Big Five Personality Model Of Bill English And John Key

Five Big Traits

Discuss about the Big five Personality Model of Bill English and John key.

The assignment deals with the Big Five Personality Traits taking Bill English, the present prime minister of New Zealand and thirty ninth prime minister of New Zealand Sir John Philip Key into consideration. The five big traits are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

The reader can expect to gain an in depth knowledge about the big five personality traits. He can also expect to study the big five models and their traits like openness and extraversion drawing examples from the personality traits of Bill English and Sir John Philip (DeYoung 2015).

A study of the background of the big five personality model shows that it is a model based on personality surveys and can be expressed in form of statistics. The personality traits are identical to lexical hypothesis and reflect important aspects of people’s personalities.

A study of the background of Sir John Philip key shows that he has served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand and has long political background and experience empowering him to lead the country. Simon William ‘Bill’ English is the present Prime Minister of New Zealand is endowed with several big five traits like openness and extraversion(NZ Herald. 2017).

The five big traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Figure 1: Big 5 Trait Model

Source: (Roughan 2017)

Openness to experience refers to degree of acceptance of creativity and new experiences. The people with this personality trait appreciate arts, emotions and diverse experiences of life. This personality trait is associated self actualisation and extremely innovative. However, extreme openness is associated with lack of focus and sincerity especially in group activities(Judge, T.A. and Zapata 2015).

Conscientiousness refers to act responsibly towards achievement of objectives.  The people with this trait are organised and show a high degree of self discipline. They aim for achievement of objectives and plan the strategies to achieve those objectives. However, high conscientiousness is often perceived as a sign of obsession and obstinacies. Although lack of conscientiousness is associated with flexibility to others’ plans, it can also be assumed to be a sign of lack of reliability (Kluemper, McLarty and Bing 2015).  

Extraversion is the positive attitude and sociability to contribute towards group activities. The individuals with this personality trait are expert at seeking attention in a team and tend to be very communicative. However, high degree of extraversion reflects attention seeking and lack of seriousness. Low extraversion results in reserved and reflective personality trait lacking communication (Gebauer et al. 2014).

Openness

Agreeability refers to the personality trait showing cooperativeness towards a team to help in achieving targets. The individuals having this trait harbour trust in their team members and encourage team action. However extreme agreeability is perceived as lack of decision making power and leadership qualities (Müller et al. 2014).

Neuroticism refers to the psychological trait of experiencing negative feelings like anxiety and intimidation. It shows the degree of mental stability of a person to tackle these negative feelings. The individuals who are capable of dealing with neuroticism are often expert in taking decisions in the face of competition and stress (Wille and De Fruyt 2014).

Simon William ‘Bill’ English was born on 30^th December, 1961, becoming the 39^th Prime Minister of New Zealand along with the leader of the National Party. He was previously been elected as the Deputy Prime Minister ranging from period 2008 to 2016. English attended St Thomas school in Winton, followed by St. Patrick’s College in the Upper Hut, becoming the head boy there. Then English went on to learn commerce at the Otago University and then completing an honours grade in English Literature at the Victoria University of Wellington.

During the 1980s, English joined the National Party, while being studying at the Victoria University. For a period he served as the chairman of the branch at Southland of the Young Nationals, and also becoming the member of the committee of Wellington electorate. Once he shifted to Wellington, English served for certain periods on the electorate committees of Island Bay and Miramar, respectively. English is generally looked upon more the more socially conservative than his predecessor, John Key. English is stated to be following Roman Catholic, though he believes his religious beliefs to be a personal matter, separating it overall from politics.

Sir John Philip Key born on 9^th August, 1961 has been a New Zealand politician, serving as the 38^th Prime Minister of New Zealand. He was born in the city of Auckland before shifting to Christchurch as a child, attending the University of Canterbury, graduating in the year 1981 with a degree of bachelor of commerce. His career started with a stint in foreign exchange market in New Zealand before moving abroad to work for Merrill Lynch, where he went on to become the head of the global foreign exchange in the year 1995, a position where he stayed for six long years. In the year 1999, Key was selected as the affiliate of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until leaving that in 2001. His entry into the New Zealand Parliament was in 2002 when he represented the Auckland electorate of Helensville and in 2004 was appointed as the Finance Spokesperson for National Party. Key was allotted a Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Merit Order, recognizing his services towards the State, in an event at the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In his personal life, Key is stated to be an agnostic, stating he never believed in afterlife and sees religion as “doing correct things”.

