Dutch Culture Analyses
Power Distance
In Dutch culture power distance is not a common behavior. “Acting Normal” is the appreciated standard. Dutch people do not accept hierarchy. Egalitarianism plays an important role in the private as well as business behavior. Employees in a lower positions cannot be treated as a “subordinates” or as inferiors who do everything their boss will tell them. Here the director of the company should say “hello” to the cleaning personal and should be careful with giving them the feeling that their job is not as important or is a low profile job. Here you call your boss by his/her first name without using the titles.
Uncertainty Avoidance
On one hand Dutch People do not deal easy with uncertainty and therefore there is such an amount of rules, procedures and bureaucratic regulations. This leads them to be not flexible enough to solve some issues or situations. If what you ask is not written or mentioned in rules or procedures you may hear “no”, “its not possible”, “I cant help” much more often that you might expect elsewhere. On the other hand in business they do not hide their heads in the sand when the problem should be solved, but they find the way out through the analysis.
Individualism / Collectivism
Dutch culture is a high individualistic culture and individualism increasing here. In many job or position postings you are expected to work independently but team orientated. Some examples takes from the postings of the job opportunities (Blue lynx Employment Agency, Den-Haag)
• Able to organize his/her own priorities.
• Ability to take initiatives and to work independently
• Organizational talent who is efficient, accurate and on top of business
• Self managed and enthusiastic team player
• Self-Drive
• Strong interpersonal skills, team-oriented, motivated self-starter
• Young driven commercial go getter
“Dutch are absolute individualist, refusing to march in lock-step to anybody's orders” (BRUNO FRIEDRICH in De Brom, magazine for
In Dutch culture power distance is not a common behavior. “Acting Normal” is the appreciated standard. Dutch people do not accept hierarchy. Egalitarianism plays an important role in the private as well as business behavior. Employees in a lower positions cannot be treated as a “subordinates” or as inferiors who do everything their boss will tell them. Here the director of the company should say “hello” to the cleaning personal and should be careful with giving them the feeling that their job is not as important or is a low profile job. Here you call your boss by his/her first name without using the titles.
Uncertainty Avoidance
On one hand Dutch People do not deal easy with uncertainty and therefore there is such an amount of rules, procedures and bureaucratic regulations. This leads them to be not flexible enough to solve some issues or situations. If what you ask is not written or mentioned in rules or procedures you may hear “no”, “its not possible”, “I cant help” much more often that you might expect elsewhere. On the other hand in business they do not hide their heads in the sand when the problem should be solved, but they find the way out through the analysis.
Individualism / Collectivism
Dutch culture is a high individualistic culture and individualism increasing here. In many job or position postings you are expected to work independently but team orientated. Some examples takes from the postings of the job opportunities (Blue lynx Employment Agency, Den-Haag)
• Able to organize his/her own priorities.
• Ability to take initiatives and to work independently
• Organizational talent who is efficient, accurate and on top of business
• Self managed and enthusiastic team player
• Self-Drive
• Strong interpersonal skills, team-oriented, motivated self-starter
• Young driven commercial go getter
“Dutch are absolute individualist, refusing to march in lock-step to anybody's orders” (BRUNO FRIEDRICH in De Brom, magazine for