Big Five Personality Theory and Jacinda Ardern's Leadership Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Jacinda Ardern, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, through the lens of the Big Five personality theory. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction to the Big Five personality traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. It then examines Ardern's personality traits based on these dimensions, using examples from her political career and public statements. The analysis explores how her traits, such as high openness and conscientiousness, have influenced her leadership style and decisions. The report highlights Ardern's strengths and weaknesses in each trait. It also discusses how her personality has impacted her relationship with the people of New Zealand and her political success. The report concludes with a summary of the findings, emphasizing the key personality traits that have defined Ardern's leadership. The report also includes references to support the analysis and findings.

Running head: BIG FIVE PERSONALITY
Big Five-personality theory
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to analyse the behavioural trait of Jacinda Ardern, who is the new
president of New Zealand. Using the tool of big five-personality theory trait, it can be said that
the Jacinda is high on openness and conscientious. However, with being of average dominating
nature, she managed to be empathetic towards her natives in New Zealand, especially labour
population of the country. Through all her career in politics in New Zealand, Australia, UK she
showed many virtues, on whose absence it would have been impossible for her to become a
people person. The brief introduction to the big five is followed by an introduction to Ms.
Jacinda. After an analysis of her personality through this tool the conclusion from the text is also
given.

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Table of Contents
Introduction to Jacinda Ardern........................................................................................................4
Introduction to Big 5 Personality Theory........................................................................................5
Her personality according the trait of Extraversion.........................................................................5
Her personality according to the trait of Agreeableness..................................................................6
Her personality according to the trait of Openness.........................................................................6
Her personality according to the trait of Conscientiousness...........................................................7
Her personality according to the trait of Neuroticism.....................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction to Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Ardern was a native of New Zealand having been born in Hamilton and brought
up in Morrisville as well as Murupara. Her mother was school canteen worker and father was a
Police officer. She is also a degree holder of Bachelor in Communication in politics from the
University of Waikato.
Being influenced by her aunt in early life, she was brought to the life of politics of New
Zealand. She helped her aunt in political campaign in 1999 in general election of MP as well as
joined the labour party at a young age. Soon she became a senior member in the party. She also
worked as a policy adviser for Tony Blair, the prime minister of London. With her apt
knowledge and skills in the field, she got elected the 20th Member of Parliament, which was a
very reputed position for someone like Jacinda (news.com.au 2017). From there it was also clear
path to become the position of parliament member in the country. She was already a social
democrat and was promoted to the post of associate spokesperson for Justice of youth affairs by
the opposition leader Phill Golf. Being in the list of Parliament member, she tried for the post of
leadership two times against the opposition in general election against Green Kaye. However, in
the next election she managed to increase her number of followers. She also joined the force of
2017 women’s March against the capitalist party president of United States, Donald Trump in
201 (7www.abc.net.au 2017). Jacinda was unopposed in the interparty vote, became the leader of
the opposition labour Party, and joined the general election of 2017. After that under her
leadership, they gained a proper acceptance all over New Zealand and Jacinda soon became the
icon in the country for labours and was referred to Jacinda affect or because of her positive
coverage in the international outlet by media like CNN (labour.org.nz 2017). Under her
leadership the capital gains tax was reformed, as she was against the policy of not charging tax
from the rich families and was in sync with the idea of charging tax to the people in need of help
and allowances as well as citizens who were not able to support themselves in New Zealand. She
was also a supporter of equal gender marriage bill in 2013 and liberalisation of abortion law. As
a slowly becoming the most effective leader while gaining acceptance from the citizen, she also
got acceptance in the opinion poll (www.abc.net.au 2017). Under her guidance and leadership,
labour party got more seats, since losing power in the parliament in 2008. Watching her

