L'économie des langues de la Communauté germanophone de Belgique : besoins et conséquences du multilinguisme dans le monde de l'entreprise

Abstract

In the economic context, languages play a greater and a greater role in the internal and external communications of companies, allowing them to expand their names faster to different markets if well managed. This study focuses on a specific territory, which is the German community of Belgium, known for its open-mindedness regarding the learning of others languages. For the above-mentioned elements, this research thesis addresses the different needs and consequences of languages in the companies located in this specific territory, in order to understand the difficulties to manage this multilingualism inside their own institutions. This topic can be associated to a more generic word, which is (the economy of languages). Furthermore, this study allows to have a better insight of the divergences and convergences between the different companies belonging to various sector of activities and sizes regarding their needs, their encountered challenges and the management of the multilingualism. The purpose of this thesis is to present the concepts surrounding the economy of languages as well as to provide a quality research work for academics and professionals eager to improve their understanding on the topic. Moreover, this thesis suggests different recommendations to managers and entrepreneurs, in order to help them solving their potential problems regarding the management of multilingualism in their companies. This work is based on a qualitative approach. The research methodology combines information from both the managerial literature and interviews. They were conducted with Human resources directors, managers and CEOs, to obtain practical facts beyond the theoretical limitations of the literature. To achieve this research work, several research questions had been written and used as a guideline to structure the thesis. This thesis highlights, among other things, that the survival of these companies on this territory depends crucially on the knowledge of the languages of their staff members. Furthermore, it shows the non-homogeneity among companies it terms of how their needs for qualified and multilingual staff are met. Finally, it maps the different approaches implemented by the companies of different sizes and sector of activities to respond to their challenges regarding multilingualism. As mentioned-above, managerial recommendations and political recommendations, as this subject speaks not only to the managerial world, were established to guide managers and political representatives concerned by the domestic business of the this region.