Analyzing the Personality Traits and Cultural Diversity of New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

This report analyzes the personality traits of New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern using Big 5 Personality Traits Theory and evaluates the effect of cultural diversity on her leadership approach using Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Cultural Differences.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 1
Organizational Behavior

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 2
Executive Summary
Evaluation of leaders’ personality is a consistent approach in order to explain their skills and
behavior. For political people, it is significant to hold some specific traits and skills that can help
the leaders to direct the overall nation. This reported is totally focused on analyzing the overall
behavior of New Zealand’s Prime Minister (PM), Jacinda Ardern. Currently, she is serving New
Zealand as its 40th Prime Minister. She is in the office from October 26, 2017. The report
includes the personality traits and characteristics of Jacinda Ardern by applying big five
personality trait theory. The analysis shows that Jacinda is extravert and very open as she is
friendly and supportive to the common population in New Zealand. She holds a positive
personality which supports in the overall development of country. By using Hofstede
dimensions, culture and diversity of New Zealand is analyzed. This analysis assesses the culture
and diversity in this country and its effect on leadership approach of Jacinda. It is found that
Jacinda needs to make some changes in her decision making and leadership style.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
About Jacinda Ardern..............................................................................................................................3
Big 5 Personality Traits Theory................................................................................................................3
Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Cultural Differences................................................................................4
Analysis........................................................................................................................................................5
Big 5 Personality Traits of Jacinda Ardern................................................................................................5
Extraversion.........................................................................................................................................6
Agreeableness.....................................................................................................................................6
Openness.............................................................................................................................................6
Conscientiousness...............................................................................................................................7
Neuroticism.........................................................................................................................................7
Effect of Cultural Diversity on Ability of Leader (Hofstede’s five dimensions).........................................8
Power Distance....................................................................................................................................8
Individualism.......................................................................................................................................9
Masculinity..........................................................................................................................................9
Uncertainty Avoidance......................................................................................................................10
Short Term Orientation.....................................................................................................................10
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
About Jacinda Ardern
Organization behavior is a significant practice of any organization that refers to the study of
people’s behavior in organization, the interface between organization and human behavior. It
indicates how the people respond to different situations in organization and adapt workplace
changes (Greenberg 2014, pp. 28). Personality plays a vital role in acting at workplace and
practicing the roles on specific positions. New Zealand is the country that holds a higher rank in
the list of international comparisons of performance of different nations in terms of health, living
standard, economic liberty and education. Due to this fact, a popular personality from New
Zealand i.e. Jacinda Ardern is selected for the report.
Jacinda Ardern, full name Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is very popular and strong New Zealand
politician who is serving her nation as 40th Prime Minister from October 26, 2017. She was born
in Hamilton in New Zealand on 26 July 1980 and she was grown up in rural areas. She has
completed her graduation from Waikato University in the discipline of communication studies in
public relations and politics. After that, she did work as an assistant director in Department for
Enterprise and Business. She started her political career as a researcher in the office of Helen
Clark (Prime Minister) (Sandberg 2018). In 2008, she was selected as the President of
International Union of Socialist Youth. Apart from becoming the prime minister of the country,
she holds the designation of National Security and Intelligence, Heritage and Culture. She is able
to defend the children and this issue is very close to her heart. Along with being the youngest PM
of New Zealand, she is world’s 2nd elected government head to give birth while serving the office
(Lester, 2018).
Big 5 Personality Traits Theory
Personality of an individual has a significant role in his personal and organizational life as well.
It is defined by applying Big 5 Personality Trait Theory. This theory gives the insights to
understand other people, enhancing the relationships by knowing why they behave the manner
they do. This theory gives five dimensions that showcase the personality of a human being and

