Dutch Managerial Leadership Strategies: A Polder Framework

What is it about?

This paper extends Schama’s (1988) notion of moral geography where there is a determinacy link between an ecology and those managing organisations within it. We emphasise that the link is framed by its historical legacy of social ideals. This paper hypothesises that the egalitarian influence of the polder philosophy leads Dutch managers to value cooperative partnership based on consensus decision-making, in a symbiotic relationship between the manager and the community. Structural equation modelling of the data obtained from surveying 808 managers across occupational industry sectors in the Netherlands support this hypothesis. Results reveal that in the Netherlands (1) the external environment has an unique influence, through its impact on managerial behaviour; (2) the external environment has a profound influence on managers’ personal qualities underpinned by their feminine-value-oriented social roles; and (3) organisational prosperity and work orientations are driven by environmental uncertainty avoidance and managers’ feminine-valued social roles.

Featured Image