..., doctors never swore in the presence of patients, business executives avoided swearing in front of clients and lawyers did not swear in court. One French manager said workers would use formal language during official meetings, then gather in small groups afterwards to express frustrations and disagreements...

... Purpose Explores the use of common corporate language in multinational corporations, which are usually multilingual and characterized by high language diversity. Design/methodology/approach Gathers information from 36 personal interviews of the Germany‐based multinational Siemens...