Understanding the Dutch
Some relevant cultural dimensions and aspects of Dutch culture
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Understanding the Dutch
Some relevant cultural dimensions and aspects of Dutch culture
Understanding the Dutch is just the subtitle of a book about Dutch culture. Not something you can do by reading a short text. But having an idea about how Dutch 'scores' on cultural dimensions and how people from other countries tend to see the Dutch can be helpful.
- The Dutch culture is a 'linear active' culture in Richard Lewis' framework
- The Dutch are known for their directness. Dutch people will in many cases feel they are 'just being honest about things', people from other cultures can feel that Dutch people are being plain rude in certain circumstances.
- On the low context - high context scale the Dutch are certainly (very much) on the 'low context' side.
- On the task-based - relationship-based scale, which is very much about how we build trust (as Erin Meyer explains in her bestselling book The Culture Map), the Dutch are on the task based side of the scale.
- On the individualist - collectivist scale the Netherlands is on the individualist side of the scale.
- Dutch society is egalitarian, using Hofstede's terminology: the Netherlands has a low 'power distance' score.
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