An anonymous case model about an internationally operating consultancy firm.

Overview

For this anonymous case model, a Dutch senior consultant in HR operations – hereinafter ‘the interviewee’ and referred to as ‘they’ – working for an internationally operating company also based in the Netherlands, was interviewed. Each country naturally has their own headquarters, and a lot of operations take place on the European level. The working language of the company is completely in English.

The interviewee works mainly internally and focuses on several topics such as well-being, inclusion, diversity and engagement. The interviewee is currently running three projects on employee engagement. They are also working to introduce a new benefits tool for employees in Europe. The now senior consultant has been working with the company for over four years, starting as a service desk agent in 2017. They have climbed the corporate ladder and the company has enabled their skills through talent management.

The interviewee shared that the firm has made a shift to a more “culturally sensitive corporate environment”. A good example of this cultural awareness is that the firm has introduced a policy that allows people to leave a meeting or social interaction if they feel (culturally) inhibitive or prohibitive with the behavior that colleagues are presenting. Another shift in the firm is that they are anticipating building a culturally centered diversity community, the interviewee continued, “we want people to feel included within the company”. This is why the firm its main working language is English, still, the company is also operating in the Netherlands, so Dutch is an accepted language. However, as the interviewee stated before, the company wants everybody to feel culturally accepted, that is why they use English for all their internal communication and documents. What is more, is that the company facilitates people praying and new moms that have to breast-pump, by offering them a room to do these activities in. “We do not want people to work longer days or work overtime whenever they are praying or pumping.” the interviewee told us, “Which is why people can write these hours on a special code, as to not make those employees feel like a burden”, a good example of normalizing these activities and to not make people feel prohibitive.

Concretely, the company has made great steps towards diversity and inclusion by changing and adjusting its policies for it to benefit everyone that works for the company, which is also shaping the social norms of the company. The company introduced:

• Better (paid) paternity leave, parents can legally take 5 weeks 70% paid leave, the company adds to this amount, offering 100% paid leave to promote parents to care for their children.
• A mental toughness programme, as the company believes that the health of its employees is very important, it offers free corporate fitness programs, free access to Headspace (a wellbeing app) and events/webinars given on the subject.
• Multiple community networks, including the GLOBE network (for LGBTQIA+ colleagues and allies), Multi-Cultural Network, Women Network and more.
• The female mentoring program, as the company saw not many women leaders in levels of management & up, they offered women a mentor that would support them in achieving those higher roles.
• An overall importance on a personal work-life balance.

Hofstede Dimensions

The interviewee shared, “[so] it’s switching your style of communications and just the way you are nudging people to a certain decision”. The way that they approach this is different for Great Britain, for Italy, and for Egypt. The interviewee stated that there will always be people from different cultures that they have to work with. Take for instance the language perspective, colleagues in the UK have different jokes and if someone makes a joke in Dutch, they therefore have to translate it, and might interpret it with a different meaning than originally intended. The following will be an examination of the different handlings of people in The Netherlands and Great Britain using the Hofstede dimensions.

 

Power distance

Both The Netherlands and Great Britain score alike on the dimension of power distance (38 and 35 respectively), evidencing small power distance orientation (Hofstede, 2002). However, their communication styles differ greatly, as for all of the ‘Dutch directness’ (low context), there is ‘English elusiveness’ (indirectness, high context) to match.

Masculinity-femininity scale

Great Britain scores 66 on the value of masculinity, which is relatively high when compared to the significantly lower 14 score of the Netherlands. This means that achievement is more important for the British, compared to the Dutch, who place greater value on the quality of life (femininity). As such, the British may misperceive Dutch culture-based behavior as weak from the perspective of achievement (Hofstede, 2002). The British will focus on the results and achievements, without placing a focus on more empathetic aspects as described by Hofstede (2002). Meanwhile, the feminine Netherlands may misperceive British culture-based behavior as aggressive and braggart.

Individualism-collectivism scale

As we look at the comparison in figure 1 of the different aspects of both cultures, we see that both Great Britain and The Netherlands have a high score on the scale of individualism. Great Britain has a score of 89 and the Netherlands has a score of 80. Which means that the English and the Dutch are both more focused, according to Hofstede (2002), on the individual in comparison to a collective thinking that is more focused on the benefit of the group. In both cultures, people tend to have a more self-centered view (Hofstede, 2002), which could lead to inhibitive behavior when working in large groups where people do not know each other well.

Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI)

Based on the figure, Great Britain scores a low 35 compared to the 53 of The Netherlands on the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI). This makes the Dutch preferring rules and control, whereas the British feel more comfortable with unpredictable situations as described by Hofstede (2002). This came forward in the interview when talking about working together in teams, this will be explored in more detail in the ‘possible solutions’ section. When considering the social norms of the company, it is generally more accepted when Dutch employees make sure to follow rules and avoid ambiguity, contrary to the British where it is also accepted to ‘go with the flow’ and show a more relaxed attitude towards vagueness.

Time orientation

Both the Dutch and the British showcase more of a long-term orientation, scoring above a 50 on the time orientation scale, with The Netherlands on 67 and Great Britain on a 51. Employees inside the company with these cultural backgrounds appreciate success over a long-term horizon (Hofstede, 2002). It is therefore inhibitive for them to achieve short-term rewards and achievements, linking back to the feminine Dutch. However, this paints a contradiction with Great Britain and its masculinity. This can be clarified by the fact that Great Britain scores low to be considered solely long-term oriented; they are on the fence between short-term and long-term orientation.

Outcome

During the interview, it was also discussed what the difficulties are that the company faces with moving towards a cultural and inclusive corporate environment. The interviewee told us that “the company experiences difficulty in recruiting female job applicants within the STEM [short for science, technology, engineering, mathematics] field”, this makes getting a team that is equally balanced on gender a difficult challenge. Especially when society is focused on numbers like a 50/50 ratio on gender. If the company is solely judged on that single metric, it does not reach its goals. Still, the company is trying to move into the inclusion part of diversity and inclusion. As the interviewee puts it “diversity is being asked to the party and inclusion is actually dancing at the party”. More recently, the organization introduced a new e-mail signature. With it, it is now possible to provide your preferred gender pronouns. Which, within the company, they see as a small, but great step forward in making people feel more accepted, to be their true selves, and educating one another on gender.

Possible solutions

The company is now transitioning from working on diversity, to working towards inclusion instead of focusing only diversity. The company wants people mixing around and feeling included. A practical cultural policy the interviewee talked about are flexible holidays for colleagues with a different cultural or religious background, so they can swap those holidays for their own celebrations. This means that if an employee wants to celebrate something of their own culture or religion, like Holi or Eid al-Fitr, they can take time off work. Instead of being obligated to use that specific day for Dutch, Christian, holidays like Easter or Pentecost – something that might not celebrated in another employees’ culture or religion.

Dealing within a multicultural firm can be quite a challenge sometimes, especially when starting on a new project. The firm uses a color-coding system called ‘business chemistry’ that takes in mind your working style and cultural perceptive of how to deal with certain topics like stated in the Hofstede cultural insight model. For example, the interviewee shared that they are primarily the color red and a bit of yellow. Which means that they are very structured and have a low level of uncertainty avoidance. A team member of the interviewee could have a different color, which could mean that they have a low power distance and avoid uncertainties as well. The interviewee stated, “we know each other’s colors, so we know how to balance off from each other in certain projects and my strength is something whereas my colleague could have another strength”. Inside the firm, they try to mix the other colors and other traits and strengths to accomplish the team goal instead of working with the same colleagues who have the same working style.

Besides focusing on inclusion, the company internally has inspiring and high-reaching ideas, but that often does not translate to the world at large. However, that doubt has been taken away, as the firm is now focusing on the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) set out by the United Nations in 2015, which covers topics such as no poverty, reduced inequalities, decent work and economic growth. The firm is also focusing its efforts on reaching the SDGs and making a better world.

Authors

Fathima Ruzaika Arshad (LinkedIn)
Student: Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Auckland University of Technology
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021-2022

Max Heijmans (LinkedIn)
Student: International Business Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021-2022

Stijn Mulder (LinkedIn)
Student: International Business Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021-2022

Wessel Vergeer (LinkedIn)
Student: Business Administration and Management Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Block 2, Semester 1, 2021-2022