Are You Interacting with Nonnative English Speakers at Work? You Should Put Yourself in their Shoes!
By Min Geiger
Workplaces are more diverse and globalized than ever, and academics and practitioners have exerted more effort to create physical and digital workplaces where every employee feels included and respected. Yet, language-based stigma is still prevalent in the workplace, and nearly 1.2 billion nonnative English-speaking employees (i.e., employees speaking English as their second language) commonly encounter explicit and implicit mistreatment and struggle to move up the career ladder.
Unfortunately, the disturbing truth is that mistreatment toward nonnative English speakers is often perceived as not as wrong as mistreatment toward those who are traditionally disadvantaged such as women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. Likewise, scholarly attention on nonnative English-speaking employees has also been limited. As a result, we know very little about language-based stigma in the workplace and preventative strategies that can be used by people interacting with nonnative English speakers.
In our study, we examined how a speaker’s nonnative accent damages a listener’s trust and three aspects of trustworthiness – ability, benevolence, and integrity – in a hypothetical hiring context. We also examined the power of perspective taking as a cognitive strategy that managers can use to reduce bias against nonnative English speakers.
Our results suggest that a job candidate’s nonnative accent (vs. standard American English) damages managers’ perceptions of trust and ability, but not benevolence or integrity. Yet, the good news is that engaging in perspective taking – people’s explicit cognitive effort to understand other’s viewpoint – significantly reduces biases against nonnative English speakers.
Now, let me ask you a question. Do you want to avoid inaccurate and unfair decision-making that may result in missing out on highly capable nonnative English speakers?
If so, below we offer four recommendations for managers and organizations based on our findings:
Be mindful that an employee’s nonnative accent may significantly hurt your judgement on their credibility and competence. Remember that their competence may be particularly vulnerable to implicit bias compared to other aspects of their character.
When interacting with nonnative English speakers, exert extra effort to put yourself in their shoes and understand their perspectives. Also, ask your colleagues to explicitly consider the perspective of nonnative English speakers.
Organizations should provide employee training programs focusing on (a) how language-based stigma may lead to inaccurate and unfair decision-making and (b) how individuals’ explicit attempt to understand nonnative English speakers helps to reduce their perceptual errors.
HR professionals should ensure that employee recruiting, screening, and selection criteria are valid and free of bias toward nonnative English speakers.
Indeed, many multinational companies have adopted English as their lingua franca – an official working language regardless of their headquarters. Without further explanation, English is the global language of business, and the number of nonnative English speakers in the workplace will continue to increase.
We hope that our study will bring greater attention to nonnative English speakers in work settings and prompt more research on this topic. We also hope that our evidence-based recommendations can help managers and organizations design strategies contributing to nonnative English speakers feeling respected and valued for their competence.
Article Details
Accent Speaks Louder than Ability: Elucidating the Effect of Nonnative Accent on Trust
Mingang K. Geiger, Luke A. Langlinais, and Mark Geiger
First Published: August 12, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/10596011221117723
Group & Organization Management
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