Conscientiousness

Extraversion:

It has been stated earlier this year that Bill English, the New Zealand Prime Minister is far from being comfortable in the public gawk, and like his predecessors John Key, English has set along in revealing more of his personal life in an offer to become more relatable to the voting public. In the early days of April, 2017, there was a selfie of a dinner within family and his untraditional ways of making pizza that created headlines globally. This signifies the fact that Bill English was a high attention seeker, boosted by his latest efficiently formed promotional video on Facebook featuring the Prime Minister playing cricket with sleeves rolled up and reading stories to the children.  

As per Roughan (2017), analysts like Claire Robinson, Massey University political scientist states that English has been affected by the need of a quick build up of a public brand after being in the background for eight years as Finance Minister. He is not comfortable being the public persona, though he seems enjoying the additional public facet of the role and the photographs of the Prime Minister certainly proves that fact of opinion (www.nzherald.co.nz 2017). Therefore, it can be stated that Bill English is high on scale of extraversion.

Agreeableness:

Bill English can be stated as the Southern man who is generally steady and reliable. He has teamed up with Paula Bennet who is outwardly contemptible, though she has been striving hard in toning that down after her promotion to deputy leader. According to Colbert, Barrick and Bradley (2014), the thing that works in favour of Bill English is being much passionate about the details during his tenure as the Finance Minister, though as a prime Minister he needs to embrace a bigger audience. Bennett is more of a big picture politician, shaking up the traditional image of the National Party. As stated earlier, Bill English like s working behind the scenes, which makes him less comfortable with the masses, not being able to provoke much of the sympathy as like his predecessor John Key, who was able to make people relate with him in every sense. Bill English has been lower than John Key in the scale level of agreeableness, as he has not been that tactful and friendly as his precursor.

Conscientiousness:

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Bill English has been able to contrast the attainment of the government with the ‘rearranging’ of Labour party. Bill English ahs always believed that a good government would always achieve positive results. Bill English further added that when the opposition has been busy in rearranging themselves, restoring their billboards, Bill and his team have been getting on with their decisions in making a difference to the New Zealanders. As per Spain, Harms and LeBreton (2014), this has been much reflected in the most recent advice from the international credit rating agency as it anticipates New Zealand to be one of the top triple A economies in the coming few years. New Zealand is stated to have strong economic preparation under the leadership of Bill English. Under the able guidance of English, New Zealand has been enjoying relatively healthy annual GDP growth accounting to more than 3 per cent with the rate of unemployment falling below 5 per cent. English ahs well achieved in returning smaller surpluses on the books of the government over a period of past couple of years. He also added to the fact that he would be delivering cuts in taxes, thus spreading the country’s mounting wealth where necessary. It can thus be stated that Bill English has been high on the scale of conscientiousness, achieving objectives as planned, but not as high as his predecessor John Key.

Extraversion

Neuroticism:

Bill English is stated to be socially conservative. He is virtually killing off the obligations of secular government which he views to be sinful through pretention of resourcing in to only the needy. Many might miss the fact that Bill English is a fanatical Catholic. As per Clark and Vanderbleek (2016), the last eight years of the life of Bill English has been spend on budget books, where he is generally fiscal conservative, however not ideologically driven like Ruth Richardson. He has this negativity within himself related to same sex marriage for which he voted against along with the formation of civil unions and prostitution law modifications. The world has gone one step further in legalizing the prostitution law and same sex marriages, and in the face of global competition it would have been beneficial on the part of Bill English to think otherwise. English is stated to be a religious extremist who if being facilitated in finishing his goal of wellbeing privatization would cause more damage than by his predecessors. He is more focused towards maiming the capacity of the State in funding and dispensing the social obligations for the desperate people to be pressed towards the representatives of God on Earth (Barlett and Anderson 2012). Therefore, it can be concluded that Bill English scores low on the neuroticism count.

Openness:

While being the Finance Minister, Bill English made use of the wafer-thin surplus in undercutting the policies of the Opposition while making use of some creative and innovative spending ideas for trying to develop the chances of the National for re-election. During his tenure as the Finance Minister, the Opposition were abridged to the attainment of the surplus with Mr. English rolling out several initiatives of spending that were stated to be family-friendly along with some social expenditure intended towards low to middle-income earners (Jia, Jia and Karau 2013). Mr. English was able to forecast surpluses stating families would be benefiting from a economy that is growing, providing more jobs along with higher amount of wages. He was also open to certain issues pertaining the affordable housing, announcing a package that removed temporarily duties and tariffs on the material of buildings that covers 90 per cent of the construction of new homes. A rise in the prices of the houses hit hard those on the lower income level, widening the inequality gap. Developments in the supply components of housing, as per Bill English would complement the programs related to social housing reform (Cho and Auger 2017). Thus, it can be stated that Bill has been high on the quotient of openness, finding creative ideas to help the people of New Zealand in dreaming big.

