ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a topic that is touched upon in several recent and currently developing streams of literature, but has yet to be explored in depth: the roles that individuals versed in more than one culture and language may play in contacts between units of multinational corporations. It summarizes literature engaging with the theme and combine it into a more complete picture of what is known and not known about the individuals, thus identifying gaps in current knowledge to be plugged by future research. Consequently, bicultural bilinguals tend to have greater metacognitive capability than their monolingual and -cultural peers. Multilingual individuals tend to have even greater metacognitive capability than bilinguals, and tend to develop even higher levels of metapragmatic awareness and ability to switch between meaning and form. This suggests that individuals with very high levels of cultural and linguistic skills stand a good chance of success as mobile boundary spanners in the multinational firm.
