The examination of the effect of linguistic intensity of the workplace on the linguistic behaviour of companies is based on the classification shown in the table below.

Table 2. Types of linguisic profile

Source: adapted from the multilingual questionnaire for small and medium companies in Catalonia. Adaptation of the questionnaire used in Statistics on linguistic practices in public institutions, 2003 EULIP-2003 and Reich (1991).

We grouped the companies in the sample according to their similarity to each of the profiles. The questionnaire asked managers about the proportion of workers in each profile. Sufficient data is available on 718 of the 754 companies to assign a main profile to each company, even though they had lower percentages of workers. The idea was to obtain a classification of companies that reflected the majority worker profile in each one. The result is five company profiles, each with a majority linguistic profile. In each company profile consideration should be given that between 20 and 35% of the staff have a linguistic profile different from the majority. The company profiles reflect the specialisation in the production of knowledge of each group of companies.

4. Results

4.1. Linguistic intensity of the study and linguistic practices

The following comparison of averages shows how the more linguistic intensity of the content of the job, the greater the use of English and Catalan and the lesser use of Spanish. If we consider the first row, the synthesis of the 29 main indicators, the use of Catalan increases from 51.4% (profile 1) to 55.2% (Profile 3.B). The reduction of Spanish is notable, from 42.6% to 36.9%. On the other hand, the presence of English almost doubles between the less intensive and most intensive profile, from 2.2 to 4.1%, although it remains at very low levels. These tendencies are especially evident in reference to training and job performance, mainly, working documents and meetings.

Table 3. Distribution of the linguistic behaviour according to linguistic intensity (*)

Source: developed from the data of the survey on linguistic practices in small and medium companies in Catalonia.

(*) Each data item corresponds to the mean percentage use of a language among a profile of companies according to its linguistic intensity. The participants were asked to make sure that the sum of the different languages for a function or indicator was 100%. The sum of Catalan+Spanish+English is not 100% in the table as they could indicate other languages. There was also the possibility that the indicator observed did not have linguistic significance.

The tendencies to increasing use of Catalan and English are practically lineal from profile 1 to Profile 3.B. with the exception of profile 2.A. There are few companies in this profile (28) in comparison with the other profiles, and the cases may not be very representative. If we consider the survey data in detail and the characteristics of the work performed in these companies we find a high number of Hotels (8), Cleaning services (2) as well as communications services (2) located in Barcelona and which provide coverage to large companies that operate throughout Spain. The outstanding trait in these companies is the low use of Catalan and a below average use of English. It must be considered that the managers in sectors such as hostelry and, even in communication services such as call centres or private postal services, who have a very measured contact with customers, could have classified their workers under this profile. In fact these sectors are frequently considered from the sociology of employment as sectors where recruitment of the Catalan population is difficult and, especially over the last few years, inclined to contract the immigrant population mainly that from Latin America.