Immigrants are increasingly becoming a major source of workforce for many countries facing population decline and labor shortage. Immigrants’ second language communication competence (L2CC) is thus crucial for their full participation of organizational life if their first language is different from the dominant language of the host country and the employing organizations. Drawing upon and integrating theories and research on intergroup relations, cross-cultural second language acquisition, and organization and management, we build a theoretical model of the development of L2CC. We first analyze the decoding and encoding processes of second language communication and conceptualize L2CC in terms of linguistic, sociopolitical, and cultural knowledge and skills. We then propose that individual immigrant employee’s career aspiration and acculturation attitudes directly drive their social contact with others in the second language (L2 contact), and organizational structure and practice factors indirectly affect L2 contact by providing contact conditions for immigrant L2 speakers such as L2 contact opportunities, challenging expectations, and L2CC self-efficacy. The organizational factors also moderate the mediating relationships between the individual antecedents and L2 contact on one hand, and those between L2 contact and L2CC on the other hand. Thirdly, we propose how L2CC affect outcomes in terms of performance, reputation, and network centrality that are assumed to affect immigrant L2 speakers’ career success. We end with a discussion on how to conduct programmatic empirical research using surveys and experiments to test our theoretical model, taking into account cross-cultural similarities and differences.
