Language and talent management: perspectives from MNCs in the Italian food production and distribution sector

Abstract

The rise in cross-border business has led to changes in corporate and working languages and a corresponding surge in research. At the same time, the field of strategic and global talent management has also developed rapidly, but, to our knowledge, this has not included language. This paper calls for the integration of language training as a key element of strategic talent management in multinational corporations (MNCs). The paper presents an exploratory study interviewing employees from three large companies based in the Italian food production and distribution sector. The findings reveal a range of approaches to language, with a particular focus on the roles of English and Italian in the companies, the development of English as a business lingua franca (BELF) and its interplay with the stages of a company's international expansion (see Ehrenreich, 2011). Additionally, we suggest that talent management plays an important role in attracting and retaining excellent employees but that it appears to be in its infancy in Italy. We therefore consider the companies' approaches to language in the context of existing and future talent management programmes, and the implications for language training.