When she's asked about transatlantic communication breakdowns, consultant Ann Houston Kelley tells of a joint venture between telecom companies including American AT&T and Dutch PTT.

You might say there was some static on the line.

"There was some frustration (on the Europeans' part) in the negotiations with the AT&T folks because they kept changing the person who was doing the negotiating all the time, like people were interchangeable," says Kelley, whose company Nomadic Life advises and trains employees of multinational firms.

"The Europeans became very confused, because they kept trying to build relationships, and then that person would be pulled and another person would come over."

How misunderstandings occur

Europeans' greater focus on relationships, especially in the Netherlands, relative to Americans' is one foundation for misunderstandings at work, Kelley says.

The cultural explanation: "The Dutch are much more concerned about the welfare of the group and Americans are much more concerned about individual achievement."

The British seem more familiar with the Dutch way. After all, they're geographically closer to the Dutch, and, as the saying goes, divided from the Americans by a common language.

When an informal sampling of workers was asked about cross-cultural conflicts at their Dutch workplaces, they all said management style was the arena where most friction arose. And the lines were clearest between the American way on one hand and everyone else's on the other.

American-run companies are common in the Netherlands, especially in the multinational arena and the exploding IT field. Many an expatriate who joins an English-speaking office finds him- or herself managed by one.

Different culture

A British programmer says he saw "a real culture clash" at the Dutch office of a large American-owned corporation where he worked.

"The CEO and vice presidents were all American and had a very top-down, dictatorial way of getting people to do stuff. They didn't get the fact that the culture (in the Netherlands) was completely different."

The Dutch custom of getting things done at work, which is based around getting everyone's input, discussing, and seeking a consensus, is known as the "polder model" after those flat pieces of reclaimed land where nothing sticks up higher than anything else.

That means workers here expect consideration, says Dutch IT researcher Hinde ten Berge. "You feel humiliated if people talk to you in that (dictatorial) way, if your boss tells you you must do something."

Expatriates working in the Netherlands often quickly come to appreciate the high level of respect for their input. "That's what makes the Netherlands a good country to work in," says English web designer Liz Turner. "It's very inclusive."

Hints and relationships

One US Internet engineer now working in the Netherlands says he sees the culture at his Amsterdam workplace as a British-Dutch hybrid. His English manager governs by "hints and relationships", and people aren't afraid to speak their minds. He says it's a pleasant contrast to the "militaristic" issuing of orders he was used to at his American workplace, where many engineers had come straight out of the Army and Air Force.

On the other hand, the "meeting culture" in which it's taboo to act without consulting everyone else first leaves some workers impatient to roll up their sleeves.

Software researcher Matt Smith moved to Amsterdam from Silicon Valley in January to work for a Dutch start-up. "Everyone wants to know about everything going on sometimes, and sometimes I think that's annoying.

"What I'm used to is that at some point someone has to make a decision. It can't always be a unanimous, democratic thing. If you have two people who disagree you'll never get a result.

"At some point you just have to trust that the other people are going to make the right decisions," Smith says.

Ten Berge agrees that too much sharing can mean nothing gets done. "In the Dutch model it's difficult to force someone to take responsibility for something, because you're working together."

Caught between two styles

On the other hand, the polder model might be a useful way to foster just the sort of workplace compromise Kelley says is especially needed in international offices.

Managers in international offices are often caught between a desire emanating from headquarters for things to be done by the home rules and the knowledge that "on the ground" things have to handled in a manner appropriate within the local culture.

As international workplaces become more common in The Netherlands, offices are responding by working out their own hybrid cultures.

Kelley says that, rather than the "Americanisation" feared by some Europeans, "companies are moving to more of an international management style that will have elements of the culture where the headquarters are, the culture where the subsidiary is located, (and) the cultures of the people who work for the company.

Finding the right way to run a company "is not a cut and dried thing", says Kelley. "People always have to fine-tune" to find procedures that work.

Subject: Employment in the Netherlands