How Dutch Culture shapes its Change, Organizational Cultures and Structures: Article 1

Written by Sjaak Pappe (Adaptation of a previous article written by my well-respected colleague Huib Würsten)

‘Culture eats (Change) Strategy for Breakfast’ – ascribed to Peter Drucker

What meaning does change have in Dutch culture? How is it perceived? Who should/can trigger off change?

What role does leadership play in change in the Netherlands?

Are there global cultural patterns that foster/hinder change?

How does Dutch culture respond to success/failure in change? What role does learning play?

Introduction: Why Dutch should be prouder of their own change management approach

?This is the first of four short articles that I will devote to effective change management in the Netherlands. It’s not only useful to read these articles if you manage or work in Dutch affiliates of foreign companies, or supra-governmental organizations, or non-profit organizations, but it’s hopefully also useful for leaders and professionals in Dutch organizations. “Why”, may you ask, if you are Dutch? “I know my own culture, so I know how to manage change!”

Well, over the past more than 20 years that I facilitated managers and professionals around the world and specifically in The Netherlands, I learned that 90% of management literature that is read by Dutch leaders is Anglo-Saxon, and mostly from the US. Also, management training is very often based on US insights. Even in my years as advisory board member of a Dutch university of applied sciences I found out that students’ literature for nearly 100% comes from the US. All of this I understand, because the US invests a lot in management research, are champions in selling their management methods and techniques around the world, also because the claim is that the solutions are universal. ?

Therefore, I see a lot of Anglo-Saxon change management approaches in the Netherlands. Which is not a big surprise by the way, because we like Anglo-Saxon humor and entertainment; we are just as individualistic as them, and since WWII our import volumes from the US/UK and export magnitude to the UK are amongst the top 5. Therefore, we have been “culturally colonized” by the US/UK, without being aware of it.

Proposed change in the UK/US is always related to well understood self-interest.?Referring to the work motivation of people, in these cultures, people can be willing to overcome resistance to change if one is able to create the image of a ‘burning platform’, e.g., “if we do not jump now, we will burn”. It can also be motivating to show that doing things in a different way is good for the next career step, or for gaining a material reward. A good leader is supposed to be able to do this. The reference point is the individual employee and his/her individual definition of self-interest.

We therefore use a lot of Anglo-Saxon management techniques such as empowerment, management-by-objectives, personal incentives, change champions elections and trophy’s, emphasizing individualism, and career development comes first. And especially management styles are US inspired: decisive, selling decisions, the leader is a hero, data driven, tough and in control. There is nothing wrong with all of this, although I will try to prove that these techniques are not effective in the Netherlands. Also, individualism in the Netherlands has become a mass phenomenon, leading to very narcistic behavior, attitude, and beliefs. The “me, myself and I” has gone over the top.

The reality however is somewhat different. The effectiveness of change management around the world is rather low anyhow, more than 80% more or less fails. Eighty percent (80%!) of this is caused by all kinds of cultural dynamics, like ignore culture totally, not understanding or aligning with National cultures, no alignment between organizational culture and strategy, keeping ‘old blood groups’ of dysfunctional organizational subcultures intact, drafting values with the use of advertising agencies or communication experts without translating them into real behavior, attitude and beliefs leading to an identity instead of a real optimal corporate culture, not understanding consumer cultures. ??

I will try to argument in these series that emphasizing the feminine side of the Dutch and applying “best of both worlds” might be a more logical route to effective change leadership.????

Developing, Rolling Out and Implementing Change; Culture the most underestimated factor

The preparation and implementation of change is highly culturally sensitive because it explains around sixty to seventy percent of how things are done in group settings. Culture is about stable (National) cultural values and changing social norms that determine how people (must and prefer to) work, collaborate, and interact with the outside world in work units, organizations, professional groups, societies, (extended) families, etc. This article series explores the influence of cultural value differences of the Netherlands on change management, organizational culture, and structure. It outlines the important aspects for change in Dutch international and local organizations and shows us potential cultural booby traps, synergies, and sensitive change approach.

Most underestimated in management is rolling out and implementing decisions for key changes. Executives at the strategic top conceive the future of the company, and its goals, strategies, systems, structures. Very often they tend to state to people at the middle line management level and at the operational core after they decided on significant and strategic changes, “This is our plan! Now it’s your task to roll out and implement our decision in the company”. In many cases they underestimate human competence, culture, and motivation to do this and their level of capability and ambition to resist change.

Culture, Change and Resistance

To analyze change management and the resistance to change, it is very important to be aware that cultural values in the Modern Nation States, like the Netherlands, are developed and passed on from generation to generation over centuries and are extremely stable. The other key cultural manifestations, social norms, rituals, role-models, and symbols change more easily over time and are very often perceived as “a change in National culture”, which is not true as we see in our longitude management research.????

Professor Geert Hofstede’s 6-Dimensional Model for cultural differences offers a practical roadmap or paradigm, simply because it is the most validated and replicated Model in the world. Over a period of 50 years, it was replicated more than 70 times. Many other scientists have tried to falsify it but without their desired success.

The 6 dimensions in this model are:

????????????????Power Distance Index (‘PDI’).

????????????????Individualism vs Collectivism (‘IDV’).

????????????????Masculinity vs Femininity (‘MAS’).

????????????????Uncertainty Avoidance Index (‘UAI’).

????????????????Short-term vs. Long-term Orientation (‘LTO’).

????????????????Indulgence vs. Restraint (‘IVR’).

They represent worldwide the same six key life questions to which people in the different cultural systems of countries around the world, over centuries, have developed different answers:

????????????????PDI: How do people deal with hierarchy? Do they accept that power is divided unequally or not??

????????????????IDV: How do people relate to each other? Are they loyal to themselves and immediately family or to larger extended families or groups?

????????????????MAS: What is people’s role and motivation in society? Do they prefer competition, quantity or collaboration, quality, and consensus?

????????????????UAI: How do people deal with ambiguity and uncertainty? Are they relaxed about it, or do they try to minimize it?

????????????????LTO: How do people relate to their past, present or future? Do they value past-oriented traditions and norms or are they future-oriented and flexible?

????????????????IVR: How do people deal their natural drives? Do they enjoy life and have fun in many ways or is this strictly regulated?

Each country has a unique profile on these dimensions which influences how change will be accepted or rejected. Next week I will further elaborate on resistance to change.?