For the new plant in the Netherlands, our Human Resources Committee evaluated the local managers and chose Carolina for the position of Director of the Human Resources division.
According to the studies in Hofsteade’s Culture Dimensions, the Netherlands show a small power distance and a high Individualism in their culture. Also Holland has a highly nurturing (feminine) culture and moderate tendency uncertainty avoidance. We have no information on the fifth dimension, log term/short term orientation, and subsequently we did not considered it for our decision.
We tested the candidates own culture dimension values, whit scores from 4 to 28 points; Carolina presented a high individualism (20 points), a low score in power distance dimension (14 points) and extremely low Achievement/masculinity tendency (5 points) - therefore a tendency to nurturing/feminine – and a moderate uncertainty avoidance (16 points).
Her values in the cultural dimensions are very similar to those of the Netherlands culture, and that’s the reason we think her work style will adapt better to the position.
Achievement – Nurturing Training
As we can see from this chart, people in the US scored higher than people in Netherlands, which means that people from the US are focused on competition, personal success and materialism rather than human interactions and the well-being of others as in Netherlands.
Because of the big difference between these two cultural aspects, the training program for the American managers has to include a very good preparation in nurturing in order to obtain the capacity to interact with other people and care about them.
Some of the aspects that the training program ...