Introduction
In this blog we will try to showcase the differences between Dutch and U.S. culture, and the culture shocks that can occur when one moves from the Netherlands to the U.S.
We are lucky we have the perfect anecdotal proof from one of us, since Bart moved to the U.S. two months ago from the Netherlands for an exchange semester.
We will look at multiple forms of differences between culture in communications, that are described in the book written by Kory Floyd (2011). Firstly we will describe our general view of the differences, and then we will look at Hofstede’s model, and compare our experiences to his research.
Our general view of the differences.
In general, we found out of our experiences that American culture is more extreme in a couple of ways. The believes in the U.S. are often very strong, which we attribute for a large part to the individuality and that children are taught from young age to voice their opinion. These values and norms can either be religious, political, or for example on feminism or capitalism. In general the Netherlands are not very religious, and we are generally taught as children to “act normal”. A prime example of this would be a political campaign poster in the Netherlands.
”Getting the Netherlands out of the financial crisis”—Very normal (filled in), not normal (blank)—Acting. In a Normal manner. VVD (Name of the political party).
This very much describes the dutch, one should not act out to much but just act normal.
Hofstede’s model:
We will use Hofstede’s model for cultural differences, since it’s one of the most used and well respected models to define differences in culture. We will look at the data from Hofstede Insights (2019), and compare it to our personal experiences. We will look at 4 dimensions, that are described in the book by Floyd (2011): Individualism/Collectivism, Low/High-context Cultures, Low/High-Power Distance and Masculinity/Femininity.
Blue=The Netherlands, Purple=The United States
(Hofstede Insights, 2019)
Individualism/Collectivism:
Brooke’s View: Americans are Individualistic; American celebrate being different from one another and this is shown from a young age, almost every child has been told they are special for being themselves. Americans always want to be different from one another in some way and most noticeable in how they dress. It’s very normal for Americana to have dyed hair, piercings, tattoos, and to dress in such colorful or unique ways. Women will wear much bolder styles of makeup in America than in other countries. Americans celebrate being different because that’s what we were taught.
Bart’s View: Dutch people aren’t exactly collectivistic, they still find personal success and well-being very important. However the way they achieve it is often through superior educational results, and not with their appearance. A lot of Dutch people look alike, which is also partly because there are less different races and people in the Netherlands, it is predominantly white. In the recent years more and more Dutch people have started dressing differently and trying to look different, but in general the consensus is still: “be normal”.
Comparing our Views to the data:
As we saw in Brooke’s view, the data supports the high level of Individualism. Bart’s perception of Individualism is a little bit more towards the collectivism side, even though he still says it is more individualistic. The difference in Bart’s view and the data might be explained by the fact that people, even though they are told to be normal and fit in, still hold personal success and results to a high regard.
Low and High-Context Cultures:
Brooke’s View: In general the American culture is low-context, in which people say directly what they want to say. However, many women are very blunt with each other. Especially, when mothers and daughters are dress shopping. At first moms will say things such as maybe try a different dress but once the daughter has tried on the third dress then moms will say everything that’s wrong with the dress and to go get something else instead. Americans won’t be upfront right away but will get to this point quickly.
Bart’s View: The Dutch culture might be one of the lowest-context cultures in a way. For example: if someone gets a gift they already have, they will tell the person if they can get the receipt so they can bring it back to the store and get something else. This is something that wouldn’t happen as quickly in the U.S.
Comparing our Views to the data: The graph we found doesn’t mention Low and High-context cultures. Other research has shown that both America and the Netherlands are Low-context countries though, which is similar to our view on it. From Bart’s view we may possible conclude through further research that the Dutch culture might even be a little more direct and Low-context than the American culture.
Low and High Power-Distance Cultures:
Brooke’s View: In general, the hierarchy in the U.S. is decently prevalent. If someone is your direct superior, you will question them at times, but their ideas will always go through and most people are okay with that. In the workplace in most American jobs there is only one or two bosses and all the rest of the workers are equals. In my workplace I can joke and challenge one of my bosses because we are more friendly with each other but with the other boss I never question anything and just do as I’m told. So, there is a hierarchy but it can shift and change depending on the people.
Bart’s View: In the Netherlands people have learned that everyone is equal and ideas from people lower in the chain are often appreciated more. There of course is still a little bit of a power distance, but it is lower than in the U.S. in my opinion. Personally, I work in a small company (2 superiors and 3 interns) in which I can mostly voice my opinion openly, even towards the superiors. My view might we a little bit biased though, since I’ve worked in mostly jobs that require a higher education. In lower education the power distance might be larger and more prevalent in the Netherlands.
Comparing our Views to the data: Our views steer off from the main data quite a bit. In Brooke’s view, the American hierarchy is decently prevalent. We would maybe expect it to be higher than 50 then, however it is only 40. The differences in the middle of the graph (40-60) might be more negligible though, since they all come up in the middle of the spectrum. Surprisingly Bart’s View of the power distance is quite a bit lower than the real power distance (38). This might be because, as he said himself, he might be biased and it might be different in higher education jobs.
Masculine and Feminine Cultures:
Brooke’s View: The U.S. is quite a masculine culture, focusing a lot on competing, individual success and hard work to get to that point. America also is a lot more unfair to women. There is a lot of sexism in American still with unequal pay and harassment. I believe the U.S. is a masculine culture because we are also a high power culture. Men are perceived to be more dominant while women are not. This can directly affect women and men in American culture.
Bart’s View: The Netherlands are more feminine, they focus more on the quality of life. This can be clearly seen in the amount of hours people work in both countries. In a study by OECD (2017) it can be seen that American workers work an average of 1780 hours a year, in comparison to 1433 in the Netherlands. In general, the U.S. is one of the countries that works the most, and the Netherlands one of the countries that works the least. This attributes to the fact that the Netherlands is a country with higher femininity; a lot of people work less hours to spend 1 day with their children for example. Personally, I also prefer to work in teams instead of individual performance, which is also a sign of more feminine culture.
Comparing our Views to the data:
Brooke’s view came back quite the same way the data also came back. The U.S. general has a reasonably masculine culture. Bart’s view also compared decently to the data, in which we could see the Netherlands is quite a feminine country, which influences both quality of life, work hour and communication decisions they make.
Conclusively:
Our views came out mostly the same way the data was set up. In some instances there was a little bit of a gap, which as we said before might be because of personal biases or the personal experiences that we have had in life. This was definitely a subject that was interesting for us to study, since we are both interested in learning about different cultures, and the way communication works in those cultures.
References
Floyd, K. (2011). Interpersonal Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hofstede Insights. (2019). http://www.Hofstede-Insights.com. Retrieved from Hofstede-Insights: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/the-netherlands,the-usa/
OECD. (2017). http://www.Stats.OECD.org. Retrieved from Stats.OECD: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS
Bart&Brooke 