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The photo shows the workshop team, consisting of academics, stakeholders and representatives of the field in Paris, December 2018

As part of his research semester, Professor Barmeyer undertook a research stay at the University of Fribourg to work on publications with his colleague, Professor Davoine, from the 27th November until the 1st December 2018. He also presented on 'Interkulturelle Tandemforschung in bi-nationalen Kontexten' in the context of the doctoral colloquium. Essentially, it is about how researchers who come from two different cultures and are familiar with the cultures in which they conduct research use their cultural and linguistic competences in the context of research. In the intercultural qualitative field research process, such as access to the object under investigation, in the conduct of research and the analysis of the results, this intercultural tandem research can lead to more diverse results than can be achieved by individual monocultural researchers.

Once again, Professor Barmeyer spent a week (19th to 23rd November 2018) at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul to work on interculturality and biculturalism together with the students of the master's degree programme 'Intercultural Management’ from both a theory-based and an applied perspective. The focus was on taking a non-judgmental meta level, and constructively shaping intercultural relations. At the end, Professor Barmeyer received a gift from the students, in keeping with the 'Turkish Teachers' Day': this day, introduced by President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the 24th November 1928, has been celebrated ever since to thank teachers for their efforts in the service of education and training.

Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée was Visiting Professor in Passau from 8th to 18th November 2018 at the invitation of Professor Christoph Barmeyer, Professor at the Chair of Intercultural Communication. As part of the lecture series on Intercultural Communication and Cultural Comparison, Professor Chevrier held the lecture on 'Leadership across Cultures' for master’s students of the International Cultural and Business Studies programme on Wednesday, 14th November 2018. Another aim of the stay was to further explore the issue of integrating highly qualified immigrants into organisations and to advance a comparative European research project with colleagues from other European universities, as well as to prepare a workshop planned for this in Paris from 13th to 15th December 2018. During her stay, Professor Chevrier also took part in the celebration of the Dies Academicus of the University of Passau, and held discussions with the International Office as a representative of her university, which is now partnering with the University of Passau for an ERASMUS stay in Paris. Afterwards, interested students were able to find out about a possible stay. In addition, Professor Chevrier also attended the Chair’s meetings, such as the doctoral colloquium, during which she was able to support the Chair’s early career researchers in their respective research projects with her many years of experience. The Chair team would like to thank her for the instructive discussions and feedback on research, and looks forward to the Professor’s next visit soon.

The photo shows Professor Sylvie Chevrier and Professor Christoph Barmeyer.

Grenzüberschreitendes CSR-Management in Multinationalen Unternehmen. Identitäten, Praktiken & Strukturen vor dem Hintergrund institutioneller Komplexität' at the Dies Academicus on the 40th anniversary of the University of Passau. Dr Öttl’s thesis not only offers substantial new insights into the cross-border CSR management of multinational companies – and therefore also important impulses for its practical design: it also raises (normative) questions about the 'adequate' frame of reference for assessing and shaping corporate social responsibility. In 2017, Dr Öttl completed his 'Passau course' with his excellent thesis, which is entirely in the tradition of cultural thinking in Passau, and he has since been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Management Department of Aarhus Universitet/Denmark.

In the photo (from the left) Dr Sebastian Öttl, Professor Christoph Barmeyer and Johannes Lechner, Member of the Management Board of Sparda Bank Ostbayern eG.

Latinagua in Punta de Tralca (Chile) with 27 young people from South America. The simulation game was developed by students of the University of Passau in the context of a master's seminar at the Chair in the winter semester 2017/2018 (see 'Activities') and selected by the PASCH Initiative of the Goethe Institut Argentina (Jörg Müller) for the youth camp in Chile. The PASCH Initiative 'Schulen: Partner der Zukunft' networks more than 1,800 schools worldwide where German is taught. The PASCH school students from five countries on the continent came to the small coastal town to further improve their German language skills.

Latinagua focuses on the sustainable use and awareness of water as a resource. The aim of the simulation game is to provide different facilities and services with clean water. This is done by solving various tasks (drawing, knowledge and estimation questions) as well as handling cases and scenarios in small groups. The players were able to expand their German vocabulary and their knowledge of water as a resource during the camp. Together with our professors, the Goethe Institut team, the polyspektiv team from Berlin and volunteers from Kulturweit, the young people learned what it means to build cultural bridges far away from home, to connect nations and to make friends.

