The NetherlandsvsUkraine
オランダとウクライナNLUA
Seen from the Netherlands: each line below describes Ukraine relative to the Netherlands.
Culture Map: eight scales
Erin Meyer's eight scales, sorted by how far apart the Netherlands and Ukraine sit, largest gap first.
Filled dot: the Netherlands, where you are looking fromHollow ring: Ukraine
Not placed8 scales
These scales are left unmarked: either Meyer leaves a country off the scale or no source places it, and drawing it anyway would be guessing.
- Communicating, Evaluating, Persuading, Leading, Deciding, Trusting, Disagreeing, SchedulingNo source places Ukraine on these scales
Hofstede: six dimensions
Scores from 0 to 100, sorted by the gap between the Netherlands and Ukraine. They describe national averages, not either country's character.
Power distance
Ukraine scores 54 points higher than the Netherlands (92 against 38)
The Netherlands 38, Ukraine 92, on a line from 0 (Low power distance) to 100 (High power distance).
Indulgence
Ukraine scores 54 points lower than the Netherlands (14 against 68)
The Netherlands 68, Ukraine 14, on a line from 0 (Restrained) to 100 (Indulgent).
Individualism
Ukraine scores 45 points lower than the Netherlands (55 against 100)
The Netherlands 100, Ukraine 55, on a line from 0 (Collectivist) to 100 (Individualist).
Uncertainty avoidance
Ukraine scores 42 points higher than the Netherlands (95 against 53)
The Netherlands 53, Ukraine 95, on a line from 0 (Tolerant of ambiguity) to 100 (Avoids ambiguity).
Long-term orientation
Ukraine scores 16 points lower than the Netherlands (51 against 67)
The Netherlands 67, Ukraine 51, on a line from 0 (Short-term) to 100 (Long-term).
Motivation towards achievement and success
Ukraine scores 13 points higher than the Netherlands (27 against 14)
The Netherlands 14, Ukraine 27, on a line from 0 (Consensus-oriented) to 100 (Decisive).
What the sources say, theme by theme
Entries for the Netherlands and Ukraine, side by side on wide screens. Each keeps its own confidence label and citations.
Design & quality
Netherlands2 claims
Guido van Rossum created Python at CWI in Amsterdam. He names his frustration with ABC's lack of extensibility and the system administration needs of the Amoeba distributed OS group as motives. He started over the 1989 Christmas holidays and released 0.9.0 on 1991-02-20.
Well attested2 sources2009Datednl-design-1
According to Thomke (HBR, 2020), Booking.com runs more than 1,000 experiments at once and over 25,000 a year. Its internal rule is that anyone can test anything without management's permission.
Attested1 source2020nl-design-2
Ukraine2 claims
At the ICPC World Finals, Lviv National University placed fourth in 2008 and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv placed fourth in 2010, both winning gold medals.
Attested1 source2026ua-design-1
Ukraine's Hofstede uncertainty avoidance (UAI) score is extremely high at 95. The outsourcing firm N-iX (2019) links this to a preference for detailed plans and background explanations. The article is written from the seller's side.
Attested2 sources2026ua-design-2
Failure & risk
Netherlands2 claims
ING moved to a Spotify-style structure of squads and tribes in 2015. In a McKinsey interview (2017), it described each tribe writing down its results and biggest learnings every quarter and celebrating both successes and failures.
Attested1 source2017nl-failure-1
According to Thomke (HBR, 2020), only about 10% of Booking.com's experiments produce positive results; the other 90% or so do not support the hypothesis. The company runs its experiments on that assumption.
Attested1 source2020nl-failure-2
Ukraine4 claims
In a July-August 2024 Deloitte and AmCham survey of 139 executives at member companies, 76% said prolonged blackouts affect their operations. At the same time, 88% said they were prepared for outages and 94% had or were developing a business continuity plan.
Attested1 source2024ua-failure-1
IT companies are reported to have handled blackouts by setting up coworking spaces with generators and Starlink and by subsidizing employees' backup power.
Thin1 sourceua-failure-2
Central bank figures reported by AIN.UA show IT service exports peaking at $7.3 billion in 2022 and falling to about $6.4 billion in 2024 (down 4.2% year on year). According to dev.ua, exports recovered slightly to about $6.66 billion in 2025.
Attested2 sources2026ua-failure-3
An article by the outsourcing firm Alcor, citing DOU surveys, says 38% of IT workers feel burned out at work. Thirty percent of IT specialists serving in the army receive payments from their IT employer.
Thin1 source2026ua-failure-4
Feedback & code review
Netherlands2 claims
Erin Meyer cites the Netherlands as an example of giving negative feedback directly on her Evaluating scale, and of open disagreement on her Disagreeing scale. Her book says "the Dutch manager learns always to be honest and to give the message straight."
Attested1 sourcenl-feedback-1
Some expat guides link Dutch directness to polder-model consensus building, explaining that speaking your mind freely is a precondition for reaching agreement.
