Fair Future
News
News
On November 29th, 2024, experts from all over Europe came together in an online conference to report and discuss current concepts and findings from their research in the field of diversity. The conference was initiated as part of the “Fair Future” research project under the direction of Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova, Professor of Business Psychology. The declared aim of the project is to reduce inequality, support equal opportunities and overcome social exclusion. By bringing together multidisciplinary European researchers, existing collaborations could be strengthened in order to initiate new research projects.
This diversity of perspectives was apparent in all presentations, which were used both by the scientists involved as a basis for in-depth discussions and by an external audience as an important insight into current research:
Prof. Dr. Marco Pe?a-Jimenez (Paris Laboratory of Social Psychology, France) dedicated his contribution to exploring the potential of diversity to foster social collaboration and innovation and shared key findings from the study of team fault lines. According to researchers, these are symbolic dividing lines that split a group into homogeneous subgroups based on their characteristics and are related to the innovative working behavior of teams.
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Saniuk (University of Zielona Góra, Poland) shared his expertise on the development of knowledge and skills for the implementation of the Industry 5.0 concept, which involves a higher level of cooperation between humans and the cyber-physical system. The main pillars on which this concept stands are sustainability, focus on people (using their potential in the machine learning process) and resilience.
Prof. Dr. Todor Dyankov (University of Economics, Bulgaria) presented Bulgaria as a destination and the advantages of being a small but diverse country. Among others, he focused on resilience characteristics (e.g. resilience that can be strengthened through risk control and risk management) and soft power characteristics. The latter include, for example, art, famous books, athletes and their achievements, but also available scholarships, state participation in international forums and the reputation of exported national goods and products.
Prof. Dr. Eva Benková (University of Presov, Slovakia) presented an assessment of the characteristics of social and emotional leadership skills in relation to gender and age of entrepreneurs. These skills include, e.g. value orientation, mutual acceptance, appropriate conflict resolution, communication, politeness, empathy and self-confidence. No gender differences were found in the study presented. Older managers with more experience showed more open and self-confident communication and higher aspects of emotional maturity.
Prof. Dr. Mathias Czaika (Danube University Krems, Austria) highlighted the complexity, dynamics and uncertainty of the two areas in his contribution on migration and its governance. He sees important research goals for the future as understanding the complexity of migration, migration management and political analysis, evaluating the effectiveness of migration policy, migration futures and scenario planning and collecting data for methodological developments.
Prof. Dr. Maria-Giuseppina Bruna (IPAG Business School, Paris, France) presented a systemic and integrated model to address and assess the main challenges of diversity and inclusion in postmodern organizations. In order to address the complexity of the topic, she views inclusion on different levels (from individual to macro-societal), taking into account different facets and as a progressive cycle.
Prof. Dr. Alexandra Halkias (Pantion University of Athens, Greece) looked at various meanings of diversity - from social justice to profit.
After the presentations, all researchers discussed a joint research project for the Horizon Europe proposal with a focus on culture, creativity and an inclusive society.
The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences strengthens cooperations with scientists from Central and Southeastern Europe
In light of the global challenges in the last years the topic Diversity in Europe gains in importance especially in the work context. Established diversity management approaches, however, reach their limits. With the research project ?Fair Future‘ under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova, Professor of Business Psychology therefore a paradigm shift in Diversity Management in Europe will be initiated. The aim is to reduce inequality, to support equal opportunity and to cope with social exclusion.
International experts meet in Osnabrück
From November 25th to 28th, leading experts from North Macedonia, Slovakia, Serbia, Spain, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands got together to share current research findings, to strengthen the existing cooperations and to initiate new research projects. The event was appreciated by the presidium of the University and a reception in the Town Hall of the town of Osnabrück. On November 29th followed an online conference for a broad (non-) scientific audience which should enhance the exchange between science and practice.
Research for a fair future
In the framework of the project ‘Fair Future’ the action mechanisms of Diversity Management initiatives will be empirically investigated in different European countries. The goal is to develop evidence-based and innovative solution approaches for companies, public institutions and NGOs. You can find detailed information about the project under the following link: www.hs-osnabrueck.de/fair-future.
A variety of perspectives were represented in the presentations
The workshop offered the opportunity to unite many perspectives from different disciplines and European countries. The experts shared their current research findings on these topics:
Prof. Dr. Martin Mihajlov (Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia) focused on the topic of digital mental health in young adults from a technological perspective. He describes internet addiction as an addiction to content from the internet rather than an addiction to the internet itself. In a study with students, he investigated which emotions arise during a one-week abstinence from the internet and whether these are comparable to symptoms of addiction.
Prof. Dr. Dragan Tevdovski (Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Economics, Skopje, North Macedonia) reported on inequality from a macroeconomic perspective with a focus on the wage and profit share. He described the economic pie on the basis of Karl Marx, Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz and that the share of income has hardly changed in the last 20 years. Annual panel data from 30 countries from 2004 to 2023 was analyzed to answer the research question of what causes the differences in labor shares in European countries over the last two decades.
