Comparing the cultures of Romania and the Netherlands: When East meets West

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.