This paper draws on the three-dimensional power theory and interviews with 32 local-hired and expatriate parent country national (PCN) employees to abductively examine how and why language proficiency enhances the development and maintenance of multi-faceted dimensions of power in Chinese foreign subsidiaries in Japan. Our analysis shows that Chinese proficiency provides expatriate and local-hired PCN employee groups with three interrelated dimensions of power: (1) decision-making power (visible power), (2) non-decision-making power (hidden power), and (3) ideological power (invisible power). This study contributes to international business research by demonstrating how language proficiency leads to asymmetrical expressions of power by PCNs in foreign subsidiaries, elucidating the sustained language-based advantageous positions of PCNs in foreign subsidiaries, and demonstrating that power is a conduit or mediator for acquiring influence from other power dimensions.

This paper draws on social identity theory and its derivatives in sociolinguistics to link English proficiency to language discrimination, emotional exhaustion, and voluntary turnover in two studies with independent samples. Study 1 uses data from 498 local employees at three-time points over 17 months in 346 foreign subsidiaries in Japan. The findings show that language discrimination by expatriates mediates the positive relationship between local employees’ low English proficiency and voluntary turnover. The findings also suggest that the higher relative standing of expatriate managers to local ones moderates the positive low English proficiency-language discrimination relationship such as that the relationship is stronger when low English proficiency is high. Study 2 uses data from 330 local employees at three-time points over 17 months in 264 foreign subsidiaries in Japan. The findings show that local employees’ emotional exhaustion mediates the positive relationship between language discrimination and voluntary turnover. The findings also show that power distance orientation moderates the positive language discrimination-turnover relationship such that the relationship is stronger when power distance orientation is low. This paper contributes to IB research by linking language discrimination to turnover and elucidating power-related aspects of language discrimination by a small but powerful minority – expatriates – in foreign subsidiaries.

Over the past four decades, research has identified numerous determinants of expatriate success, highlighting the critical factors that contribute to expatriates’ effective integration and performance in international assignments. Previous research has suggested that expatriates’ foreign language proficiency is a crucial factor in expatriate success, yet the findings have been inconclusive. Drawing on self-efficacy theory and job embeddedness theory, we examine the direct relationship between language proficiency and a comprehensive set of five work-related outcomes throughout the expatriation process, including expatriation intention, cross-cultural adjustment, job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intention. Furthermore, we analyze the mediating role of cross-cultural adjustment in these relationships. Based on experiential learning theory, we theoretically propose and empirically test the moderating roles of expatriation experience and host country tenure. Our framework is tested through a meta-analysis that integrates the findings of 100 studies (112 independent samples and 24,798 individuals). Our results demonstrate significant associations between language proficiency and expatriation intention, cross-cultural adjustment, and job performance. Further, we reveal the mediating role of cross-cultural adjustment and show that these associations remain stable across different levels of experience and tenure. Our meta-analytic findings highlight the critical role of expatriates’ foreign language proficiency in work-related outcomes.