DNA – Using and Accepting Diversity

Just in time for the end of the project Diversität Nutzen und Annehmen (DNA) of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (led by Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova) and Ikobe gGmbH Munich (Dr. Edwin Semke), the final conference of the project took place on March 25, 2021. Hosted by the Munich project partners, both research teams presented the results of the studies of the last two years to the audience of administrators, researchers and practitioners. After an inspiring opening lecture by Prof. Božić-Vrbančić, both teams had the opportunity to present their key conclusions on cultural diversity in business and academia. In the subsequent workshops, participants and researchers were then able to exchange ideas and engage in constructive discourse on concrete issues, problems and solutions of diversity management in the STEM sector and the STEM faculty.

Outstanding results of the presentations and workshops are the need to promote diversity competencies in the STEM field, to adapt this promotion to the needs of the modern, complex and diverse world of work, and to take into account the topic of agility and agile working as central aspects of modern working. The team at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences would like to thank all workshop participants and the Ikobe team for the productive and interesting workshop and hopes that the results of this innovative project can be taken even further into the practice of business and higher education in the future.

This year, the BMBFs anual ITA-Forum took place in the rooms of BMBF itself. Project coordinators and coworkers from 18 projects and 6 thematic fields had the opportunity to present their results. The ITA-Forum takes place once a year under the leading question: Which legal, ethical and social challenges are connected to technic and which debates do we have to conduct facing potential chances and risks linked to innovations?

To answer this question Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova and Henrik Schreiber from Osnabruck and Dr. Edwin Semke from Munich came to Berlin. During the two days conference they had the opportunity to present the results of one year DNA Project. The presentations lead to intensive discourses about the usability, theoretical and methodological implications between the projects.  After the results had been discussed in detail during the first day only for ITA participants, the second day gave external stakeholders the opportunity to take place at a variety of workshops. Further they had the opportunity to listen to the pitches, the project representatives presented to them, journalists and BMBF representatives. Dr. Semke presented the DNA project successfully. The ITA-Forum 2020 is therefore considered a success.

From the 31.10. to the 02.11.2019, the project coordinator Prof. Petia Genkova and Mr. Henrik Schreiber participated at the international IACCM2019 conference in Paris. There they presented among others the DNA projects first results.

The conference organized by the International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management took place in the modern rooms of the IÉSEG Business School Paris. The conference theme thus focuses on creativity and innovation as we want to explore new approaches and ideas to familiar problems that nonetheless present themselves anew every day. The conference aimed to continue the dialogue between scholars, trainers and practitioners as all three groups contributed valuable insights to this discussion and to explore together new and creative ways of promoting and embedding intercultural competence in organizations and to managing in a VUCA world. Therefore over 40 talks, seminars and workshops took place within the two days of the conference.

Right at the beginning, Prof. Genkova and Mr. Schreiber held two talks in a row. One about “Diversity beliefs and Diversity Climate: Potentials for Organizations”, that also contained the latest insights of the DNA project. The other one was about “ Impact of Stays Abroad on Intercultural Competence of Students“. The talks both were accompanied by a professional discussion, giving the interdisciplinary audience the opportunity to contribute to the themes from their various points of view. Therefore, there was a lot of opportunities to get in contact with other researchers and to enrich the discussion with a variety of understandings and points of views. Moreover the contributors submitted a written Article accompanying each talk. Surprisingly Prof. Genkovas and Mr. Schreibers article “ Impact of Stays Abroad on Intercultural Competence of Students“ got awarded as the conferences´ best paper. Therefore the conference ended as a great success, even more as it was Mr. Schreibers first international conference experience.

On Monday the 11th of March 2019, we had the honour to have Prof. Dr. Poor from the Szent Istvan Unviersity in Hungary as a guest professor at our university. His presentation about management in an intercultural context was not only informative, but also tangible. With his professional knowledge and experience in management, Prof. Dr. Poor drew lively connections between academic theories and the working processes of global players in the management branch. However, most interesting were his own experiences he shared with the students.   

With his open and direct teaching style, Prof. Dr. Poor grabbed the attention of the students and lead them with enthusiam and patience through the challenging content of intercultural management.

By involving the class with interactive tasks and visual input in form of a video clip, important models and constructs of intercultural management could be understood with ease. Overall, Prof. Dr. Poor’s visit was not only an enrichment for our students, but also exemplary for the strong ties to the Szent Istvan University as a partner.