Competence Center for Global Competence

Petia Genkova, Prof. Dr. phil. habil., is a professor for business psychology at the Faculty of Business Management and Social Sciences and led many research projects related to the in-depth research of Intercultural Competence, Intercultural Communication and Collaboration as well as the Experience and the Health and Satisfaction of people with a migration background as well as the topic Diversity. The main focus of her research is in the area of interculturality (Intercultural Competence, Global Virtual World, Acculturation, Diversity and Digitization) and positive psychology and personality development (work-life balance, stress and health management, stress, migration and success, expatriation and personality development). Research in all these topic fields is done internationally as well as cross-culturally with comparative studies and interculturally. There is a special emphasis on the identification, analysis and support of competences as cross-sector success factors.

Special emphasis should be placed on the research project ''Cult-Euro-1: A Validation of a Measurement Instrument for General and West-European Culture-Specific Intercultural Competence'', supported by the VIP+ Program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in the framework of which she develops and validates a measurement instrument on general and culture-specific intercultural competence. In the project Use and Accept Diversity (DNA, supported by the BMBF) she investigated Diversity Management in the MINT sector and the MINT field at German universities of applied science. Although the MINT sector is growing more and more and plays a significant role for the business location Germany, it exhibits serious shortcomings in the area Diversity Management. In the international research projects Diverschance_East, Fair_Future and Edu_Chance (supported by BMBF) she analyses global competences and challenges of diversity and digitization in the economy and the educational sector in an innovative Europe. The focus of these projects is particularly on the international research and dissemination of interdisciplinary competences as well as on the generation of follow-up projects in the European research framework Horizon Europe. Furthermore, she creates for the project ''Ready for a Colorful World'' (supported by NS-MWK) micro interventions as open educational resources which should sustainably strengthen the teaching and competence support when dealing with a changing working world. Beyond these nationally supported research projects, Prof. Genkova is a member of the management board of the COST Action ''Digitization and Redefinition of Work in Later Life' (funded by the European Commission) and heads a research network with currently 34 researchers coming from 23 countries.

The results of the research projects of Prof. Genkova flow also in the different lectures as well as her multi-faceted consulting activities. As a professor and lecturer at different universities as well as through her parallel work as a consultant for private companies and public institutions, she held more than 270 lectures in addition to a great number of trainings, coachings, and seminars with very different group sizes (10 to 600 people) and target groups (student teachers, students of: pedagogy, cultural studies, media and communication, political science, psychology with different foci, business administration, computer science, economic management, police officers, federal police force, Bundeswehr officers, authorities; commercial representations and management).

Beyond her academic activities, Prof. Genkova is involved as a board member of the German women's academic organization, as a vice chair of the Women's Council NRW, a delegate of the media commission NRW, Chairwoman of the section Political Psychology, spokesperson of the Committee on Equality of the German Association of Psychologists (BDP). She is furthermore a member in a large number of professional and practice associations and functions as an expert at the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the Science Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation and international journals.