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ascension as a very influential leader, the first leader Winston Peters announced that she would
be the next Prime Minister in 2017. She was initially labelled as an agnostic and also considers
herself so.
Introduction to Big 5 Personality Theory
The big five-personality theory is also related to gauging one’s personality from the five
big traits. On a scale, the most important parts of one’s personality is ranked and based on that
her behavioural traits are checked. The five big traits are Extraversion, Agreeableness,
Conscientiousness, Openness and Neuroticism. These five traits are the variables on which the
traits of people checked. These five dimensions are scored. While Extraversion consists of
enthusiastic, lively, outgoing, novelty characteristics and absence of this trait consist of quite,
independence and cautious personality traits (Will and De Fruyt 2014). The Neuroticism consists
of lesser stress and worry, emotionally strong and has high level of emotional intelligence.
Absence of this trait consists of emotion unstable traits, impulsiveness. Agreeableness consists of
compliancy and affable nature, on whose absence the trait like uncooperativeness, hostile,
unempathetic (Judge et al. 2014). Openness can be consisting of new experiences, curiousness,
creativeness, and imaginative traits of one’s nature. Conscientiousness also seen in the presence
of conscience, controlling, self-directedness of one’s nature. On lack of being conscientious,
prone to addiction, carelessness and spontaneous behaviour is also seen as a behavioural trait
(Kim and Chung, 2014).
Her personality according the trait of Extraversion
Extraversion is spotted through the talkativeness, lively and sociable nature of people.
Jacinda’s extraversion nature is one of her many virtue. In the Japan conference she was vocal
about her motive to attend the conference which also showed her strong personality as having
high extrovertness (newshub.co.nz. 2017) She is also sociable with the people as belonging to a
political party from her initial stages of her career. As extrovert is identified to be very influential
character, the new president of New Zealand also became very influential among her party,
which made it possible for her to be the youngest leader in history at the age of 37 and got listed
among the Parliament member (Gallego and Pardos-Prado 2014). Her assertiveness and
confidence in herself also made it possible for the opposition labour party to be back in the

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power after 2008 though through coalition with the rival national party (BBC News, 2017). Her
ascension as a leader and getting more acceptance in the opinion polls after the press conference
as a leaders shows her popularity among Kiwi people including the labour population. This
conforms to the trait of being agreeableness. Though she lost the capital gain tax policy reform in
that year. Her coverage in the international media was very influenced by her personality that
during that time Jacinda’s influence was so high, it was called “Jacinda Affect” or “Jacinda
Mania” (NPR.org. 2017).
Her personality according to the trait of Agreeableness
As per the agreeableness’s definition, if an individual is high in this trait they tend to be
very open to other’s decision and straightforward in nature. They are not likely to change with
other’s opinion and less influenced by others. Jacinda has showed this trait in the council
conference where she argued against the people to grant more land to build homes for the
homeless of New Zealand. Jacinda’s empathy towards the homeless in New Zealand and
immigrants also conforms to this trait (stuff.co.nz 2017). The main criteria of this trait to be
present is the level of cooperativeness with the colleagues in the workplace. Her cooperation
with the opposition party leader and carful negotiation for labour advantage is also an evidence
in itself for analysing the matter. However, her leadership traits make her very different from the
other leaders, she sworn by to build a government strong and empathetic (Gallego and Pardos-
Prado 2014). Therefore, her another trait of being helpful and considerate individual is shown
through the agreeableness
Her personality according to the trait of Openness
Her beliefs and personality reflects nature of high openness. The primary virtues under
this trait are an individual being imaginative, intellectual and open to new ideas. The complex
cognitive ability shows in the behavioural pattern of the person. The creativity, fluidness,
flexibility are very important traits of the person high on openness (Kim and Chung 2014). In
this discussion, the newest president of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern also has shown her

