Behavioural Trait Analysis Of Jacinda Ardern

Question:

Analyse the Behavioural Trait of 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 20^th 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 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.

Big Five 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).

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 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).

Extraversion

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 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 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).

Agreeableness

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.

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).

Openness

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 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.

Conscientiousness

References

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