In the seminar 'Migration, Integration und Interculturality' (lecturer: Dr Martina Maletzky), students experienced the challenges of intercultural, virtual communication up close. In a joint teaching research seminar with the University of Texas at Austin, students from the University of Passau researched issues in the context of migration and interculturality in small research projects, together with students from the US. Small projects were conducted on the importance of ethnic economies for integration in Passau (doner kebab kiosk) and Austin (taco kiosk), integration and racism in sport, barriers to naturalisation in Germany and the US, language and integration in Turkish communities in the US and Germany using 'Kiezdeutsch' and Turkish schools in the US as examples, linguistic transnationalism amongst Texas Germans, marginalisation of Muslim women in the US and Germany. The results will be presented in poster format in the IG building.

Innovation Lab. There, they were welcomed by 18 apprentices in the application systems division and msg working students. Two Indian students of the master’s programme in Computer Science, who were at different training phases and had diverse cultural backgrounds, also joined this group in order to experience the simulation game Latinagua together for the first time. Under the direction of Rebecca Gramlich and Constanze Rath, who were also involved in the development, the player teams, split into four city districts, playfully learned more about the sustainable use of water as a resource. In addition to imparting exciting factual knowledge, the game makes complex relationships tangible and promotes decision-making skills, team spirit, strategic thinking and the environmental awareness of the players. Latinagua was developed in an advanced seminar by master’s students at the Chair of Intercultural Communication in the winter semester 2017/2018. In order to reach even more international groups, Latinagua will be digitised as part of the funding provided by the University of Passau’s Teaching Innovation Pool, with the help of Chair Professor Harald Kosch (Computer Science with a focus on Distributed Information Systems). In the end, the players provided valuable insights on how to design the planned digitisation of the simulation game, with which they once again managed to successfully build on the cooperation between the University of Passau and msg systems AG.

Staff and student assistants of the Chair presented the Chair’s current projects on research and teaching with a stand on 'Interkulturalität erforschen und gestalten'.
Several academic posters on current projects offered an insight into the versatile activities of the team around Prof. Barmeyer:
it included exhibits on creative cities in a cultural comparison between Munich and Montréal (with Maria Wilhelm and Madeleine Bausch); the integration of refugees into craft trades (with Dr Martina Maletzky);
the 'interkultureller Begegnungsraum' (with Susanne Dierl and Anas Alhashmi); and also the student-designed simulation game Latinagua (with Sina Großkopf).
In the section 'Interkulturalität erfahren und reflektieren', Prof. Barmeyer also conducted the Culture Alley – an interactive intercultural simulation that raises awareness of cultural differences and trains sensitivity towards other cultural systems.
There was also some food, including American cupcakes and Brazilian pão de queijo.

The section focused on the role of cultures and interculturality in the regulation of organisational processes and social interactions. More specifically, it addressed how cultural knowledge is developed and used to shape intercultural interfaces. Thus, the role of (bi-cultural) 'boundary spanners', who are able to overcome cultural differences and bring them to new synergistic solutions, was addressed. The interesting research contributions – mostly context-related qualitative case studies – from different cultural backgrounds dealt with interculturality and language in and between countries such as Vietnam, Russia, Japan, China, France, Germany and Hungary.

His doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Barmeyer, is titled 'Integration in Organisationen – Integration durch Organisationen. Fallstudienbasierte Entwicklung eines organisationszentrierten Integrationsansatzes am Beispiel hochqualifizierter Migranten in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen'.

Andreas Landes carried out four qualitative case studies in German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the basis of an interpretive paradigm, interviews with highly qualified migrants, human resource managers and members of management and a comprehensive document analysis. On one hand, the results of the work show how organisations work as a resource for migrants. In the sense of a direct integration function, they impart practical, social as well as cultural knowledge about the local, regional and national context of a company and also about the symbolic connections and legitimisation structures of this social environment. On the other hand, organisations also provide roles and positions that are primarily important for the professional context in the sense of an indirect integration function, but also for the status of migrants within the host society, as well as for their personal identity formation.

On the one hand, the doctoral thesis, which was awarded the top grade, gives impetus to the further academic-systematic deepening of the role of the labour market in the integration process; on the other hand, it provides opportunities for further practical use of the results in the organisational development process of SMEs, in which companies should assume social responsibility for the integration of immigrants.

