Intercultural Management

Where we are coming from

Our activity started with a workshop at the DJW 30-year anniversary symposium at 18. June 2016 that consisted of some role-plays learning about the power of transparency and negotiation in intercultural business communication. During the workshop we discovered that cultural synergy is an outcome of dynamic processes that includes loops of learning on both sides. Thereafter, our endeavor was to promote the formation of a workgroup that discusses and shares experiences as well as practices in order to improve our members’ intercultural competence. We aim at enabling people to create a cultural synergy and become even more innovative in intercultural workplaces.

Where we are going

The aim of the workgroup is to develop awareness, and intercultural competence via regular discussions and meetings at the platform provided by DJW. Heightening the awareness of cognitive processes, needed for innovative networking, and bridging cultures, are the core aims of our on-going monthly discussion. We are eager to promote DJW members’ ability to build trustful relations as well as create networks among Japanese and German [business] people. We aim that this will be an outcome of our advisory efforts.

We wish to enable people to become skillful networkers, bridging both cultures. The knowledge of practices and strategies for mutual trust building, creation of cultural synergy, and innovation are important objectives of our working group meetings. We want to build a learning community that spans German and Japanese culture. Participants of our monthly meetings - every third Friday per month - can benefit by learning on how to reflect problems and develop useful strategies in the intercultural workplace. By doing so, we hope to enable DJW members to become key persons with boundary spanning ability between Germany and Japan.

Specifics

For the near future, we are planning to conduct the following focus groups which are entitled (*time lines may be subject to change)

1. March to July 2021 | Focus Group Intercultural Trust | Learning about general concepts and how they particularly apply to trust building in German-Japanese teamwork;
2. September to January 2022 | Focus Group Intercultural Cultural Synergy | Learning about options of communication in intercultural encounters and how to achieve synergy in diversity teams with Japanese team members participating;
3. April to July 2022 | Focus Group Intercultural Innovation | Learning to value innovations and how to become more challenging and innovative in intercultural workplaces;
4. October to December 2022 | Focus Group Intercultural Competence | Learning why the DJW can be perceived as a space of an innovative learning community and how synergetic communication processes provide opportunities creating new spaces for DJW community?

Here, we wish to integrate our learning experiences and create a webinar, available for all DJW members. To join our regular working group meeting, please register in advance at the DJW event homepage or check the invitation via our digital workspace within DJW "Networking Hub".

We solicit interested members to support our activities with information, please cooperate with the online questionnaire survey also up-loaded to DJW homepage.

If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact one of the leading members of the working group.

Contact

Japan: Prof. Dr. Rolf Schlunze (Professor of Intercultural Management at Ritsumeikan University OIC | Institutional member of DJW) rolf@mangeo.org

Germany: Silvia Lawrence (Coaching Point AC USHIO Germany | Freelance member of DJW)