Comparing the Cultures of Romania and The Netherlands: When East Meets West

Authors

  • Peter van der Berg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v8i2.416

Keywords:

national culture, organisational culture

Abstract

Romania, a former communist country and a recent member to the European Union, and The
Netherlands, one of the oldest EU members with a long history of democracy, were compared on
national and organizational culture variables. A total of 1,182 Dutch and Romanian participants
completed questionnaires that measured (a) Hofstede’s four national culture dimensions of
power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity, (b) what they perceived
currently in their jobs (actual practices) and what they wished for in an ideal job (values) on five
dimensions of organizational culture: autonomy, interdepartmental coordination, external
orientation, human resource orientation, and improvement orientation, and (c) practices and
values for transformational leadership. The results showed that the Netherlands scored higher on
individualism, and lower on power distance and masculinity, than did Romania. The Dutch
perceived higher levels of how autonomy, interdepartmental coordination, human resource
orientation, and improvement orientation is actually practiced in organizations, and lower
practices levels for external orientation and transformational leadership than did the Romanian
sample. With respect to values, the Dutch scored higher on autonomy and lower on
interdepartmental coordination, external orientation, human resource orientation, improvement
orientation, and transformational leadership than did the Romanians. The finding that Romanians
are lower on most practices and higher on most values suggests that Romanians desire change
and that East and West European countries within the EU will grow closer to one another other
over time.

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Published

2020-01-26

How to Cite

van der Berg, P. (2020). Comparing the Cultures of Romania and The Netherlands: When East Meets West. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 8(2), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v8i2.416

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2010): Psihologia Resurselor Umane

Section

Research articles

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