Dutch Leadership Culture
- Punctuality is generally appreciated in the Netherlands. Last minute cancellation or rescheduling of meetings are not appreciated.
- The Dutch have an extensive degree of organisation and planning, from scheduling meetings to book holidays far in advance.
- Managers are vigorous and decisive, but consensus is mandatory, as there are many key players in the decision-making process. The style has often been described as ‘Polder Model’: The structure of the Dutch landscape stimulated a type of politics that wanted to accommodate minorities, looking for compromises and consensus decision-making. The Dutch will share, comment, express their opinions and present ideas, based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
- Employees and managers are self-initiate and demonstrate flexibility on how to achieve goals, while working independently.
- The Dutch Leadership culture is about Consensual and Egalitarian. Consensual decision making sounds like a great idea in principle, but people from fundamentally non consensual cultures can find the reality frustratingly time-consuming. Expect the decision making to take longer. Don’t expect the manager to jump in and decide for the group. The manager is a facilitator, not the decision maker.
- The Dutch are direct (confront issues straightforwardly) get straight to business and spend practically no time in niceties, this will be done after the meeting.
HR FACTS NL
Facts & Figures NL
- Population: 17 Million
- Capital: Amsterdam
Seat of Government: Den Haag (The Hague)
- 12 Provinces: Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Flevoland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, Limburg
- Large cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Eindhoven.
- Language: Dutch and Frisian is an official language in province Friesland.
- Dutch history abroad: New York City was first called “New Amsterdam” and was founded as a Dutch Colony. Both Australia and New Zealand were also discovered by the Dutch. Australia was named “New Holland” and New Zealand was named after the province Zeeland.
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