From 6 to 16 December 2019 Professor Claude-Hélène Mayer, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, was a visiting professor in Passau. The aim of the stay, which was made possible by the international guest researcher program of the Faculty of Humanities, was to work on joint research and publication projects, such as on interculturality and biculturality, as well as on methodological challenges of qualitative research in intercultural contexts. As part of the lecture "Introduction to Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Management" for Bachelor students, Professor Claude-Hélène Mayer gave two lectures on 12 December 2019: "Intercultural Cooperation and its Challenges in Chinese-African Business Interactions" and "Different races, same cultures - Discourses and autoethnographical experiences on identity construction" (together with her son Lolo Mayer). Another lecture in a course by Dr. Martina Maletzky dealt with "Shame in intercultural and global work contexts". In addition, guest professor Mayer presented the qualitative research method of narration at the chair's doctoral colloquium on December 10, 2019, and commented on a dissertation project. The chair team thanks for the stimulating and instructive time as well as feedback on the research and is looking forward to another visit soon.

The photo shows Professor Dr. mult. Claude-Hélène Mayer with the chair team and some of her publications.

The annual trip to the Passau Christmas market took place in a pre-Christmas atmosphere on Monday, December 9, 2019. Among the participants were the students of the German-French Double Master, the programme coordinator Catherine Teissier and the head of the programme Marie France Mercadier from the Aix-Marseille Université, the visiting professor Claude-Hélène Mayer with her two sons Lolo and Ecee, as well as Christoph Barmeyer, Madeleine Bausch and Philipp Campina. The chair team wishes all students and colleagues a Merry Christmas!

In cooperation with the Chair of English Literature and Culture (Professor Jürgen Kamm) and the KuWi netzwerk international e. V., a reading with the author, journalist and "Kuwine" Stefanie von Wietersheim took place on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Kulturwirt study course on 9 December 2019. She read from her book "Grand Paris - Savoir-vivre for insiders and those who want to become insiders". The audience was able to immerse in everyday stories full of mystery and comedy of the French capital, which she describes as a "unique stage for beauty and elegance, a living space for creative artists, a paradise for lovers of haute cuisine and shopaholics". Unlike many other non-French writers and journalists, von Wietersheim does not focus one-sidedly on the negative and critical. She has an unbiased constructive and intercultural view of this Parisian life and describes the positive and beautiful from an intercultural perspective.

Wir gratulieren Yuqi Liu zur erfolgreich abgelegten Promotionsprüfung an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Passau. Die Promotionsschrift von Yuqi Liu, die von 2013 bis 2019 als externe Doktorandin am Lehrstuhl für Interkulturelle Kommunikation forschte, trägt den Titel „Bi-nationale Tandemführung in deutsch-chinesischen Joint Ventures. Rollenaufteilungen im mittleren Management und kontextuelle Einflüsse“. Doktorvater war Lehrstuhlinhaber Professor Dr. Christoph Barmeyer, Zweitkorrektorin war Professorin Dr. Marion Festing (Lehrstuhl für Personalmanagement und Interkulturelle Führung, ESCP Europe Business School Deutschland).

Inhaltlich beschäftigt sich die Dissertationsschrift mit der Tandemführung, welche das klassische Prinzip der Einheit der Auftragserteilung in Frage stellt und sich als effektiver Mechanismus für die Bewältigung der organisationalen Komplexität erwiesen hat. Anhand einer qualitativ-interpretativen Mehrfallstudie in drei deutsch-chinesischen Joint Ventures in China mit chinesischen Staatsunternehmen als Mutterkonzernen wird untersucht, wie deutsch-chinesische Führungs-Tandems im interkulturellen Kontext die Rollen des mittleren Managements aufteilen und mit welchen kontextuellen Einflussfaktoren diese Rollenaufteilungen zusammenhängen.

Die Arbeit kommt zum Ergebnis, dass zwischen den bi-nationalen Tandempartnern Komplementarität und Kooperation, aber auch Asymmetrie und konkurrierende Beziehungsdynamiken bestehen. Des Weiteren zeigen die Ergebnisse der Arbeit, dass Kontext ein wichtiger Erklärungsansatz für die Rollenaufteilungen in bi-nationalen Tandems ist. Identifiziert werden einerseits isolierte Auswirkungen der Nationalkultur und institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen auf der Makroebene, der Organisationskultur und -struktur auf der Mesoebene sowie zusammenhängende Auswirkungen beider kontextueller Ebenen auf die Tandemführung. Andererseits wird festgestellt, dass bi-nationale Tandems Einfluss auf den organisationalen Kontext nehmen.

