Paper on English in International Business

• Write an individual paper of 4-5 pages in length on the topic that you selected and presented with your group members.
• Narrow the topic that you have chosen to one particular aspect and then write a paper where you synthesize sources and offer an analysis
• Make references to at least 3 outside sources and integrate them well into your paper. Do not just "plunk" them into your page.
• Cite and reference sources using MLA
  
  

The articles that I've used for my presentation are:

https://hbr.org/2012/05/global-business-speaks-english

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/10/26/english-the-language-of-global-business/

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2011/05/english_means_business.html

Below is my part and the aspects that I would like to point out.

English is now the global language of business. More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language. They use English to communicate with employees from overseas and with their office located in another countries.

Competitive Pressure

If you want to buy or sell, you have to be able to communicate with a diverse range of customers, suppliers, and other business partners. If you’re lucky, they’ll might be able to speak your native language—but you can’t count on it. Companies that fail to devise a language strategy are essentially limiting their growth opportunities to the markets where their language is spoken, clearly putting themselves at a disadvantage to competitors that have adopted English-only policies.

Globalization of tasks and resources

Language differences can cause a big problem, as it were—when geographically dispersed employees have to work together to meet corporate goals. In a multinational company, an employee from different countries may need input from an enterprise in an international country. Without common ground, communication will suffer. Better language comprehension gives employees more firsthand information, which is vital to good decision making. Nestle a multi billionaire company saw great efficiency improvements in purchasing and hiring thanks to its enforcement of English as a company standard.

M&A integration across national boundaries

Negotiations regarding a merger or acquisition are complicated enough when everybody speaks the same language. But when they don’t, misunderstanding can occur, even in simple e-mail exchanges. Also, cross-cultural integration is notoriously tricky; that’s why when a German company and France company merged to create a joint venture, the new firm chose English as its operating language over French or German. They are also many more german companies that adopted English to further its international image, which gave it an edge when acquiring Russian and British companies.

International companies and international commerce generally imply a fundamental need for people to communicate across the globe, at least at a basic verbal and written level.

Translation and multilingual communication are important, but unless there is one common language that everyone doing global business can speak, it will really makes people more comfortable in communicating using the common language.

English of international business marks a further step forward in a global cultural evolution that has been picking up pace along with cross-border flows of goods, money, and information over the last few decades. For nearly all global enterprises, wherever they are based—and even for tourists, wherever they go—English is the language of international contact.