Skilled yet minoritized: An equality, diversity, and inclusion perspective on skilled migrants in multilingual organizations
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School of Business |
Doctoral thesis (article-based)
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en
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91 + app. 77
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Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES, 201/2024
Abstract
This dissertation advances language-sensitive international business (IB) research through an equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) perspective, and adds insight into language as a dimension of diversity. To date, these fields have remained largely disconnected. Through single case studies of two multilingual organizations in Finland, I shed light on the discrimination, marginalization, and differential status of a specific minority group: linguistic minorities not proficient in the local language of their host country. In this dissertation, these linguistic minorities are international students in higher education and migrant professionals in a professional service firm. These individuals are skilled migrants who are a scarce and valued asset as countries worldwide combat talent deficits, decreasing birth rates, and aging populations. This dissertation is comprised of three empirical papers of the two multilingual organizations. The data sources include primary data such as interviews and surveys, and secondary data in the form of internal EDI documents and statistics, as well as national media coverage. The findings showcase how language acts as a form of discrimination, necessitates coping strategies from those not proficient in the language, fuels inclusion-related tensions, and thus influences EDI-implications in multilingual organizations. This dissertation provides theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions. Theoretically, by utilizing a paradox perspective, it advances knowledge on the key role of language in fueling and surfacing inclusion-related tensions, leading to outcomes that impede the inclusion of linguistic minorities. It also conceptualizes language-based discrimination in multilingual organizations, and links coping strategies of linguistic minorities to inclusion implications. Empirically, it contributes by documenting and analyzing experiences of discrimination, marginalization, and differential status of minority language groups across face-to-face and virtual spaces in a non-Anglophone context. Lastly, this dissertation offers a methodological innovation by showing how composite narratives can be used in IB to depict different perspectives. In summary, in this dissertation I advance extant knowledge in both language-sensitive IB and EDI in IB research through a focus on the experiences of the minority group of skilled migrants in multilingual organizations. I also offer practical implications on how to achieve a polyphonic organization in which different linguistic resources are equally respected.Description
Supervising professor
Piekkari, Rebecca, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, FinlandOther note
Parts
- [Publication 1]: Hilla Back. Inclusion of international students in higher education: A paradox perspective. Revise and resubmit at Academy of Management Learning and Education
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[Publication 2]: Hilla Back and Rebecca Piekkari. (2024). Language‑based discrimination in multilingual organizations: A comparative study of migrant professionals’ experiences across physical and virtual spaces. Journal of World Business, 59(3), 1‑13.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101518 View at publisher
- [Publication 3]: Hilla Back and Philipp Back. (2024). Virtual work and the inclusion of linguistic minorities: A double‑edged sword. In Proceedings of HICSS‑57 (Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences), 6967‑ 6976. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202408065260