Das Photo zeigt (v.l.) Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer, Zweitkorrektorin der Doktorarbeit Professorin Dr. Marion Festing, Yuqi Liu sowie die Studiendekanin Professorin Dr. Lucia Krämer.

Professor Christoph Barmeyer spent one week at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul from 25.11. - 29.11.2019 as part of the Master's programme "Intercultural Management". Founded in 2012, the university is based on a cooperation between the German and Turkish states and offers various Bachelor and Master programmes in - mainly - German. Both Turkish and German teaching staff and Turkish and German students make this place an intercultural organization, where different teaching concepts, contents, methods and interculturally negotiated forms of communication and cooperation emerge. The course focused on constructive interculturality, which was developed on the basis of conceptual frames of reference and concrete examples of application: How do actors in organizations succeed in seeing cultural differences not only as problems but also as a resource and enrichment? The final reflection on the biculturalism of the students turned out to be particularly revealing. Professor Barmeyer's stay also served to prepare, together with his colleague Professor Ernst Struck, initiator and head of the course of studies "Intercultural Management", an international conference on constructive intercultural management

The photo shows the students of the current year of the master course with the head of the course Professor Ernst Struck and Professor Christoph Barmeyer.

We congratulate Juliane Neumann on successfully passing her doctoral examination at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Passau. The doctoral thesis of Juliane Neumann, who conducted research as an external doctoral student at the Chair of Intercultural Communication from 2015 to 2019, is entitled "Interplay of National and Professional Culture in the International Transfer of Performance Management. A case study of the reception in European subsidiaries based on the 'multiple cultures perspective' and with special consideration of the employee perspective". The doctoral supervisor is Chair Professor Dr. Christoph Barmeyer, and the second supervisor is Professor Sonja Sackmann (Universität der Bundeswehr, Munich).

The research was conducted on the basis of an interpretive paradigm and the 'multiple culture' perspective as well as a qualitative and emic case study in a German MNU and its subsidiaries in Italy, Poland and Sweden and German-speaking Switzerland. The results of the work show a complex interaction between professional and national culture that affect the reception of local employees. In addition, other factors, e.g. the dominance effect and the personal motive of an employee, are identified as influencing reception. In essence, due to the cultural background of local employees, an international transfer of performance management is possible, but the implementation has a loss of effect for employers and employees.

The photo shows (from left) Professor Sonja Sackmann, Juliane Neumann and Professor Christoph Barmeyer.

As part of our "Intercultural Encounter Space" project and the Refugee Programme of the University of Passau, an Intercultural Speed Dating took place on Thursday, 21.11.2019, to which interested students of all nationalities and study programmes were invited. In randomly arranged small groups, the 25 participants from 5 nations had to talk about different intercultural topics. After each topic of conversation, the groups were changed so that, in the course of the evening, everyone got into conversation with everyone. Each round lasted about 5-10 minutes. The given topics of conversation were, among others:

• Holidays and festivals
• Popular and famous musicians
• Work culture
• Eating habits

The participants did not have any difficulties to get into conversation with the other group members and some topics provided room for a lot of discussion and laughter. At the end, the most exciting and curious differences were shared with everyone and the winners of the estimation raffle (how many nations, courses of study and vegetarians are present?) were awarded with book, café and cinema vouchers. 

Some participants exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet again.

The event was very interesting and entertaining for all. Further intercultural speed dating events can therefore not be ruled out!

On 18 November 2019, Dr Martina Maletzky gave a guest lecture on the recruitment of nursing staff abroad in Germany as part of the seminar "Work, organisation and (inter)culture in Mexico". Sophie Kindler, recruiting officer at the Social Service Society of the Bavarian Red Cross, presented the recruitment process of Mexican nurses and the associated challenges. Cultural differences as well as differences in the training system and the standards and implementation of recruitment were discussed in detail and were furthermore debated in a subsequent intercultural workshop between German and Mexican students.