Dr. Petra P?ibilová (Newton University, Head of Science and Research Center, Czech Republic) focused on interdisciplinary research and teaching for a sustainable future with regard to social, environmental and economic aspects. Challenges she sees include different terminology and evaluation methods. On the opportunities side, there are innovation, more comprehensive solutions to problems and new sources of funding. An insight is provided by various projects to develop the necessary skills for a sustainable and competitive workforce. Her research is based on findings from the areas of management/leadership, economics/finance, sustainability/corporate social responsibility and innovation/technology.
Prof. Dr. Dragan Stanojevic (University of Belgrade, Serbia) presented the dynamics of pro-European orientation in the midst of the COVID crisis among European youth. In a comparative analysis based on ESS (European Social Survey) data from 2018 to 2022, the research question of what are the determinants of support for EU integration among young European citizens during the COVID crisis was addressed. In this context, EU integration is influenced by a complex interplay of various political, economic and cultural factors at both an individual and societal level.
Prof. Dr. Mihaela Vancea (University of Barcelona, Spain) reported on the development and assessment of intercultural competences in higher education in Spain from an educational science perspective. She sees intercultural competence as crucial for the promotion of intercultural understanding, communication and respect in educational contexts. There is a need for more comprehensive research on intercultural competence, especially in the Spanish context (e.g. more qualitative and longitudinal research and the development of valid and reliable instruments to assess intercultural competence in higher education). This should be used to develop better strategies, interventions and practices in intercultural education.
Tania Momcheva and Maria Chankova (Association for support of people with mental disabilities, Varna, Bulgaria) gave important practical impulses for various techniques and approaches for working with people with mental disabilities on taboo topics. The interventions presented were aimed at protecting health with regard to family planning and preventing sexual abuse. Topics covered included rights and responsibilities, knowledge about one's own body, making independent decisions and setting boundaries. Various art techniques were used for non-formal learning.
Prof. Dr. Rita Takács (ELTE E?tv?s Loránd University, Faculty of Informatics, Budapest, Hungary) reported on the promotion of student success and provided insights into current dropout research at the ELTE Faculty of Informatics Student Support Centre. The faculty currently has a total of 2500 Hungarian and 1000 international students. The implemented program serves to prevent students from dropping out in their first year of study with the two pillars (1) academic integration (to support students in creating their own individual and conscious learning strategies) and (2) social integration (to support students in integrating into a new university environment) and consists of various components such as training and mentoring.
Prof. Dr. Maurice Crul (Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands) presented diversity - with a focus on migration - in higher education as a new field of research. In the Netherlands, around a third of the population has a migration background (defined here as up to the third generation - grandparents from other countries). He describes the ability to live and work in an ethnically diverse environment as one of the most important skills of this century with social and economic benefits. The Diversity Transformation Model describes the development of diversity and inclusion guidelines in three phases: the awareness phase, the intercultural phase and the institutional phase.
Prof. Dr. Mirko Antino (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) presented various research approaches in work and organizational psychology that can offer added value for multi-professional European cooperation in the field of diversity. These include the definition of diversity, the assessment of diversity and its development over time. When looking at team fault lines, he considers both objective and subjective measures in order to determine the homo- or heterogeneity of a group. In addition, the development over time of phenomena such as happiness, future-oriented thinking, workplace bullying, anxiety and insomnia offers important implications for new research approaches.
To conclude, Henrik Schreiber (Competence Center Global Competence, University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, Germany) presented the various research projects of Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova. These include, for example, Cult Open, Accept and Utilize Diversity, Cost: Work Inequalities in later life and Cult Euro 1: Intercultural Competence. Against the background of these diverse research approaches, he provided insights into the Horizon Europe proposal with a focus on culture, creativity and an inclusive society.
Further Informations:
Prof. Dr. Petia Genkova Petkova
Professor of Business Psychology and a Head of the Project Fair Future
Telephone: 0541 969-3772
E-Mail: p.genkova@hs-osnabrueck.de
Prof. Dr. Genkova succeeded in establishing a new partnership for the research and network work. She visited the university in Malta and was able to meet Dr. Maria Brown from the education faculty. During this meeting they discussed among other things a new Erasmus contract so that a stronger exchange in research and study can continue and future common Erasmus projects are possible.
Moreover, the possibilities for cooperations for common Horizon projects were discussed extensively. During the approval of this project Dr. Brown is not only ready to organize an on-site workshop but also eventually a Kick-off workshop for the meeting with all cooperation partners and stakeholders so that an exchange with all is possible. In addition, different modalities and opportunities were discussed so that a mutual joint planning can be developed.
A further discussion point was the participation of the university of Malta in the Cult Open study on intercultural competence, a positive social identity, and a positive attitude towards diversity.
In order to do so, Dr. Maria Brown will actively participate in this so that also Malta is a part of the big Cross Cultural Study. Malta is a diversity oriented culture which combines different approaches.
Furthermore, Dr. Brown tries with the use of migration platforms to drive this further and to achieve a broad distribution. In addition, Dr. Christian Borg Xuereb and Prof. Carmel Cefai from the Faculty of Social Well-Being participate in all activities.
They also discussed and became acquainted with regional and culture-specific circumstances of the university.
We are happy about the new partnership and hope for a successful cooperation.
