How Does Code-Switching Affect Group Members? An Exploratory Study on Feelings, Thoughts and Behaviors in Controlled Group Settings

Abstract: With the rise of multinational companies it has become ever more important for corporations to be able to operate effectively in linguistically diverse environments. Employees thereby have to act across linguistic barriers; nevertheless, they frequently engage in code-switching (CS), the switching from one language to another. Despite the increasing importance of group work in companies, research on code-switching in groups has wrongfully been neglected by the literature. In order to fill this gap, we employed a cross-disciplinary design to study how code-switching affects group members in terms of feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Based on the patterns in our studies, we were able to analyze code-switching from the perspective of an established group-dynamics framework, the IMOI model developed by Ilgen et al. (2005). Using this model, we identified four different types of groups based on the group members' feelings, thoughts and reactions related to code-switching. In particular, we found that code-switching can be perceived as a limited threat to the group, as an affective threat to group cohesion, or as a cognitive threat to shared cognition. With this framework we enable scholars to take a more holistic view on the effects of code-switching and provide them with new links to concepts across different theoretical fields. Furthermore, we believe that the innovative method for studying groups through ethnographic experiments will spark interest among other researchers to reap the benefits of combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Last but not least, with the patterns identified team leaders and managers can improve their way of handling the effects as well as reducing the occurrence of code-switching.