When a Dutch service provider’s German country organisation invited international strategy consultant Paul Melessen to run a programme on cultural differences between the Netherlands and Germany, Melessen's suspicions, that the importance of differences between national cultures is often overestimated, were confirmed.

The company had offices in three locations — two of them newly acquired — therefore integration was still in progress and the connections between the Dutch head office and the new offices were still being developed.

Success in the German market, the company realised, would largely depend on their workforce, consisting of 90 percent Germans and about 10 percent Dutch. The local management was a mix of both nationalities. The internal communication was reasonable, but every now and then there was some friction between the two nationalities, resulting in both the speed and quality of the actions they took being diminished.

When I spoke to a friend about the trip, he assured me that there always had been friction between the Germans and the Dutch. "Germans are formal people, who always stick to the rules and won't go against their bosses," he remarked. "They consider the Dutch to be a blunt, anarchistic people, who always claim to know things better."

The above stereotypes of the Dutch and Germans are clearly exaggerated, but nevertheless they at least partly seem to be supported by many scholars and consultants. Using stereotypes of sexes, race or religion is considered to be politically incorrect. But as far as nationalities go there seems to be little restraint.

Reflecting on this, I drove from Amsterdam to the Sauer land — not more than 300 KM away, but supposedly an entirely 'different world'. Because Germans are so pünktlich, I wanted to be in time, which I was.

Most people were expected to arrive in about 15 minutes in two coaches. Some came by car and arrived on time. Then we got a phone call — the buses were delayed because of traffic congestion.

"It happens more and more... it is difficult to always be on time," an early bird explained to me. "But before the whole group arrives we like to have a word with you," he continued, "Otherwise it will be too noisy and you won't have enough time."

Those present expressed their anger that half of the management team would not be there, after all, the workshop was supposed to be for everyone and strategic plans would be discussed as well. The general feeling was, "It is the same managers who always think that they are above the law. We're supposed to be one company and we don't like that kind of behaviour."

It crossed my mind that this behaviour was very much against the hierarchical stereotype of 'the German', who would have taken his boss' no-show for granted.

When the latecomers finally arrived for the workshop I met a group of rather young, easy-going, playful and mainly German people who showed a genuine interest in the subject of cultural differences. I didn't hear anything reflecting the sentiment of "we do everything better". In the meantime the Dutch were trying to change the German habit of saying "Sie" to each other — the Dutch prefer the more informal "du". The Germans accepted this new "policy" with reluctance: "You Dutch think that "Sie" is impersonal and formal, but it is not. It shows that you have respect for each other."

After a good day with interesting discussions I once again concluded that many stereotypes on national cultures are not very valid.

What I have sensed over the past 20 years is that national cultures seem to converge. Partly this is the result of changing institutions and international politics — the European Union, Schengen, Euro, WTO, and NAFTA, to mention a few examples.

The media seem more or less to have abandoned ideology, history and reflection and gravitated instead towards mainstream opinions — opinions which are reflected worldwide. The younger generation, not particularly concerned with nationalism and history, have developed a worldwide youth culture, which in turn is being adopted by parents, who want to stay 'in touch'.

So — are national cultures that sticky at all? And are national cultures that important if you compare them with organisational culture?

Gurus like Hofstede, Trompenaars or d'Irribarne claim that national cultures are very strong and hardly change. They provide you with an abundance of rules to apply when abroad. According to them and to many of their followers in international HR, in different countries everything is different, so you better apply a standard set of rules — on a country by country basis — to make the best out of it.

What I found when carrying out cross-national research between big corporations is that large differences between cultures exist — as it does between countries.

For example, in Germany I found that many companies are not, as popular belief has it, very hierarchical and with a tendency to avoid risks. On the other hand, in a supposedly pragmatic and informal Dutch society I found more hierarchical and formal companies than I would have expected.

The importance of differences between national cultures is overestimated and the picture of non-changing cultures is too rigid and too easy an excuse to explain problems in managing international operations.

In research I have found that corporate culture and style of management have a far greater influence than national cultures on the way people behave. The key to successful cross-border integration is through aligning international strategy with local corporate culture.

For example, introduce new policies or products to the subsidiary with the highest level of innovative spirit instead of looking at the financial and marketing numbers and stereotypes first. This innovative spirit is related to the style of management rather than to a country. The innovators can convince more conservative parts of the organisation that it works. It is these types of decisions that really matter,rather than learning how a Dutch person should behave in Germany and then imagining that the German strategy — when applied, will work.

The downside of my playing down the role of differences between national cultures is that the convenient roadmaps for national culture become less useful.

The good news is that corporate culture seems to play a major role in cross-border operations and — in contrast to national cultures — corporate culture can be managed to a certain degree. So in the end it's all up to you, the managers!

June 2004

Paul Melessen, is an international strategy consultant based in the Netherlands. He can be contacted via his website at www.fourcee.nl