On December 19, 2024, a full-day excursion to the start-up Medtip took place as part of the seminar ‘Interculturality in Migration Contexts’ under the direction of PD Dr. Martina Maletzky de García. Medtip is an intercultural personnel service provider that places Turkish medical professionals in Germany and provides them with intercultural preparation. The students in the seminar were able to learn about the day-to-day work of the start-up from the managing director, Osman Nergiz, and the integration officer, Melek Yildirim. They received information about the migration process of a skilled worker, including visa applications and the recognition of qualifications, and worked on intercultural case studies from the company's practice. Medtip shows that intercultural theories are applied in everyday practice and that bicultural people in particular can make a valuable contribution to society and companies as bridge-builders. We would like to thank everyone involved for the informative day!

On December 09, 2024, a breakfast for international students took place, where students discussed intercultural challenges when studying in Passau. The event, organised by the Chair of Intercultural Communication, the International Support Service and the Alumni Club Passau, aims to encourage the exchange of life hacks for studying in Passau. It is part of a project from the regular project seminar ‘Interculturality and Practice’, in which short videos are created with international students that report on intercultural challenges and solutions. These videos are intended to provide other international students with orientation and prepare them for (intercultural) challenges.

The double Master's programme 'Intercultural Management' (IKM) was one of the first programmes to be introduced at the Turkish-German University (TDU) Istanbul in 2013. As part of the Flying Faculty Programme, the Chair of Intercultural Communication at the University of Passau is represented for two weeks every winter semester with two lectures on the topics of 'Intercultural Communication and Cultural Comparison' and 'Intercultural Management'.

This semester, Professor Christoph Barmeyer and research assistant Tuzienka Chenet Ugarte taught the students of the double Master's programme from 21 to 25 October and from 11 to 15 November 2024. In the introductory session, important theories and concepts of intercultural communication were discussed and important areas of intercultural research were explained using country-specific examples. Through the discussion of selected theories and case studies, supplemented by practical exercises and their own intercultural experiences, students gained a comprehensive broadening and deepening of their knowledge in the field of intercultural communication. The second week of lectures provided an overview of theories, concepts, developments, issues and forms of intercultural management in different academic disciplines and cultural areas, combined with empirical research findings from international work contexts. The students also had the opportunity to learn more about these topics from Mr. Kerem Arabacioglu, Vice President Sales & Marketing Building Technologies at Bosch Security Systems GmbH. Mr. Arabacioglu gave a lecture on “Intercultural work experiences at Bosch” on November 15, 2024 and gave insights into his international work.

For the 8th time, Professor Christoph Barmeyer, together with Professors Sylvie Chevrier (Université Gustave Eiffel, Paris-Est) and Mette Zølner (Aarhus University, Aarhus), organized a section as part of the EURAM conference (European Academy of Management). This time, the conference took place from June 25 to 28, 2024 at the University of Bath, UK.

The section entitled "Management and cultures: qualitative organizational research" was dedicated to researching cultures in organizations using qualitative methods. Based on the assumption that management practices are culture-specific and require adaptation to local cultural contexts, the aim is to examine emerging management practices while taking cultural differences into account. Topics included interpretative approaches to understanding social cultures, the integration of refugees into the German context, characteristics and abilities of bicultural people, third culture individuals as global managers and constructive aspects of paternalistic leadership. Philosophical or methodological questions were also addressed in the presentations, such as the topic of a positive ontology for understanding the careers of qualified immigrants or the self-reflection and methodological challenges and possibilities of field research in organizations. The Chair of Intercultural Communication was also actively represented by Dr. Martina Maletzky de Garcia, Tuzienka Chenet Ugarte and the external doctoral students Astrid Heindel and Birgit Gabriel. We would like to thank all participants for their interesting and valuable contributions and the constructive and inspiring discussions!

For several years, this section has been exploring the complex role of cultures in organizations using qualitative methods and has contributed to the development of a research community on intercultural issues. Next year (23-25.06.2025) EURAM will take place in Florence. We look forward to continuing the intercultural dialog and cooperation!

