Overview
My actual main teaching and research subject is intercultural management: How to deal with cultural differences when doing business abroad.
Research
Originally I was educated as a classical archaeologist and classicist at Leyden and my first publications were on Hellenistic pottery found in Alexandrië (Egypt). During my Egyptian years the interest in cultural differences rose.
In 2007 appeared my book on Dutch culture: Nederland tussen nut en naastenliefde. Op zoek naar onze cultuur. In the years after I focused on ethnic diversity on the workfloor, carrying out a qualitative research in a big semi-public Dutch organisation, which resulted in: Succes in een vreemd land. Waarom sommige allochtonen slagen en andere niet (2021).
For the Business Administration study at the University of Twente, I started the project ‘One market, many cultures’ which aims to describe the various national cultures in Europe, following an emic interpretive approach. For this I make use of the Critical Incident Technique and developed the Grounded Interpretive Model.
- Enklaar, A.H. (2024). One market, many cultures. Introduction to the project. Crocus Papers 1. Enschede: Crocus DOI: https://doi.org/10.69119/atwwkk23
- Rosemann, J., and Enklaar, A.H. (2026). Working as a German in the Netherlands. Crocus Papers 2-1. Enschede: Crocus. DOI: https://doi.org/10.69119/e060yp82
- Jimmink, B.J., and Enklaar, A.H. (2026). Working as a Dutchman in Germany. Crocus Papers 2-2. Enschede: Crocus. DOI: https://doi.org/10.69119/892vxj58
- Enklaar, A.H. (2026). Dutch and Germans at work: A synthesis. Crocus Papers 2. Enschede: Crocus. DOI: https://doi.org/10.69119/yp54fs26
Other intercultural research (including conference papers) dealt with the Critical Incident Technique and the Grounded Interpretive Model, the different approaches of French and Dutch Agile workers, the Culture Simulator, Sustainability change in Egypt, the relevance of Jobcrafting in non-European cultures, and a competence acculturation model.
Teaching
Since my appointment at the University of Twente in 2020, I have (re)designed several courses. Together with Lara Carminati, I reorganised the introductory lecture on cultural differences and the intercultural skills programme, preparing the students for their stay abroad.
Lara and I also designed the new master's course Cross-Cultural Behaviour (CCB) as part of the International Management and Consultancy (IMC) track. This course prepares students for dealing with cultural differences when doing business abroad.
Due to concerns about the gap between our foreign graduates and the Dutch labour market, I designed the new minor Going Dutch, which includes, among other things, lessons in Dutch language, Dutch culture in general and at work and an assignment in a Dutch company. The minor has now been running successfully for five years. In the meantime, I am involved in designing a comparable module for the master’s phase in order to enhance the stay rate of international graduates of the UT.
From 2022-2025, I have been leading the CAPIRE project, funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme, with a consortium of universities in France, Poland, Italy and Germany. In this project, we created an online intercultural training tool, the Culture Simulator. It consists of cases, describing puzzling situations in a foreign country, which the user has to solve. The Culture Simulator is accessible for free: www.culturesimulator.org
Projects
From 2022-2025, I organised the CAPIRE project, which resulted in the creation of the Culture Simulator, an online intercultural training tool: www.culturesimulator.org
At the moment, we are working on an improved version, Culture Simulator 2.0, which is more user-friendly and offers more facilities to teachers.
I am the daily supervisor of the following PhD students:
- Rieko Onuma: Designing the Japanese junior high school of the future
- Caroline Fors: The agency of Afghan women in times of reconstruction and suppression
- Nahla Ahmed: The drivers of sustainability transition in Egypt.
- Odris Cruz Labrada: Cultural success factors of foreign direct investment in Cuba
In preparation is a new project, together with Osnabrück University, with the title: Trust in German-Indian business cooperation.