I made a mistake because i replied, mentioning Viktor’s name instead of yours. @->- We e-mailed about this and I asked you if you could tell the website administrator to change this.
But that isn’t possible.
So now I think it’s fair to say sorry publicly.
Keep up the good work
\m/

Indeed organisational culture is a very important aspect when introducing SOA. “Managing” change is the largest part of all the effort to not only introducing, but realising a service oriented architecture and – mindset and real life implementations.
Awareness, readiness (resistance) for change are not solely SOA related. You better not ’sell’ a SOA to unreceptive audience.

May i state that your reference to Geert Hofstede’s theory is not correct. Geert makes distinctions between countries/societies. Not between organisations.

As for the Netherlands:
Individuality rankes at 80, which ties with Canada as the fourth highest worldwide ranking, behind the US (91), Australia (90), and the UK(89). The high Individualism ranking for the Netherlands is indicative of a society with more individualistic attitudes and relatively loose bonds with others. The population is more self-reliant and looks out for themselves and their close family members. This individuality is integral in the daily lives of the population and must be considered when traveling and doing business in a country. Privacy is considered the cultural norm and attempts at personal ingratiating is unacceptable.
You can see a the interdependency with the notion of “ivory tower”. Dutch people don’t like other people tell them what to do! They have individual pride and want respect for that.

The second highest Hofstede Dimension for the Netherlands is uncertainty avoidance at 53, compared to a world average of 64. A moderate score may indicate a cultural tendancy to minimize or reduce the level of uncertainty within the population by enacting rules, laws, policies, and regulations to cover most any and all situations or circumstances.

The lowest Hofstede Dimension for the Netherlands is masculinity at 14. This relatively low index value may be indicative of a low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders. So, in NL females are treated more equally to males in all aspects of society in comparioson whit other countries. Although i think it represents a more openly nurturing society and our famous ‘poldermodel’

You must understand that it is not the difference between men or women [female values are almost at the same level in every part of the world(!)] but between the levels of masculinity between (men in) countries or societies.

Actually, looking at the rankings for the Netherlands, compare to other countries, you may expect a full blown SOA in very near future.

When you want to compare organisations, perhaps you better refer to Henry Mintzberg.
If you want to incoporate issues of change management you could refere to R. Chin en K.D. Benne.

I am curious about the wrap up of the SOA pitfall series.