English in the South Korean workplace: Navigating global and local ideologies

Purpose: This study examines how English-related expectations shape employee subjectivities in a globalizing Korean corporate workplace, focusing on the intersection of language ideology, power, and institutional practice. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a qualitative approach informed by linguistic governmentality and Park’s ideology complex. Data and analysis: Data consist of narrative frames collected from 24 employees and bilingual semi-structured interviews with five participants working in a Korean manufacturing company. The data were analyzed using a paradigmatic narrative procedure, involving iterative coding and thematic development to examine how employees interpret English-related expectations and how these experiences shape subjectivity. Findings/conclusion: The findings show that English functions simultaneously as symbolic capital and a disciplinary mechanism, producing stratified subjectivities through processes of responsibilization, self-surveillance, and affective labor. Employees navigate ambiguous and uneven language expectations, resulting in differentiated access to recognition, participation, and advancement. Originality: The study extends research on workplace English by integrating linguistic governmentality with Korea-specific language ideologies in an adult corporate context, demonstrating how global language regimes are locally rearticulated through affect, evaluation, and institutional ambiguity. Significance/implications: The study contributes theoretically to scholarship on language, neoliberalism, and subject formation, and offers practical implications for corporate language policy by highlighting the need for clearer, role-specific language expectations and institutional responsibility for multilingual support in both Korean and global workplace contexts.