Under the direction of Professor Alex Frame and Professor David Bousquet, who run the Master's programme in Intercultural Management at the Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France), 14 students from 9 countries (China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Russia, Japan, Ghana, Nigeria, Turkey, Ecuador) came to the University of Passau for three days from 06 to 08 May 2024 of Intercultural Days organised by the Chair of Intercultural Communication. The Intercultural Days focussed on the communication and discussion of the special approach of the Chair, constructive interculturality, the encounter between students from the Universities of Passau and Burgundy and the presentation and discussion of student theses in an interactive poster session. The Open Space method was used to deepen the approach of constructive intercultural management in mixed-cultural working groups. Further highlights were the well-founded and humorous lecture by the well-known Munich interculturalist Robert Gibson, who headed intercultural competence development at Siemens for almost two decades, as well as an evening reception hosted by CEO Dr. Fritz Audebert on the terrace of ICUnet AG, the largest and best-known intercultural service provider. Presentations by Alex Frame on culture and artificial intelligence, by Henriett Primecz on expatriates in Dubai and by David Bousquet and Martina Maletzky de Garcia on the integration of migrants with IncluKit rounded off the event. In addition to the substantive discussions, there were many opportunities for personal exchange, as intercultural relationships are not only cognitive, but also emotional. The program can be found here.

On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the cooperation between Québec and Bavaria, Professor Christoph Barmeyer was invited by the Québec government to participate in the "Forum Bavaria-Québec" in Munich on 21 February 2024 and had the opportunity to present his diverse research and teaching projects on Québec to a broad audience from politics, business and academia in conversation with Dr Benedikt Miklós, Attaché for Politics, Public Affairs and Cooperation. The projects included the transfer of the European co-operative model from Europe to Québec, the creative cities of Munich and Montréal and the creativity of migrant entrepreneurship in Québec and Bavaria. They were reflected in international events in Passau and Montréal as well as in publications in German, English and French. Professor Barmeyer's academic activities on Québec were supported as a student at the University of Passau by a scholarship from the Bavarian Minister President and as a doctoral student at the University of Saarland by the "Prix d'Excellence of the Government of Québec". Current research projects were funded by the Bavarian Research Alliance and the MRIF (Fonds d'initiatives locales).

Bavaria is one of Québec's closest partners worldwide. The two regions work closely together in the fields of science, technology, business, politics, education and culture and are a prime example of intercultural, synergetic cooperation. During the event at the Prinz-Carl-Palais, the most important joint projects in the fields of digital innovation, research cooperation and cultural exchange were presented from the 800 projects that have been implemented since the partnership was established.

The Minister of International Relations and Francophonie of Quebec, Martine Biron, and the Bavarian Minister of State for European Affairs and International Relations, Eric Beißwenger, also signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation during the event.
© Photos: Bayer. Staatskanzlei/Marc Müller

Professor Eric Milliot from the University of Nantes stayed at the Chair of Intercultural Communication from 13 to 18 January 2024 with his doctoral student Qin Gao. The aim of the visit was to engage in academic dialogue with doctoral and Master's students on the topic of qualitative research and case studies. Professor Milliot gave a lecture and led a workshop on "Paradigmatic Alignment for Case Study Research in Social Sciences". This focused on the process of implementing case study methods using a conceptual framework that describes the basic paradigmatic features of different methods to underpin the overall coherence of case study-based research. PhD student Qin Gao presented the initial theoretical and methodological elements of her doctoral thesis on adaptation and innovation of a Chinese organisation in France from the perspective of cross-cultural management. In addition, the doctoral and Master's students had the opportunity during the three days to exchange views bilaterally on specific methodological issues relating to their research and to receive appropriate support. A return visit by the Passau students to the University of Nantes is planned in order to continue the fruitful dialogue. The photos provide an insight into the days spent together.