Analyzing the Organizational Behavior of Jacinda Ardern: A Big 5 Personality Trait Theory Approach

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 1
Organizational Behavior

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 2
Executive Summary
Analyzing the personality of political leaders to explain their behavior is a reliable approach. For
political leaders, it is very important to possess some specific skills and traits which can assist
them to lead the overall country. The major objective of this report is to analyze the
organizational behavior of Prime Minister of New Zealand i.e. Jacinda Ardern. Jacinda Ardern is
the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand who is serving the country since 26 October 2017. She is
the youngest prime minister of the country and serving the nation by using effective skills and
personality traits. In the below report, the personality traits of Jacinda Ardern are analyzed by
using big 5 personality trait theory. This theoretical analysis indicates that Jacinda has a great
personality that supports her efforts to the development of country, its people and economy.
Moreover, the report evaluates the diversity in New Zealand and its impact on Jacinda’s
approach of leading the country. Considering the extent of diversity, she needs to make changes
in her approach and decision making process.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 3
Table of Contents
Introduction to Jacinda Ardern....................................................................................................................3
Introduction to the Big 5 Personality Theory...............................................................................................3
Introduction to Hofstede’s five dimensions of cultural differences.............................................................4
Big 5 Personality Traits of Jacinda Arden.....................................................................................................5
Extraversion.............................................................................................................................................6
Agreeableness.........................................................................................................................................6
Openness.................................................................................................................................................6
Conscientiousness...................................................................................................................................7
Neuroticism.............................................................................................................................................7
Impact of diversity on Leader’s ability.........................................................................................................8
Power Distance........................................................................................................................................8
Individualism...........................................................................................................................................9
Masculinity..............................................................................................................................................9
Uncertainty Avoidance..........................................................................................................................10
Short Term Orientation.........................................................................................................................10
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 4
Introduction to Jacinda Ardern
Organizational behavior is the study of people in organizations and their ability to respond and
accept the changes in the workplace. Personality plays a significant role in both occupational and
individual positions. It applies at all the stages of life and across all the nations. New Zealand is
on the top rank on international comparisons of country’s performance like education, health, life
quality and economic freedom. This is the reason that a famous personality of New Zealand,
Jacinda Ardern is chosen for this discussion. Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is a famous politician
of New Zealand who has served the country as 40th Prime Minister since 26th October 2017. She
also served as the labor party leader since 1 August 2017.
Jacinda Ardern was born on 26 July 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand. In October, 2017, she has
become the youngest prime minister of the country in over 150 years. After completing
graduation from University of Waikato in the year 2001, Ardern started her career working as
researcher in Prime Minister (Helen Clark)’s office. Later, she worked in UK as policy advisor to
British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In the year 2008, Jacinda was chosen as the President of
International Union of Socialist Youth. She is an effective leader in the country and Ardern
defines herself as both progressive and social democrat leader. Along with the youngest prime
minister, she has become the second elected head of government in the world to give the birth
while in the office service (Anderson & Sun 2017).
Introduction to the Big 5 Personality Theory
Personality plays an important role in both personal and organizational life of an individual.
Personality of an individual can be described by using Big 5 Personality traits. Big five traits of
personality are the five domains which describe human personality and explain the individual
differences (Curtis Windsor & Soubelet 2015). It is also known as five factor model that includes
five factors such as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism.
In today’s workplace environment, human resource professionals generally use the big five
personality traits to place the employees. This is because these traits are regarded to become