment to the work environment changes that arose in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study aims to explore the effect of multilingualism on employee ability to adjust to workplace changes based on the concept that multilinguals have been found to switch between tasks more efficiently as compared to monolinguals.

Design/methodology/approach

Applying a sequential explanatory mixed methods research approach, quantitative performance evaluation data on 207 credit union employees is analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling to predict employee performance, and thematic analysis of qualitative data representing the adjustment narratives of six monolingual and six multilingual employees within the sample is conducted, corresponding to the period during which employees were adjusting to broad workplace changes after the onset of the global pandemic.

Findings

The results suggest greater predicted improvement in the performance of multilingual employees. Reliance on the task-switching ability associated with multilingualism is found to be the primary self-evaluative factor for successful change adjustment among multilingual employees.

Practical implications

In light of work performance benefits identified in this study, organizations may consider multilingualism as a characteristic preceding better adjustment to organizational change, and not simply as a skill applicable to tasks requiring language proficiency, suggesting practical implications for human resource and organizational management.

Originality/value

This is the first sequential explanatory study focusing on the task-switching ability of multilinguals as an antecedent to change adjustment evidenced by improved work performance within an organizational context.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding details: No funding was secured for the research conducted in this study.

Disclosure statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethics approvals: The authors declare that appropriate ethics approval for human subject research has been obtained through the Institutional Research Board of Texas A&M University – Central Texas. Quantitative data on employee performance evaluations were received in anonymized file format; interviewees gave the researchers informed consent prior to participation in the study; interview videos were deleted after responses were transcribed; and all transcripts were anonymized prior to analysis.

Citation

Veach, T., Yoon, Y. and Iglesias, J.D. (2023), "Do multilingual employees better adjust to work environment changes? Examining the case of a credit union during the COVID-19 pandemic", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 2561-2580. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2022-3115

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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