Development and application of an instrument to find out the linguistic background of employees in MNCs

Increased linguistic diversity can lead to an increase in language contact, which may further lead to language conflict as well as other related conflicts like regionalism inside any large organization, say a Multinational Corporation (MNC). To avoid such conflicts, multinational corporations need to think in a proactive way: they should have a database that tells them the nature of linguistic diversity that characterizes them. The present methods of finding the linguistic background of people seem unsuitable for application inside a business organization. An effective and easy instrument to help the MNCs find the linguistic background of their employees thus becomes a necessity. This paper analyzes the present ways of finding the linguistic background of people applied under different fields of study, and examines their applicability in business organizations. The aim of the paper is to develop an effective and easy instrument, using which a MNC can find the linguistic background of its employees. The applicability and usability of the instrument is checked by measuring the effect of linguistic background on group cohesion. The results are analysed and improvements in the instrument are suggested.