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illuminate their differences (Keyes et al 2015). These five factors are such as Extraversion,
Openness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Conscientiousness. These domains are used to
analyze the overall personality of an individual. Five personality traits are discussed below:
Extraversion:
This dimension refers to the extent of comfort in an individual while communicating with other
people. There are two types of people i.e. introverts and extroverts. Extraverts get zeal by
interacting with others while introverts get energy from themselves. Main personality traits of
extraverts are like energetic, assertive and talkative (Lievens et al, 2018, pp. 755).
Openness:
Openness refers to the willingness of a person to try new and innovative things. In a human
personality, this trait is obligation for art, adventure, emotion, curiosity and experience. It makes
the differences between conventional and imaginative population.
Agreeableness
Agreeableness refers to the way an individual connects with other people. This personality trait
in the people showcases their cooperativeness, empathetic and friendly nature (Arnold et al,
2015, pp. 481).
Conscientiousness
This domain refers to the way how an individual gets something done. It shows the extent to
which a person demonstrates constant and reliable behavior in the organization. The major
identifications of this personality trait are organized and thorough.
Neuroticism
It refers to the ability of an individual to stay balanced and stable. The people with higher
neuroticism tend to face a lot of worries and anxiety about the things.
Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Cultural Differences
The cultural dimensions of Hofstede establish a framework turning around the cross cultural
communication. This theory is introduced by Geert Hofstede. Collectively, these dimensions

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show the effect of culture rooted in the society on the members’ value in the society. When any
organization plans to spread its business in other markets, it is necessary to evaluate the cultural
factors and diversity on international market. This framework includes five dimensions that can
impact the motivation and attitudes of people on different levels (Bakir, et al, 2015, pp. 227).
Five dimensions of Hofstede Framework are described below:
Power Distance:
This dimension refers to the inequality measurement which presents and adapted by the
population without and with the power.
Individualism:
The emphasis of this practice is on the question related to whether the population has the
preference for becoming alone to care themselves. It indicates the extent to which people in a
society are combined in the groups (Saleem 2015, pp. 565).
Masculinity:
Under this cultural theory, masculinity implies the preference of community for attainment,
heroism, assertiveness and reward for getting success. Generally, it shows how much the
society’s people obey the roles of males and females.
Uncertainty Avoidance:
This dimension refers to the level to which population of a country is not at ease with the
uncertainty and ambiguity. Basically, it showcases the level of worries that community people
experience when they confront any uncertain situation.
Short Term Orientation:
It pertains to those communities which are inclined to constitution of absolute truth. It establishes
link of past with the future and current threats (Van Knippenberg & Hogg 2018, pp. 76).

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Analysis
Big 5 Personality Traits of Jacinda Ardern
Considering that how personality traits of the political leaders are relevant to their office may
give an analysis of the concepts about how personality traits are connected with the effectiveness
of their real life. As discussed in general introduction, Big Five personality traits theory gives
five personality traits that a political leader like Jacinda Ardern should possess so that she can
serve New Zealand country (Keyes 2015).
Big five personality traits of Jacinda Ardern are evaluated and discussed below:
Extraversion
Extraversion is a significant dimension of the personality trait theory. As mentioned above, the
population with higher extraversion is talkative and social. It indicates that extravert people are
very interactive in nature. They can put their opinions and thoughts very easily to other
individuals. For Jacinda Ardern, the score of extraversion is very high as she is very interactive
and social democratic. She is higher on this dimension as she explored various places to meet
common population and she visited street festival where Jacinda walked on the road with the
common people. Moreover, she is very much expressive to show her feelings and views against
social problems such as homelessness in the country, same-sex marriage and legalization of
cannabis etc. Being a PM of New Zealand and labor party leader, Jacinda is working for the
social justice issues which are relevant to arts, culture, women, children etc. Thus, it is clear to
state that Jacinda Ardern has higher score on this domain and she is a strong leader who is taking
initiatives to improve and develop the conditions of country and its people (Wihler, et al 2017,
pp. 135).
Agreeableness
This is the second dimension which evaluates how people are comfortable with other people.
The score of this domain is moderate for Jacinda Ardern because she is empathetic and kind to
others. When she came in the office of New Zealand, she announced that government will be
powerful, compassionate and emphasized on society and country (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2017, pp.
201). The level of this dimension is moderate because she denied becoming the leader of Labor
Party in the beginning. Additionally, she wishes to change the laws and regulations related to
abortion that is accepted by several leaders. In the country, she has committed to reduce the

