Cultural Insights Series: The Netherlands

Tourist will recognize the Netherlands of their tulips, drugs, red-light district, small houses, canals and bikes. But of course the Netherlands is more than that. In order to really understand the culture we need more cultural insights. So let's talk about the Dutch personality, customs and habits.

The Dutch are very individualistic. For them, family is less important in comparison to their neighbors in south European countries, where family is more of a priority. They are more prompt to leave their elderly parents in retirements homes and visit them only on special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas. Contact with extended family is rare.

As in other individualistic societies, Dutch parents ask their 18 years old to leave home: "It is time to be on your own". Children are asked to collaborate at home and when they reach 14 they start to work after school.

Dutch are concerned with hierarchical status.When meeting new people, the first question is: "What kind of job do you do and what did you study?"

Big in Dutch traditions is Queensday. Is an annual feast to celebrate the birthday of the queen, everyone dresses in orange and go out to the streets. In Amsterdam it gets very crowed, you can hardly walk. There is a lot of music and food. It is very common to organize garage sales on that day. Some people even try to reserve a space!

Dutch like sports and are very competitive. It doesn't matter which sport. Normally they are not that outgoing, but when it comes to sports and specially soccer, they become real fanatics... dressed in orange, of course.

People are really down to earth and open minded. Gay marriages, gay couples adopting children and mixed racial couples are common. Dutch rather have a registered partnership than getting marriage. Some people get married just because of the financial benefits or because when you have kids, is easier with all the paperwork. For most people marriage is old fashioned.

When it comes to proxemics (physical proximity of people engaged in conversations), Dutch need some distance. They only shake hands when you don't know the person. When it is a good friend or family you give 3 kisses.

Everyone in Holland rides a bike. People go to work and/or school with their bikes, even if it takes an hour and even if it is raining.

Dutch food: Kroketten, Bitterballen (eating out of the wall). Haring (raw fish) and Gouda Cheese, of course.

Special thanks to: A. Lamas and M.L. García Archidona (Dutch).

Cultural Insights Series: Introduction

As part of my Cross-Cultural Management class in the Master of International Business (Madrid - Madrid/Paris) and International MBA (Madrid/New York) programs at EAE Business School, I assign students another culture to study. They are required to identify real cultural insights from that society and compare their home culture with that society's values, beliefs and attitudes, and summarize the differences.

Throughout the years, these groups turned out to be highly diverse in their composition. I have had students from Norway, Colombia, France, Uruguay, Denmark, The Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Curacao, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Philippines, Belgium, El Salvador, Andorra, Switzerland, Canada, Iran, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Martinique Island, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and of course Spain.

With such multi culturally diverse groups the result of this assignment has been a highly interesting body of real cultural knowledge. The intention with this Cultural Insights Series that I am starting today, is to share those insights with all of you. Hopefully, with your own insights and collaboration this will turn out to be a rich source of cultural information. After all, managing in this globalized world requires sensitivity to cultural differences and to appropriate ways of doing business.

Successful international managers strive to understand cultural differences and that journey starts by achieving cultural sensitivity.