> I've worked in multinationals and I've noticed that in the US ( east coast in particular ) it's much more hierarchical - where arguing with your boss in public could be a firing offence.

> This is less so in Europe.

On the other hand, in big German companies there often exist more hierarchy levels. In this sense, I would rather call German companies more hierarchical.

The difference is (also from your description) rather that in the USA, bosses often expect their underlings to be much more "ideologically aligned" to the their principles [1], which they often don't state/disclose from beginning. Enforcing such an ideological alignment is much less accepted in big German companies (at least in the lower hierarchical levels).

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[1] In German, there exists the word "[die] Linientreue" for this, which can literally translated to "line loyalty". Dictionaries give the translation "true to party principles", but I would claim that this "politically connotated" translation is rather restrictive.