Englishnization at Rakuten
October 10
Language & Globalization:
“Englishnization” at Rakuten 2013
The issues, options & recommendations for Rakuten
Nirgun
(e123001)
Language & Globalization: “Englishnization” at Rakuten 2013
Issues
Accepting change: It was very difficult for most of the Japanese employees to adapt to this policy of changing organizational culture through cross border communication. They never realized that they have to learn a completely new language for the sake of globalization. Performance linked with payment: The payment of Rakuten employees was linked to the TOEIC score. Moreover if they couldn’t score a particular score level, they will be demoted. This imparted a shock to the employees.
Less relevant: English would affect the promotion of sincere and hard working employees for whom English was of less relevance.
Some employees who had to deal with locals (merchants etc.) like salesmen, even if they were good in their job and worked very hard for long hours, but if they didn’t learned English, they won’t get promotion. Learning capability: Except for the minorities, all members, especially the senior members who were in their 40’s (and mid
40’s) felt that it was quite a tough task to learn a new language at their age. They felt some animosity towards English. Some felt humiliated that in their own country they had to learn a foreign language. Poor negotiations: One of the major problems was that the
Englishnization led to poor negotiations within the company. One party’s relatively better English and 2nd party’s inability to express their arguments in words led to acceptance of ‘not-so-good’ opinions Demotivation and inferiority complex: Employees from all the departments like Human Resources, Finance, Developer, started suffering from inferiority complex, while others felt demotivated.
Some employees thought that this just another way of laying off workforce. Do-It-Yourself: Because of this policy in Rakuten, there was
Language & Globalization:
“Englishnization” at Rakuten 2013
The issues, options & recommendations for Rakuten
Nirgun
(e123001)
Language & Globalization: “Englishnization” at Rakuten 2013
Issues
Accepting change: It was very difficult for most of the Japanese employees to adapt to this policy of changing organizational culture through cross border communication. They never realized that they have to learn a completely new language for the sake of globalization. Performance linked with payment: The payment of Rakuten employees was linked to the TOEIC score. Moreover if they couldn’t score a particular score level, they will be demoted. This imparted a shock to the employees.
Less relevant: English would affect the promotion of sincere and hard working employees for whom English was of less relevance.
Some employees who had to deal with locals (merchants etc.) like salesmen, even if they were good in their job and worked very hard for long hours, but if they didn’t learned English, they won’t get promotion. Learning capability: Except for the minorities, all members, especially the senior members who were in their 40’s (and mid
40’s) felt that it was quite a tough task to learn a new language at their age. They felt some animosity towards English. Some felt humiliated that in their own country they had to learn a foreign language. Poor negotiations: One of the major problems was that the
Englishnization led to poor negotiations within the company. One party’s relatively better English and 2nd party’s inability to express their arguments in words led to acceptance of ‘not-so-good’ opinions Demotivation and inferiority complex: Employees from all the departments like Human Resources, Finance, Developer, started suffering from inferiority complex, while others felt demotivated.
Some employees thought that this just another way of laying off workforce. Do-It-Yourself: Because of this policy in Rakuten, there was