Norwegian here. The "management are leaders" thing is mostly real, but in tech it's not uncommon to have engineers as leaders, if you can convince any to take the job.
The second paragraph is not accurate for Norway at all. We're informal, get decent pay (not to mention have vastly better rights by law, like 5 weeks mandatory vacation a year) and definitely don't want to go to the US.
"Don't stick your head out" (Law of Jante) is a cornerstone of Norwegian/Scandinavian culture overall, not just in the corporate world.
I'm Norwegian and things are probably different down in mainland Europe, but at least here we have fairly little use of external agencies and temps. You're required by law to offer full time employment unless specific criteria are met. External agencies are usually used for cleaning, cantinas and things like that, but not much else. The (much, much) stricter labor laws grant the same rights to everyone regardless of employer, position and percentage, so there's not much to save from using external agencies anyway.
One exception is concultancy agencies, but they are usually much more expensive (and offer better salaries), so that's mostly to avoid dealing with the recruiting aspect and risking bad hires.
Temporary positions is a problem for nurses, in kindergartens and, perhaps ironically, for professors.
(Another one.)