At the IACCM Conference in Paris (31.10.-02.11.2019), Professor Christoph Barmeyer and Professor Henriett Primecz (Corvinus University Budapest) led the two-part academic panel on 'Different Streams and Paradigms in Cross-Cultural Management'. In the first part, scientific paradigms were linked to the conference topic on intercultural competencies in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world – the VUCA world. After the conference presentations, the second part dealt in depth with basic views on how objects of research are perceived, understood and explained in a scholarly context. The different positions and academic paradigms provided for a lively discussion. At the end, the participating practitioners and scholars agreed that the variety of perspectives and the different paradigmatic viewpoints were helpful tools in the analysis of theoretical as well as practical cases. Overall, the panel was embedded in a large supporting programme of exciting conference presentations and workshops on how to deal with identity, managerial competencies, creativity, innovation, and knowledge, involving both academics and practitioners. The slideshow below offers an insight into the event:

Am 31. Oktober 2019 hatte Marcella Poguntke die Ehre den berühmten Werteforscher Prof. Shalom H. Schwartz im Rahmen einer virtuellen Konferenz zu interviewen. 

Prof. Schwartz ist ein US-amerikanisch-isrealischer Sozialpsychologe, interkultureller Forscher und der Urheber der Theorie universeller menschlicher Werte.

Der Mitschnitt des Interviews soll in ein VHB Online-Seminar integriert werden. Mehr zu diesem VHB Projekt finden Sie auf unserer VHB Projektseite.

At the invitation of Professor Anne Bartel-Radic, Professor Christoph Barmeyer undertook a Visiting Professorship at Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP) in Grenoble from the 29th September until the 10th October 2019. The University of Passau maintains an intensive Erasmus exchange programme with IEP. The IEP is a Grande Ecole that enables students to address societal challenges through an interdisciplinary academic approach. As in the International Cultural and Business Studies course at Passau, economics, law, history, international relations, political science, languages, etc. are also taught there. In addition to teaching on a master’s course on interculturality in organisations, Professor Barmeyer gave two public lectures – 'Complémentarités interculturelles dans les coopérations franco-allemandes: les cas d'Arte et d'Alleo' and 'Towards constructive intercultural management. Context, conceptual frameworks, cases' – and exchanged ideas with colleagues at the Research Centre for Intercultural Teaching and Research, especially Serious Games. He also held discussions with the Québec immigration researcher Professor Antoine Bilodeau from Concordia University in Montréal. Furthermore, he also met students from Passau on their stay abroad in Grenoble.

In the photo (from left to right) Sandrine Vernet, Anne Bartel-Radic, Jean Marcou, Christoph Barmeyer and Hamza Asshidi

From 30th September to 4th October 2019, Sina Großkopf spent five days at Université Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée in Paris, where she delivered teaching sessions for bachelor’s and master’s students in Human Resources Management together with Professor Sylvie Chevrier. As part of the Erasmus+ Employee Mobility Programme, she was able to strengthen the cooperation with the partner university in Paris and learn about the educational content and the respective teaching methods in a different cultural context. In addition, she continued to work on the joint European cooperation project on social capital and migrant skills, as well as conducting field research. Our thanks go to the International Students’ Registry Office for coordinating and facilitating the secondment.

On 12th September 2019, Professor Christoph Barmeyer met students of the French-German double master’s programme in southern France, who are spending their second year of study in Aix-en-Provence, having successfully completed their first year of study in Passau. Besides fantastic views of Provence, the hike to the summit cross of the Sainte Victoire mountain, which is over 1000 m high and was immortalised in many paintings by numerous painters, especially Paul Cezanne, also offered a good opportunity to discuss studying and internship opportunities in the Franco-German context.

From the 23rd to the 24th July, the Chair of Intercultural Communication welcomed Prof. Peter Franklin of HTWG Konstanz to the Chair (from the front, second person on the right in the picture). Prof. Franklin gave the doctoral students valuable advice and inspiration for their research projects, and gave a talk on 'Intercultural competencies: What are they, to what extent can they actually be developed and are they themselves culturally influenced?' during the lecture on intercultural management. His talk covered a differentiated, practice-oriented view of intercultural competences and intercultural competence development, and examined the extent to which the conception of these competences and their development are themselves influenced by culture.

On a beautiful summer’s day, the Chair team undertook a bicycle excursion to visit the Austrian must farmers, together with students of the French-German double master’s programme. They were able to sample the local culinary culture in the form of a refreshing glass of must and a delicious selection of snacks.

'Exploring the future of management' was held at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE) from the 26th to the 28th June 2019. With more than 1,700 participants, it was the best-attended conference since the inception of EURAM. The Chair of Intercultural Communication of the University of Passau was jointly represented by Madeleine Bausch, Sina Großkopf, Dr Martina Maletzky and Marcella Poguntke. The external doctoral student Carina Stumpf also gave a talk on the transfer of organisational practices.

