Big Five Trait Analysis of Elon Reeve Musk

This article analyzes the Big Five trait model of Elon Reeve Musk to understand his leadership skills and traits. It also discusses the required traits for technical and automobile fields. The article also highlights an ethical issue faced by Musk and provides a personal analysis of the author's own traits.

Running head: ANAYSIS 0
CRITICAL ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS 1
Big five trait of Elon Reeve Musk:
Elon Reeve Musk is the founder of the company called SpaceX. He is also the CEO of Tesla Inc.
and co-chairman of OpenAI. As the data estimated, it has been analysed that Elon Reeve Musk is
21st wealthiest man of America (Roach, 2017). Not only in America but he is amongst the
world’s’ 80 wealthiest person. It has been analysed that he is the man of his words and wants to
works for humanity. He has a long term vision of performingsustainable activities that helps in
reducing global warming and also supports the human life by creating colony on Mars. He is big
tech serial entrepreneur. He is a great transformer and transformed many industry by his
innovative nature. He shows his innovative skills at paypal, Tesla, spaceX and now he is doing it
with acquiring SolarCity and merging it with Tesla. The innovation of these companies is not
only the efforts of the companyand its employees but it is also the efforts of the leaders who are
leading these companies (Northouse, 2015). One of them is Elon Reeve Musk. Study of big five
trait model of Elon Reeve Musk helps in analysing his leadership skills.
Big fie trait model helps in analysing the characteristics of the person based on which it can be
identified that whether the concerned person is an effective leader or not.
Agreeableness:
It is the trait that related with social behaviour of an individual. It is the characteristic to get
along with the people. The person who does not agree may not have the capability to develop
social relations with each other. As far as Elon Reeve Musk is considered, it has been analysed
that the people who follows his vision can only work with him and the one who do not want to
follow his vision have to leave his partnership (Kessler, 2015). It has been seen in past in the
case of Tesla that the co-founders not following his gaols left and he also fired some who are on
different tangent.
Extraversion: It is the trait that is described as the people with talkative nature and loves to speak
in public, they are found to be influencing and have the capacity to express their views in front of
large audience (Judge & Zapata, 2015). Elon Reeve Musk has found to be very extravert. He
does not afraid going on the public platform instead use these platforms to connect with
stakeholders and customers so that he can take their opinion on the new products sought to be
launched.

ANALYSIS 2
Consciousness: It is the term that describes the individual as self-discipline, hardworking,
reliable etc. Elon Reeve Musk scores high in this context. This is because he is the person who
can be relied upon. He is much organised in nature. This can be observed by the fact that he is
leading many businesses simultaneously and working successfully in all of them.
Emotional stability: It can be linked to the concept of emotional intelligence. It has been
analysed that the people who are emotionally stable are aware of their own emotions and they
also have the capability to regulate the same (Wille & De Fruyt, 2014). They have the ability to
think going into other’s shoes and take decisions. As far as Elon Reeve Musk is considered, he
has followed Steve Jobs in this. He sometimes becomes very harsh with his employees when it
comes to work. This is because he is very particular with his guidelines and principles. Someone
who breaches the same have to handle the harsh behaviour of Elon Reeve Musk.
Openness to experience: It is the trait that is directly related to risk taking behaviour of the
leaders. Musk is very familiar with this word. In the case of Tesla, it has been analysed that the
company only claimed that affordable electric car is not possible but realize the same under the
leadership of Musk. At the time when the company was at the verge of bankruptcy, he was the
one who put in his own money to keep it running. Having the visions of setting up the colony on
Mars is itself a thought of taking risk. Thus, all the above discussion suggests that Elon Reeve
Musk is a person who is very open to different experiences in professional life.
Required trait for technical and automobile field:
As per the industry, it has been observed that most of the traits that Elon Reeve Musk possess are
required to be the successful businessman in the industry of technology and automobile, this is
because these industries are very much changing and experiencing great advancement. Being an
innovator, he can make innovation in the products and services he work on and serve the
customers with new products now and then (Leutner, Ahmetoglu, Akhtar & Chamorro-Premuzic,
2014). Some of the skills that are required to be the effective leader in these fields are:
Innovator: It is the characteristic that are possessed by Elon Reeve Musk. Having an innovative
leader helps the company to be innovative as a whole. The leaders like to provide chance to the
employees to show their creativity at the workplace.

ANALYSIS 3
Communication and social skills: These are the skill required by the leaders of any of the field or
industry. This is because if the leader does not have communication or social skills he cannot be
able to convince or handle the people effectively. Elon Reeve Musk lacks this skill and required
to develop the same. There are some other skills like emotional intelligence, influencing skills,
management skills etc.
Issue faced by him:
This is the time when Tesla Roadster was entering the production phase. Some of the
management failures at that time resulted in delay of Car’s release date for a year. At the time of
this crisis, Elon Reeve Musk showed his skills of management and fired all the people related to
that project. This was a risk prone and harsh step to be taken by him. After that he has acquired
all the charge in his hands. He started cutting the cost by reducing the staff, asking for low prices
from the suppliers and released the car in next year with low price. This whole incident suggests
that he has shown his management skills and took the decision that was risky but correct at that
time. He proved that he is an intelligent leader and takes decision for the benefit of the business.
Healso proved that he is not only the thinker but also a doer. Taking on the charge at the time of
emergency and also taking risk to complete the project as per the requirements and demands of
the market is a great management skill to be used by Elon Reeve Musk at that time.
Ethical issues in the case:
The most important ethical issue that has been faced by the Elon Reeve Musk during above
situation was to fire the employees. It is really not ethical on his part to fire the whole team
because of the management failures as they were not totally in fault. Even if they are at fault,
their firing cannot be justified at that point. Giving them the second chance of shifting them to
some other project can be ideal solution to resolve the issue. Firing the employees and taking
jobs from them is really a harsh step which can affect the financial condition of those employees.
It has been realised that Elon Reeve Musk is a very harsh leader and is task oriented; it is
recommended that he should also concentrate on among his employees happy.

ANALYSIS 4
If I analyse myself by Big trait model, it has been analysed that I am a person who believes team
work and thus wants my team to involve. I work on the principle but does not favour the
behaviour o bring stubborn. If some people do not agree with me, I used to convince them on
that note or get convinced by them. I am very hardworking and have great communication skills.
As per the big trait model, the skills that I lack are risk taking or openness to experience. I am not
that courageous. As far as the condition in the above section is considered, I would have handled
it in different way. I must have taken on the charge of the project like what Elon Reeve Musk has
done but I would not have fired the employees as I am very emotional in these things. I prefer to
transfer them on different project or would have penalised them for what they have done wrong.

ANALYSIS 5
References:
Judge, T. A., & Zapata, C. P. (2015). The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation
strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting
job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1149-1179.
Kessler, A. M. (2015). Elon Musk Says Self-Driving Tesla Cars Will Be in the US by
Summer. The New York Times, B1.
Leutner, F., Ahmetoglu, G., Akhtar, R., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2014). The relationship
between the entrepreneurial personality and the Big Five personality traits. Personality
and individual differences, 63, 58-63.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Roach, C. R. (2017). Simply Electrifying: The Technology that Transformed the World, from
Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk. BenBella Books.
Wille, B., & De Fruyt, F. (2014). Vocations as a source of identity: Reciprocal relations between
Big Five personality traits and RIASEC characteristics over 15 years. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 99(2), 262.