CECOT Companies and their Language Uses, Attitudes and Services, by the Institut DEP, Anna Prunés and Joan Solé i Camardons

This paper draws on the main contributions of the study entitled Els usos lingüístics en les empreses associades a la CECOT (language uses in CECOT companies) carried out by the Department of Culture as part of the agreement between the CECOT (Employers' Association of the District of Terrassa) and the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística (Consortium for Language Standardisation). The Institut DEP carried out this study by means of a telephone survey to businessmen and women, managers and companies.

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Summary

1. Aims and Methodology
1.1. Aims
1.2. Methodology

2. Framework of Reference

3. Use of Catalan in CECOT companies
3.1. The use of Catalan in business
3.2. Personal customer service
3.3. Corporate image and external signage
3.4. Internal communication
3.5. Advertising and written communication with customers and suppliers
3.6. Language norms

4. Attitudes and Evaluation of the use of Catalan
4.1. Progress and evaluation of the use of Catalan
4.2. Advances and obstacles to the use of Catalan
4.3. Plans to increase the use of Catalan

5. Evaluation of the Language Policy
5.1. Awareness and feasibility of agreements
5.2. Agreement with the Language Policy

6. General interest in Language Services
6.1. General interest
6.2. Interest according to service type

7. Recommendations

8.Listing of Linguistic resources for business companies

1. Aims and Methodology

1.1. Aims

The general aim of this study is to describe the current situation of Catalan in companies that are members of the CECOT. Specifically, it hopes to: find out language uses and the expectations as to an increased use of Catalan; discover the reasons leading companies to use or not to use Catalan; find out the opinion of these companies on the Generalitat's language policy and determine their interest in the language services offered by the Secretaria de Política Lingüística (Directorate General for Language Policy) and the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística.

1.2. Methodology

Study universe: Companies with more than two employees of the 4,700 that are associated to the CECOT.

Survey method: Telephone survey using a semi-structured questionnaire.

Sample: A total of 400 valid interviews were held. This sample size offers a margin of error of +4.7% for overall data with maximum indetermination (p=q=50) for a confidence level of 95.5%.

Fieldwork: Fieldwork was carried out from 15th-22nd of December, 2000.

2. Framework of Reference

Size: Most CECOT companies are microcompanies with less than ten employees (58.5%), followed by small-medium enterprises (34%) and large companies (7.5%); this distribution is a somewhat faithful reflection of the situation of companies in Catalonia as a whole.

Sectors: The companies associated to CECOT are mainly industrial (46.5%); the subsectors of metallurgy, textiles and graphic arts are particularly well represented, with 22.8%, 8.2% and 6.1%, respectively. Industry is followed by the services sector (31.8%), chiefly made up of business handling agencies (10.4%) and transport companies (6.1%). CECOT companies are from the construction and commerce sectors. Within the latter, image management companies are the main subsector (4.3%).

Territory: CECOT companies are located mainly in the district of Vallès Occidental. This district includes the cities of Terrassa (46.5%) and Rubí (10.5%).

Sales distribution: The main market for the products of the companies analyzed is Catalonia, with three quarters of sales made exclusively in Catalonia. The Spanish market receives 16% of production and 5.3% is exported to the international market, including Europe and the rest of the world.