Christopher Schlagel | Faces of FEB

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The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with a great diversity of people who all have an impact, big or small, on science and society. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we connect with different students, staff members and researchers of the faculty and give a little peek into their world. This week: Christopher Schlagel, assistant professor of international business at the Global Economics and Management department at FEB.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am currently an assistant professor of international business at the Global Economics and Management department at FEB, and was coordinator/lecturer/tutor for the Cross-Cultural Management course for Bachelor students and tutor for Managing Cultural Differences for Master students. I am going to leave FEB by the end of October and start as full professor of behavioral international management at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.

2. It’s diversity month at FEB. What does diversity mean to you?

I grew up in the eastern part of Germany and until 1989 I was socialized in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). International and intercultural diversity was largely only exiting in terms of the relationship to the former Soviet Union. In terms of gender diversity at the workplace East Germany was more diverse than West Germany at that time and this is still visible (e.g., child daycare). When I started to study international management in 1998 the student cohort was not international at all. This was very different once I started to work as a research assistant and PhD student in 2004. The team was very international (colleagues from Brazil, China, Finland, and Germany). I shared an office with my Chinese colleague for five years and I learned a lot during this time and also the students in my classes became more and more international. Since I joined first Maastricht University in 2016 and later the University of Groningen diversity is everywhere in my work and my daily life. Groningen is a very internationally diverse city and the GEM department has a very high diversity. In my research and teaching I work with people of different national background and gender.

3. How does diversity play a role in your research?

My current research projects examine the determinants and outcomes of intercultural competence at the level of the individual and the team, specifically international virtual teams. Although the use of international virtual teams has increased in the last decade, the pandemic had a tremendous influence on this development. In one project we examine the influence of cultural value orientations for the development of individuals’ self-regulation during the onset of the pandemic and the role of self-regulation in buffering the negative effects of the pandemic on individuals’ performance in virtual teams. Our results show that cultural value orientations have an influence on self-regulation, which in turn reduces the negative effect of the pandemic (measured via the number of infections and COVID related deaths) on individual task performance. Individuals with different cultural value orientations can handle the pandemic situation to varying degrees and, thus, need tailored interventions.

4. You facilitate a course on cross-cultural management. How does inclusiveness manifest in cross-cultural situations?

In the courses that cover cross-cultural aspects in general the lecturers do their best to cover the diversity of cross-cultural interactions as good as possible within the seven week window of each block. For example, we use examples, cases, figures, and tables that cover the different regions of the world as comprehensive as possible. In the composition of the teams we make sure to be as diverse as possible. Some students still complain in the course evaluations that they do not feel included and covered by the examples. I am limited in my individual examples I use in the course by my own background and the experiences I made in the last two decades. Also the cases that are available and the examples in books cover not all regions of the world. With students coming from more than 70 countries in the course cross-cultural management it is impossible to cover all countries in cases and examples but we do our best to cover the broader regions of the world (i.e., Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa etc.).

5. Could you share your best practices for maintaining a safe and inclusive space (in work and teaching) with us?

When it comes to cross-cultural interactions, based on the available empirical research one can say that openness, curiosity, and a critical reflection of the own behavior as well as updating of the own knowledge are individual characteristics that are important factors in developing intercultural competence. International experience and some language skills are helpful but seem to be less important than broadly assumed when compared to being open to new experiences and focusing on similarities instead of stressing differences in cultural norms and values. Often issues in intercultural interactions arise as a mix of differences in individual cultural value orientations and broad personality traits (i.e., extraversion, emotional stability etc.). Focusing simply on solutions for cross-cultural issues is of limited help in these situations. Being open, tolerant, and respectful allows handling such complex challenges.