Thin1 sourcenl-feedback-2
Ukraine2 claims
The outsourcing firm N-iX (2019) writes that Ukrainian engineers speak their minds on important technical decisions. This is a seller's claim, and no independent study was found.
Thin1 source2019ua-feedback-1
The recruiting firm unicrew (2026) writes that unless expectations are made explicit, developers may not push back hard on poor technical decisions.
Thin1 source2026ua-feedback-2
Hierarchy & decisions
Netherlands3 claims
Meyer cites the Netherlands, along with Denmark and Sweden, as an example of an egalitarian culture on her Leading scale. A study guide to The Culture Map places it on the consensual side of the Deciding scale, alongside Sweden and Japan.
Attested2 sourcesnl-hierarchy-1
A study in Contemporary Management Research (2018) analyzed data from 808 managers using structural equation modeling. It found that polder values, reaching pragmatic agreement through consultation and debate, strongly shape the leadership styles Dutch managers prefer.
Well attested1 source2018nl-hierarchy-2
Woldendorp and Keman (2007) reviewed Dutch corporatism from 1965 to 2000 and argue that the polder model has been overrated. Bargaining between the social partners was tough, and the rate of central agreements was low.
Attested1 source2007Datednl-hierarchy-3
Ukraine2 claims
Ukraine scores high on both Hofstede power distance (PDI 92) and uncertainty avoidance (UAI 95). Edge Executive Services (2024) links this to multi-layered organizational hierarchies and a large number of rules.
Attested2 sources2026ua-hierarchy-1
The outsourcing firm Jappware claims that Ukrainian IT companies were early to drop rigid hierarchy and formal communication.
Thin1 sourceua-hierarchy-2
Communication & docs
Netherlands2 claims
On her Communicating scale, Meyer lists the Netherlands with the United States, Canada and Australia as examples of low-context (explicit) cultures.
Attested1 sourcenl-communication-1
The practical guide NL Compass says that Dutch workplaces take meeting agendas seriously and that fixing schedules in advance is the norm.
Thin1 source2026nl-communication-2
Ukraine2 claims
An Alcor article citing DOU surveys says 66% of IT workers work fully remotely.
Thin1 source2026ua-communication-1
N-iX (2019) says formality at first meetings is a sign of respect, and that the one-to-two-hour time difference with Europe makes it easy to overlap working hours. This is a seller's description.
Thin1 source2019ua-communication-2
Work & careers
Netherlands2 claims
Eurostat reports that actual weekly hours in the main job were 32.1 in 2024, the shortest in the EU (EU average 36.0). The main reason is the high share of part-time work; men in full-time work averaged 38.4 hours (2025).
Well attested2 sources2026nl-work-1
CBS reports that 52% of employed people worked from home at least sometimes in 2023. In the 2022 EU comparison, 12.7% worked from home most of the time, lower than in Finland (23.1%) or Ireland (25.3%).
Well attested1 source2024nl-work-2
Ukraine3 claims
In DOU surveys, the share of IT workers registered as FOP (sole proprietors) fell from 87% (2022) to 70% (2024), 57% (2025) and 49% (2026). Workers are moving to Diia.City gig contracts and employment contracts.
Well attested2 sources2026ua-work-1
Diia.City gig contracts, introduced in 2022, carry 5% personal income tax, a 5% military levy and social contributions of 22% of the minimum wage. As of October 2026 the regime had more than 4,600 resident companies covering about 217,000 specialists.
Attested2 sources2026ua-work-2
In DOU's December 2025 survey (4,522 responses), the median developer take-home pay was $3,450. A study by the law firm Juscutum and the Diia.City Union found that about 20% of IT professionals work from abroad.
Attested2 sources2026ua-work-3
Open source & community
Netherlands2 claims
On 2018-07-12, Guido van Rossum stepped down as Python's BDFL in a python-committers post titled "Transfer of power." He named no successor and left it to the core developers to decide how the project would be governed.
Well attested1 source2018nl-oss-1
ING brought the Spotify model to a large bank, organizing about 350 squads into 13 tribes (McKinsey, 2017).
Attested1 source2017nl-oss-2
Ukraine3 claims
GitLab is an open source project that Dmitriy Zaporozhets started at his home in Ukraine in 2011. In 2014 he turned it into a company with Sytse Sijbrandij from the Netherlands.
Attested1 source2022ua-oss-1
Grammarly (a product, not open source) was founded in Kyiv in 2009 by Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko and Dmytro Lider. Its largest engineering hub is still in Kyiv.
Attested2 sources2022ua-oss-2
The developer community DOU.ua's annual survey "Портрет айтівця 2026" (Portrait of an IT specialist) drew 14,631 respondents. The community publishes its own pay and contract data every year.
Well attested1 source2026ua-oss-3
- DOU: Портрет айтівця 2026 (2026)