Englishnization at Rakuten Essay

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 …show more content…
Recommendations:
Develop thinking capabilities: The long term vision of Mikitiani for Rakuten (and Japan) is justified, and so are the means to achieve it, i.e. by adapting organizational culture by cross border communication. Learning a new language, the one which is global, is the best way towards it. But the means of testing the acumen of
English is wrong. Mikitiani gave every employee a deadline of 2 years to achieve a certain level in English. But the mental ability of every person is different in learning and adapting new things. The
TOEIC score doesn’t necessarily justify the level one has in English.
More importantly, the ease with which one can communicate one’s ideas and opinions across the table should be better criteria. For
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Nirgun| ESCP Europe

Language & Globalization: “Englishnization” at Rakuten 2013 that, one does not need to learn everything in a language. The thinking capability has to be developed.
No deadlines: Keeping a strict deadline would not help much; rather, this would only keep the employees in a constant state of tension. As the work hours and responsibilities of employees vary, so does the efforts put in by them. Not all employees can extract time from their schedule for English. The idea of deadline should be dropped. The employees should learn the language by will and not by force. Pressure can hamper the very basic fundamental of learning. Continuous motivation and practice: The

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