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poverty and improve the vulnerable people’s life. Thus, it showcases that Jacinda values the lives
of people in her country (Miner, 2015, pp. 125).
Openness
Under this theory, this personality trait shows the cooperativeness and creativity of people. It
assists the individuals to get creative solutions for the problems. In the dimension of openness,
the score of Jacinda Ardern is high because she is from very simple family. This is because of
her openness to new experiences and ideas that she is always open in her regulations and
policies. She is very enthusiastic to adapt innovative and new ideas to get effective solutions to
social problems in New Zealand. In her duration, she is very much focused on different issues of
society that are regarded as orthodox. For instance, Jacinda Ardern has introduced the member
bills on the rights of gay pairs. Additionally, she is taking initiatives to eliminate the child
poverty and implementing policies for child labor. In this way, Jacinda Ardern presents higher
level of openness to resolve social issues in her nation (Northouse 2018, pp. 85).
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness refers to the qualities of individuals which show how the people look at other
people and different situations. Jacinda Ardern is moderate at this domain as she runs her
government being a social democrat and aggressive leader in New Zealand. She takes the
decisions looking at different situations and their impacts on related people. In her political role,
she focuses on implementing changes in community. It is moderate because she failed to handle
some circumstances. There are some specific incidents that indicate that she was not ready and
organized in situations. For example, she was not prepared on the first day of her parliament.
Personality traits of Jacinda Ardern show that she is inspired by her beliefs. Population of the
country trusts Jacina Ardern and they feel that their prime minister thinks about them and listens
to them. It indicates that New Zealand’s prime minister has effective leadership skills to manage
nation and the people of society (Smyth 2018).
Neuroticism
Neuroticism is also an important trait of human personality. The person with this trait
experiences negative emotions like anxiety, depression and anger. For Jacinda, score of this
domain is moderate because she has handled each and every situation very smoothly. Her way of
communication has emotional warmness with a smiling face and gestures which reflect her wish
to communicate with common people (Murray 2017, pp. 155). She is very calm and emotionally

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stable that poses several times when she answers to the reporters and when she was with her
rivals. While serving the political office in New Zealand, she told that she is expected her first
baby in June 2018. In the pregnancy condition, Jacinda worked for her nation and its people. She
was on the maternity leave of 6 months only after the birth of baby. It clearly shows that Jacinda
possesses a personality that is emotionally stable and cool. She handled all the situations very
calmly.
In this way, it is analyzed from the above personality traits that she is an inspirational and strong
political leader. She has better personality traits which can be profitable for social and economic
development of New Zealand. About Jacinda, it can be stated that she holds a personality that
will assist New Zealanders to overcome their social problems.
Effect of Cultural Diversity on Ability of Leader (Hofstede’s five dimensions)
Under Hofstede model, there are five dimensions of cultural differences that can be practiced to
analyze the effect of cultural and other types of diversity on leadership approach of New
Zealand’s prime minister i.e. Jacinda Ardern. Hofstede dimensions can affect the international
attitudes, perceptions, motivation and satisfaction (Hofstede Insights 2018). By using the cultural
dimensions of Hofstede, the effects of diversity on leadership abilities of Jacinda are described
below:
Power Distance
Power distance is the first dimension of Hofstede cultural framework that demonstrates the fact
that all the communities in any country are treated equally. This indicates the attitude of culture
towards inequality among society people. In the country of Jacinda Ardern i.e. New Zealand,

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inequality rate is higher than other developing nations. There is an emerging issue of poverty and
gap between rich and poor people. As per the above diagram, the score of this index is 22 that
are comparatively low. The reason behind this is the fact that level of child poverty has been
increased twice in past 30 years. In country’s society, this disparity is endorsed by the people of
society, government and leaders. In the New Zealand, Maori community and Pacific people have
lesser income, poorer housing and deprived health than other people (Baker, 2014).
In the politics, this inequality among society people allows the rich people to affect the political
leaders as they are dependent on them for subsidies and donations. It indicates that some people
have more rights and access than others. In New Zealand, this fact affected the approach of
Jacinda Ardern. She is facing various threats in the decision making related to society benefits.
This has a huge effect on her democratic leadership approach because she has to place inequality
on the top. Looking at the inequality of income, the prime minister will need to motivate her
policy developers to think about the bottom 40 percent population of the country. In the future,
she needs to emphasize on the benefits and taxes because these two components are the best
ways to reallocate people’s income. Thus, due to this income diversity in nation, she has to take
decisions for the country’s different societies (Hofstede Insights 2018).
Individualism
Individualism refers to the fundamental issue i.e. the level of interdependence that a society
develops among its people. The above graph indicates that the score is 79 which show that this
nation has a culture with individualism. It is to state that society’s people take care of themselves
only and them families. It assists the people to produce their potential but it can abuse country’s
wealth. It is the major reason behind the inequality and diversity in New Zealand. The impact of
individualism is moderate on the leadership approach of Jacinda (Gelfand, et al 2017, pp. 514).
Considering the level of individualism in New Zealand, PM has to create and implement new
policies so that government can serve all the communities. Moreover, this is worthy for her
government that employees are taking different initiatives and working becoming self-
dependent.
Masculinity
This is the third dimension of Hofstede cultural framework in which higher figure indicates that
community is driven by the success, competition and attainment. In the case of masculine

