Reversal of language hierarchy and the politics of translation in a multinational corporation
Critical Perspectives on International Business
ISSN: 1742-2043
Article publication date: 5 April 2021
Issue publication date: 5 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the reversal of language hierarchy in a Finnish multinational corporation (MNC) from a political perspective. This paper situated the language hierarchy in the historical context of the colonial-style relationship between Finland and Russia. From a post-colonial perspective, the colonial legacy of Russia has had an influence on language strategy and everyday translation work in the Finnish multinational until the present day.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper undertook a case study based on qualitative secondary analysis of existing data sets. These data sets originated from two previously conducted studies of the same Finnish MNC.
Findings
The findings revealed a reversal of the traditional corporate language hierarchy. Russian, as the host country language of powerful local subsidiaries, rose to the top of the hierarchy at the expense of English, the common corporate language, and other languages. The colonial-style relationship was enacted by professional and paraprofessional translators who collaborated by using “the master’s language and imitating the master’s voice” to reap the strategic benefits of local responsiveness.
Originality/value
In contrast to previous work drawing on post-colonial theory in the study of MNCs, this paper represents the headquarters in Finland as the “colonised” party and the Russian subsidiaries as the “coloniser.” Owing to its colonial legacy, Russian, the host country language, became very powerful and influenced the language strategy of the entire MNC. This paper conceptualized translation as a multilevel phenomenon and offers a holistic explanation of why the language hierarchy in the Finnish MNC was reversed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Critical Perspectives on Language in International Business”, guest edited by Claudine Gaibrois, Philippe Lecomte, Mehdi Boussebaa and Martyna Sliwa.
Authors would like to acknowledge the insightful comments made by Kaisa Koskinen and Susanne Tietze on an earlier version of this paper. They also appreciate the helpful feedback received at the online conference of the European International Business Academy, 10–12 December 2020 organized by Politecnico di Milano, WU and Henley Business School. Finally, Authors are grateful to Mehdi Boussebaa and Philippe Lecomte for their editorial guidance and the two anonymous reviewers for their engagement with this paper.
Citation
Ristolainen, J., Outila, V. and Piekkari, R. (2023), "Reversal of language hierarchy and the politics of translation in a multinational corporation", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 6-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0086
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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