Employee commitment to corporate globalization: The role of English language proficiency and human resource practices Sachiko Yamao a, *, Tomoki Sekiguchi b,1 a Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne, Level 10, 198 Berkeley Street, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia b Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, 1-7 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan 1. Introduction Globalization of a firm’s operations, or an increased level of a firm’s involvement in exchanging goods and commodities, information, finance, and personnel across national borders (Rugman & Verbeke, 2004), creates challenges for its employees. One such challenge is an increased use of a foreign language at work (Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, & Welch, 1999b). Adopting a foreign language in an environment where this language is not the native language of the majority of the local people and where the local language is the predominant day-to-day business language, presents key challenges. In such an environment, the levels of foreign-language proficiency by employees tend to vary vastly, which becomes an obstacle for interpersonal communication and may affect an individuals’ task performance (Fredriksson, Barner- Rasmussen, & Piekkari, 2006; Harzing & Pudelko, 2013). Globali- zation of a firm that may encourage the use of a foreign language at work can be seen by employees as a major organizational change that significantly affects their work life. Extant studies on language in international business have identified various employee outcomes that are associated with the use of a foreign language at work, such as interpersonal relationships and performance of tasks by employees. For instance, it can become a reason for employees to avoid taking up new assignments that require higher proficiency in the foreign language and disrupt the career trajectory of an employee within a firm (Barner-Rasmussen & Aarnio, 2011). Moreover, the varying levels of foreign language proficiency of the employees may result in changing power relationships among individuals (Marschan-Piek- kari et al., 1999b; Neeley, 2013; Vaara, Tienari, Piekkari, & Sa ¨ntti, 2005). Individuals with high levels of foreign language proficiency tend to gain informal power over those members with low proficiency levels, which can cause frustration and stress, especially among individuals with lower proficiency levels (Harzing, Ko ¨ ster, & Magner, 2011; Neeley, 2013). These negative psychological states (such as frustration and stress), can disrupt cohesion, collaboration and performance within a firm (Harrison, Price, & Bell, 1998). Despite these findings, there is still a lack of a systematic analysis of how the perception about foreign language proficiency by employees may affect their attitudes toward a firm-level phenomenon within the context of organizational change (e.g., firm globalization). In particular, we do not know whether, and in what way, self-perceived foreign language proficiency by employ- ees is associated with their commitment to the globalization of their firm. Furthermore, we also have a limited understanding of how firms can assist their employees to align their attitudes toward the globalization of the firm, for instance through organizational human resource (HR) practices. With a few notable exceptions (i.e., Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, & Welch, 1999a; Journal of World Business 50 (2015) 168–179 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Available online 27 March 2014 Keywords: Language proficiency Non-native English-speaking employees HR practices Commitment to change Globalization of the firm A B S T R A C T We investigate factors affecting the commitment of non-native English-speaking employees to the globalization of their firms, focusing on the role of self-perceived English language proficiency and human resource (HR) practices. By surveying 693 non-native English speakers in Japan, we found that their self-perceived English language proficiency and HR practices that promote learning a foreign language have direct and interactive effects on the affective and normative commitment to their firms’ globalization. It is important for firms based in non-Anglophone countries to promote English language proficiency of their employees through HR practices when they consider globalizing their operations to other countries. ß 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9035 5664; fax: +61 3 8344 3986. E-mail addresses: syamao@unimelb.edu.au (S. Yamao), tomoki@econ.osaka-u.ac.jp (T. Sekiguchi). 1 Tel.: +81 6 6850 5229; fax: +81 6 6850 5277. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of World Business jo u r nal h o mep age: w ww.els evier .co m/lo c ate/jwb http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2014.03.001 1090-9516/ß 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.