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societies, women are assertive and competitive but not more than men. It shows the diversity
aspect between women and men. Under this, New Zealand’s score is 58, so it is a masculine
community. The above score appears the gap between the value of women and men in society. In
her nation, Jacinda is promoting female groups by becoming a powerful leader. The diversity
among men and women has progressive effect on Jacinda‘s leadership style and abilities. In
addition to this, she has to generate more job opportunities for women. Gender diversity will
motivate the administration to develop regulations and laws for female society (Hofstede Insights
2018).
Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance refers that how the community people can manage the issues in most
appropriate manner (Ross 2018, pp. 2). For New Zealand, its score is 49 which are intermediate.
This shows the logical level of acceptance for creative ideas and opinions. The population in this
nation is not interested in laws and regulation so PM has to change her approach. It will help her
to overcome the issues of inequality and diversity.
Short Term Orientation
Under Hofstede Framework, orientation is relevant to the connection of past and future and
today’s threats. In the orientation, New Zealand’s index is 33 which show that this country is a
normative country. People of communities are concerned with establishing an absolute truth.
Country’s population demonstrates admiration and respect to old traditions. Additionally, they
are very much emphasized on rapid results (Kelsey 2015, pp. 86). Also, this will affect the
Jacinda’s approach because it will impact on economic growth of the nation. She requires
motivating the New Zealanders with the customs and traditions. It will support the nation to get
long term orientation and to develop economic conditions.
Thus, it is identified that cultural differences of Hofstede dimensions will have significant effect
on the behavioral and leadership style of Jacinda. New Zealand’s culture is diverse so it is crucial
for Jacinda to adopt policies and regulations in order to develop equality. It will help the
government to resolve the issues of inequality and diversity. As a prime minister of country,
Jacinda Ardern should change in its decision making process and leadership approach by
analyzing the needs of country’s people (Kelsey 2015, pp. 75).

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Recommendations
However, Jacinda Ardern is leading New Zealand by using effective leadership skills and
approaches, but still there is scope of improvement that can help her to lead the country more
effectively. It is suggested that a political leader should develop his/her personality traits
considering the needs and conditions of community’s people. This report states about the
personality traits and leadership style of Jacinda in New Zealand. It is very important for PM to
focus on the issues of diversity and inequality in country. She should understand that Maori
people are the weakest community (Henry 2017, pp. 28). She should efforts to improve their
situation and provide the rights to use every entitlement. In the coming years of her office, she
should implement the policies to overcome different issues. Her decisions should be focused on
the benefits of society and its people. In addition to this, she needs to develop her personality so
that people like her. These recommendations will help Jacinda to overall development of New
Zealand and its people.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it is concluded that Jacinda Ardern is a strong political
leader who is able to lead the country with diversity. As a youngest PM New Zealand country,
she is taking different initiatives so that she can enhance the economic, political and social
environments of the country. The above report covers the background about the chosen leader
i.e. Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand. About her, this report shows that Jacinda is
social democratic, inspirational, empathetic and hard-working leader. Different personality traits
of the leader are analyzed in the report. Big five personality trait theory states that Jacinda is an
extravert leader because she likes to explore different places and meet common people. From the
personality analysis, it is identified that Jacinda holds a good personality that a prime minister
should possess. The country has very diverse culture so government should take some initiatives
to develop country’s social conditions.

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