The second supervisor of the doctoral thesis was Professor Volker Stein (University of Siegen), and the third supervisor was Professor Rodrigo Isidor (University of Passau).
The photo shows (from left) the Vice Dean Professor Bernhard Stahl, Professor Christoph Barmeyer, Andreas Landes and second supervisor Professor Volker Stein (University of Siegen)

Estrada designed a block of sessions for the seminar 'Arbeit, Organisation und (Inter)Kultur in Mexiko'. He presented his current research findings on the shadow economy and migration in Mexico using the example of 'semaforistas' (traffic-light sellers), clowns and musicians in public transport. The unregulated black economy is an important economic factor in Mexico. It accounts for almost 60% of the working population and (temporarily) helps many people to escape unemployment, but is also a very risky and precarious activity.

On the evening of Wednesday, 9th May 2018, the 'Refugee Talk' format of the 'interkultureller Begegnungsraum' went into a new round: three participants of the Refugee Programme and one Syrian student led interesting talks on the complex topic of 'stereotypes, prejudices and racism'. Speaker Muaaz Almeziab opened the meeting with an exciting talk on the legal status of women in public and in private life. He demonstrated the efforts and achievements of Syrian society for gender equality and emphasised the high status of women in the family and the public sector. Following this, Amal Bakkari talked about the education situation and the labour market participation of Syrian women, and surprised the audience with valuable information on the important role of women as a valuable work force in the Syrian economy and an indispensable source of income within the family network. Fatima Hammal rounded off the section 'Frauen in Syrien' with a presentation on the typical life situation of Syrian students, as well as dating and weddings in Syria. She also self-confidently answered questions about the controversial topic of headscarves, and called for more tolerance for personal life choices. The event was concluded by Ahmad Alshlash, who is studying in the second semester of Computer Science at the University of Passau. On the basis of his personal experience as a refugee, he described in detail which of his ideas about Germany ultimately turned out to be correct or inaccurate, and how he gets along with his relatives in Germany. All the speakers impressed with their confident presentations as well as their detailed research content. We expressly thank them for their commitment and the courage to speak freely in German in front of an audience!

On 3rd May 2018, Dr Martina Maletzky gave a keynote speech on specific challenges in the integration of women at the symposium 'Integration von Frauen mit Migrationshintergrund' in Bad Füssing. The presentation showed that women caught in traditional gender roles encounter specific barriers to language acquisition, access to the labour market and learning, which public and other institutions should target to make the most of the potential of female immigrants.

Professor Eric Davoine from the Chair of Personnel Management and Organisation, University of Fribourg, visited the Chair of Intercultural Communication in the context of the Visiting Scholars programme from 29th April until 12th May 2018. The aim of his research stay was to further the joint research and publication projects of the German-French 'Research Tandem', which has by now published around 30 articles and conference papers on interculturality in international and German-French organisations in German, French and English. Topics included knowledge management of repatriates in multinational companies, intercultural research in binational organisations and intercultural integration of migrants in organisations. Professor Davoine gave a talk on 'Schweizer Host Country Effekte von Management-Praktiken multinationaler Unternehmen' on the 2nd May 2018, met colleagues and participated in the Doctoral Colloquium on 3rd May 2018, where he gave the doctoral students much valuable feedback on their research.

The photo shows Professor Davoine (2nd from left) with the Chair staff, as well as internal and external doctoral students at the doctoral seminar on 2nd May 2018.

On the 18th April 2018, the first 'Refugee Talk' took place as part of the 'interkultureller Begegnungsraum' project. As part of the series of events, participants of the Refugee Programme give presentations on their home countries or intercultural topics. The event takes place biweekly.

Université Paris-Est, Professor Christoph Barmeyer visited Paris as a Visiting Professor from 4th to 24th March 2018. The aim of the stay was to conduct research on the integration of highly qualified immigrants in organisations and to initiate a comparative European research project with colleagues from other European universities. During his stay, Professor Barmeyer actively participated in various events and meetings, such as the German-French Research Services of the humanities and social sciences in France and Germany with the support of the DFG/ANR at Maison Suger, that of Université Paris-Est on the attitude of human resources managers as well as preparatory work for a new book project by Philippe D’Iribarne’s research group Gestion & Société.
He also gave talks on 'Industrielle Beziehungen in Deutschland' (16th March 2018) at Université Paris-Est and on 'Deutsch-französische Arbeitsbeziehungen' (21st March 2018) at the Paris Think Tank Fabrique de l’Exportation. He also conducted cooperation talks with CIERA and other colleagues from Paris in research and teaching.
The photo shows Professor Sylvie Chevrier and Professor Christoph Barmeyer

analogue board game developed in the first step is now to be developed into a digitalonline version in order to gain a wider reach and to promote mutual intercultural learning. A cross-faculty cooperation is planned between the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics.