ABSTRACT
Linguistic diversity emerges as a major challenge to the operations of multinational companies. In order to meet global demands, companies have developed practices of recruiting international staff. This intensification of professional mobility brings therefore more and more people to work together without sharing the same language. Corporate language choice is an important organizational management measure by which different choices can be applied not by distinguishing dichotomously between monolingual and multilingual policies, but rather on a continuum between more or less mono-multilingual behaviours, shifting from one to another according to situations and purposes. According to Glaser, when group members communicate effectively (intercultural communication), interact successfully with people from other cultures (intercultural interaction), are able to come to terms with their emotions (emotional management) and deal with different issues of diversity (diversity management), they can work successfully in a multicultural team. The chapter achieves a deep understanding of diversity and language management in the workplace as they are practiced and conceived by the actors themselves.