This section focused on the role of cultures and interculturality in the regulation of organisational processes and social interactions, including the overarching topics:
'Migrant integration in organisations'; 'The migration journey: From the decision to leave to integration in the host country'; 'The dynamics of multinational organisations'; 'Adapting to new cultural contexts'; 'Towards global mindsets?' And 'National cultures and cross-cultural comparisons'.

The interesting contributions from different cultural backgrounds – mostly context-related qualitative case studies – dealt with interculturality in and between different European and Asian countries.

Prof. Christoph Barmeyer and Madeleine Bausch attended the ATLAS/AFMI Conference (Association Francophone de Management International) at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland from the 17th to the 19th June 2019. On Tuesday, 18th June 2019, they gave a talk on 'The meaning of quality across multiple cultures – The cases of German MNCs', which included initial results of the thesis by Madeleine Bausch. Topics surrounding international and intercultural management were presented and discussed under the title 'Le national face au global: nouvelles perspectives pour le management international', which led to inspiration for future research work, and continues to do so. Besides a variety of networking activities, one key topic of the conference was the discussion about 'Swissness' and its significance for the local Swiss and global context.

Management International. His 25 books, numerous book chapters and journal articles have been published in several languages. During his stay at the University of Passau, Professor Chanlat gave various lectures, discussed with students and advised the Chair’s doctoral students.

On 1st June 2019, Prof. Christoph Barmeyer had the opportunity to interview US sociologist Milton J. Bennett at the SIETAR Conference in Leuven, Belgium, for the VHB online seminar. Among other things, Milton J. Bennett is considered the creator of the development model for intercultural sensitivity. <br/>The resulting video will be integrated into the VHB online seminar, which will be developed by Research Assistant Marcella Poguntke in cooperation with the Bundeswehr University Munich, and will be edited for media education.

Professor Christoph Barmeyer attended the SIETAR-Europa Congress at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, together with Sina Großkopf from 29th May to 1st June 2019. On Wednesday, 30th May 2019, they presented a talk together on 'Social Science Paradigms in Cross-Cultural Management: From Exclusion to Inclusion' in the academic section of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management (IACCM), in which they discussed various paradigmatic perspectives in research and practice on the basis of a case study. During the congress, they were able to experience the motto 'Building Dialogues on Diversity' live in various presentations and workshops, as well as in discussions with other researchers and practitioners.

The Chair of Intercultural Communication celebrated almost 11 years since its foundation on the 18th and 19th May 2019. Together with 25 former and current employees as well as friends of the Chair, participants shared past and current experiences at the Chair on the Saturday morning. There was also a moderated exchange about plans for the future and professional careers. This was followed by a scavenger hunt through Passau and a dinner with a photo presentation and the results of the scavenger hunt, including research ideas and photos of special places during the respective periods of the Chair’s history. The slogan: 'Vorsprung durch Interkulturalität' arose in this context. <br/> The Sunday morning started with beautiful weather and a yoga class at Ortspitze, and continued after a communal breakfast: a team of six successfully participated in the 20th Passau Cathedral Run (see 'Running Culture' section). That brought the beautiful festive weekend to an end. Many thanks for participating in such numbers and for cheering the runners on.

In excellent weather, with a great mood and wearing appropriate T-shirts, a mixture of current and former members of the Chair team took part in the Passau Cathedral Run on 19th May 2019. In high spirits, the team successfully made it to the finish through the winding lanes and cobbled streets of Passau and along the Danube and the Inn. Incidentally, the Cathedral Run 2009 was the Chair’s first activity to be featured on the homepage. Almost 11 years later, they are doing the run again.

On the 7th May 2019, the Chair of Intercultural Communication filmed an interview between Professor Christoph Barmeyer and his former doctoral supervisor, Professor Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink (on the right) from the Saarland University, in cooperation with the University of Passau’s Centre for Information Technology and Media Services. The interview addressed Professor Lüsebrink’s personal career in intercultural research, the content of his research as well as the formative events and influences of other persons and interculturalists on his work. Professor Lüsebrink also made interesting suggestions for future topics and gave early career researchers some inspiring words along the way. <br/>The resulting video will be integrated into the VHB online seminar, which will be developed by Research Assistant Marcella Poguntke in cooperation with the Bundeswehr University Munich and edited for media education. 