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openness according the society. This trait is correlated with the societies change in rules in any
regard. Ms Jacinda shows the divergent and flexible thinking trait in her support of same sex
marriage bill in 2013 (Legislation.govt.nz. 2017). She is also believer in liberalisation of abortion
law in New Zealand. This is also an evidence of her flexibility mindedness in decision-making
and fluidness with the new cultures and women’s right in society (Familyplanning.org.nz. 2017).
According to this, it can also be said that her fluidness in the engaging with the society and its
people as well as her training programs during the political campaigns shows her willingness in
learning. This trait is also a part of openness. Though raised as a church member the she
considers herself as an antagonist (stuff.co.nz 2017). She is also against the capitalism theory,
and argued that it is a “blatant failure” (stuff.co.nz 2017). Her invitation on the debate of
removing monarchy from the head of state shows that her openness to the new generation policy
systems and eliminating age old-fashioned monarchy (independent.co.uk).
Her personality according to the trait of Conscientiousness
The conscientiousness is defined as the self-directedness or a personality that have
aspiration toward some of the belief. The achievements striving, self-disciplined, hardworking,
reliable attributes are the traits of the people who are high in conscientiousness (Leutner et al.
2014). The personality here is of the president of New Zealand who has shown high in
conscientiousness in her life. The consistency that she had shown after being in the list of
parliaments and fighting for the position of leader in the opposition leader party was
commendable (www.abc.net.au 2017). She was also nominated to be the youngest leader in the
history of the country, which shows her perseverance at a young age. From her early stage of life
Ms Jacinda was very serious about the social rules and joined labour party in opposition of the
capitalists party. This shows her presence of conscience in her behaviour too. From the research
it was also seen that the people high in conscience was more motivated to lead others, which is
evident from Ms Jacinda’s life as she got selected single handedly by the First leader Winston
Peter for coalition of government with labour (MOIR 2017). Her show of conscientiousness at
her work place shows organisational citizenship behaviour and volunteering in the campaign in
supporting the labour laws and their rights in the country, which she ultimately managed to get
passed in the country.

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Her personality according to the trait of Neuroticism
Neuroticism trait in the personality shows the extent of one’s capacity to show the coping
with stress in any situation. The optimism and resilience when showed with challenges is also
part of neuroticism and emotional stability of the individuals (Leutner et al. 2014). Though there
was no evidence that shows her emotional impulsivity, she never showed any outburst of
emotion in the public. Though it can be said that being a feminist and her decision to join the
march against the capitalism in United states and anti Donald Trump campaigns shows her high
level of emotional intelligence as well as the solidifying common people’s trust in the company
(Judge and Zapata, 2015). Driven by her emotional intelligence trait the interpersonal skills that
she had developed in the years during her experiential years has helped her in building strong
alliance with the president of Australia Malcolm Turnbull to strengthen the working relationship
between the two neighbouring countries (stuff.co.nz). She was also successful in involving the
labour perspectives in the new coalition government with negotiation, which reflects her strong
hold on her emotional ability. Her denial of the matter of USA’s Presidents confusing her with
the Canadian president’s wife shows her control over any kind of situation to her favour and non-
impulsiveness in handing unfavourable situations too (NewsComAu. 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion on the big five personality traits of Jacinda Ardern,
the new president of New-Zealand, it can be concluded that she has great combination of the five
traits. She conforms to the main characteristics that should be in the leader. As a leader she can
be counted among the best. She is also identified as the youngest, most influential female in
history. She is an extroverted, sociable person as she should be, being in the political career. Her
considerate and empathetic personality helped her being accepted and loved among the labour
population of the country. She was also spotted to be competitive comparing her with the other
prospective leaders in New Zealand. Her popularity among people also gained her a position in
the Member of Parliament list at a young stage of her life. She was also said to be “good” for
New Zealand’s health by an international media CNN. Though coming from a middle class
family she achieved a huge success in her career through her perseverance. She also was
persistent in her aim to achieve great success as a leader. Her empathetic nature made it possible
to be a people person among her labour party. Her positive attitude and extraversion nature also

8BIG FIVE PERSONALITY
helped her in being the most highlighted person among her competitor. Being a social person and
high in emotional intelligence also contributed towards her strong personality. She always
thought of her people as well as uplift and upgrade New Zealand’s culture. Her contribution to
the labour society is very important for the country. At a young age her achievement in her
career shows that her confidence in herself. According her big five traits analysis, it is evident
that she is high on openness and extraversion. Her self-directedness made it possible for her to
gain such peak of success in her career. She made a proper decision in every stage. Moreover,
her rejection to Andrew little of becoming the face of the party, also highlights her strong
personality and not being influenced by challenges. She has also appeared to be optimistic and
resilience in several situation. It was evident from her persistency in making the labour party’s
concerns heard by the ruling party in New Zealand. Her favouritism by the common people,
included the labour population made it essential for the First leader Winston to ultimately make
her the president of New Zealand.

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