Last week (calendar week 19), the Chair of Intercultural Communication once again welcomed Professor Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink from the Saarland University and the Programme Leader of the French-German double master’s programme, Catherine Teissier from Aix-en-Provence, to the Chair. <br/>Dr Catherine Teissier informed the students of the Kulturwirtschaft/International Cultural and Business Studies (ICBS) programme at the University of Passau about the possibilities of completing a French-German double master’s degree in cooperation with the University of Aix-Marseille. More information about the French-German double master’s programme can be found here. <br/>In addition, Professor Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink gave a talk on 7th May on the slow 'Révolution culturelle' – Literatur, Theater und Medien in Québec, and was involved in the filming of the Chair's VHB project. 

An explanatory video for refugees, a board game for vocational schools and a brochure for educators emerged from the project seminar 'Interkulturalität im Kontext der Fluchtmigration' in the last semesters, in which a large number of students worked with body and soul. The results of the joint research project were presented in the context a joint event by the HWKNO and the Chair of Intercultural Communication. It interviewed over 100 refugees, vocational teachers, social workers and educators on the challenges of integrating refugees into the craft trades. The results served as the basis for materials that sensitise the various target groups to cultural differences and specific challenges. As part of the joint event in Regensburg, the materials were presented to around 60 participants (companies, vocational school teachers, organisations that support integration, etc.). The large supporting programme, which included a quiz on cultural differences in facial expressions and gestures (Anas Alhashmi), a talk on the impact of culture on cooperation (Dr Martina Maletzky) and critical incidents from the study (Dr Martina Maletzky) ended with a talk on German as a barrier to training, based on real-life experience (Michael Zink, Vilshofen vocational school) as well as the presentation of materials by the students (Martha Nisi, Kevin Koizol, Sarah Amsl, Laura Fees, Alix Leconte). The event also allowed the discussion of specific issues. However, a survey of sentiment amongst companies showed that around 90% of those present are (very) satisfied with the refugee trainees, and that bureaucratic and linguistic barriers are the issues with which stakeholders struggle the most.

At the launch of the project 'Interkulturalisten: Interkulturell denken und handeln', whose goal is the creation of an online seminar, Christina Suchi from the Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern and all participants of both consortium partners met at the Chair of Intercultural Communication of the University of Passau to work together on the concept, to exchange ideas and to discuss organisational matters.
The planned online seminar will be available for students of both consortium partners as well as all students enrolled at Bavarian universities from the winter semester 2020/21. 
Further information about the project will be published on our project page.

In the photo (from top left): Professor Dominic Busch, Head of the Institute for Educational Sciences at the Bundeswehr University Munich and Student Assistants Vjosa Krasniqi and Leo Meinert. Among them (from left) the participants from the University of Passau: Professor Christoph Barmeyer, Marcella Poguntke and Dorothee Jansen, and Christina Suchi from VHB. 

On the 25th March 2019, Marcella Poguntke (left in the photo) gave a workshop on intercultural competence in Germany as part of the German Week for students of the Language Centre’s programme Academic German Year. The students came from very different cultures: China, Russia, Mongolia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica and South Korea.<br/>On a journey through four interactive sections, the students discovered together what culture is, how it expresses itself in thought and action and, above all, how one’s own cultural orientation influences one’s perception of German culture.<br/>Among other things, the participants developed the 'onion model of culture' which, layer by layer, gave rise to a colourful picture of German culture from different perspectives through their impressions and experiences. Not only did the participants learn about the background of German cultural peculiarities, but they also discussed this in relation to their own cultures. Finally, they learned from a professional case study how to deal constructively with interculturality and how to make positive use of cultural differences.

Her habilitation was supervised by Professor Sylvie Chevrier (UPEM). The members of the habilitation committee included Professor Barmeyer, Professor Françoise Chevalier (HEC Paris), Professor Jean-François Chanlat (Université Paris Dauphine University), Professor Jean-Pierre Dupuis (HEC Montréal) and Professor Jean-Pierre Segal (CNRS/Université Paris Dauphine).

The photo shows the candidate and the commission members.

How does culture affect behaviour within organisations? What does this mean for the challenges of international assignments, teamwork, leadership and the incorporation of an ethnically diverse workforce in companies? These and other topics were developed, discussed and, to an extent, experienced in the form of role plays and case studies in the context of Dr Martina Maletzky’s seminar 'Interkulturelle Kommunikation und Kulturvergleich – Internationale Organisationen, Mobilität und Interkulturalität' from 11th–15th March 2019.  The participants simulated teamwork learned first-hand how prejudices and stigmatisation affect cooperation.