Agreeableness

Extraversion:

John Key, the 38^th Prime Minister of New Zealand has been extensively liked by his countrymen, a liking which has more been like a friend or someone they might identify and trust on. Key has this easygoing agreeable appearance about himself who does not seems in taking things much seriously, kidding around a bit, giving him the available personality. Key has been one of those leaders who have been tremendously liked by the people, which is difficult to tackle for his opponents. There were certain dodgy issues like the deal of the SkyCity or the electorate housing in seats like Epsom where people raised questions and were unhappy with him, though that unhappiness was only the result of the liking they have for their leader. Therefore, it can be concluded that John Key has been running high on the quotient of extraversion where people are attention seekers and lacks much seriousness. The same has been the case with John Key, presenting himself before the mass as an easygoing person having a warm kind of character along with great communication skill that makes him more than desirable (Spain, Harms and LeBreton 2014).

Agreeableness:

John Key has been a politician who has never hidden his human trades, but rather embracing the same provoking sympathy while others in the fray has been much unrelatable. John Key might sound lunatic, but in New Zealand he seems to be the most human and relatable politician. Brand Key was all about “I”, though the same cannot be stated in the post-Key era.  Key had a clear vision about what he wanted for New Zealand which he expressed persistently and ardently (Oreg and Berson 2015). He was one of those leaders who was able to keep his team focused in attaining results through centring around ‘himself’ and other strengths. The scale of agreeableness of John Key has been much higher to that of Bill English, his successor. The thing that works well for John Key is the liking of the people and the belief they had on him after his leadership succeeded in mitigating the consequences of the Global Financial Crisis on New Zealand. Under John Key, New Zealand became an easy place to conduct business. The strong point for John Key has always been his amiable personality giving him an edge over his opponents from Labour and Green whose leaders have never been as marketable as Key.

Neuroticism

Conscientiousness:

John Key has been stated to be more ‘conscientiousness’ than the average liking of the New Zealanders. John key’s highly conscientiousness meant Key set more goals for himself with their intention to carrying through. He has been prompt though, governing the country through the period of recession, working hard in creating the much-protested strategy for the inequitable privatization of the enterprises that are stated owned. He has been a dominating figure in the background of New Zealand politics. He has always kept the economy of the country on track, even during the testing times of seismic shifts that rocked Christchurch. His ‘can do’ spirit has been superb, especially at a time when the other world leaders have been finding it difficult to keep their nation’s economy on the right track (www.nzherald.co.nz 2017). His stable leadership during the tough times of the country has been influential, though the man has not been shy to replace people who have underperformed in his tenure. He have been ruthless at times for which he has been criticised like cutting of the social programs that was introduced by the Labour party and giving greater precedence to primary reforms of critical laws like the Resource management Act. The man’s tough upbringing has resulted in him being dependent on himself in bringing radical changes and being tough on others.

Neuroticism:

Unlike Bill English, John Key was able to focus on much broader reforms like legalizing the gay marriages and even identifying or recognizing the Pastarian marriages. Moreover, he did not hold much negativity about his opposition which is evident from the fact that he kept various policies of Labour in the threshold of National’s government which worked well previously. He believed in the fact that the best way to beat one’s opposition is adopting their policies. In a survey, it was found that John Key has been rated within the top 5 per cent population for ‘emotional stability’, suggesting that it has never been easy to melt down the person on the stump (Clark and Vanderbleek 2016). He has been gritty, self-motivated and easy going resulting in eight long years of reigning as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. His successor, Bill English might have been someone whose negativity thinking has put an end to certain policies that are being globally accepted these days. New Zealand might lose out on the grounds that it has covered under John Key, a man who is emotionally stable.

Background of Bill English

Openness:

Being a ‘go-getter’ John Key has always been open to new ideas and creativity. Under his tenure as the Prime minister of New Zealand, John Key government has invested in education and innovation for the long-term growth of the country. The man has been influential in investing in six projects related to the New Zealand tourism that would provide tourists with rich cultural experience of the country along with modernization. As per Judge and Zapata (2015), John Key always believed in keeping New Zealand as a affluent first world economy having high wages, generous safety in the welfare of the society needs to be more innovative and more competitive. John has been a passionate free-trader, signing free trade agreements with Singapore that sprang up a 12 nation free trade agreement symbolizing 40 per cent of the global GDP (Zacher et al. 2014). Therefore, John is high on the scale level of ‘openness’ where he believes in creativity and innovation to be the key to economy.

Conclusion:

It can be concluded that John Key has been away more popular than what Bill English has been in New Zealand. The reason being John Key was such a leader who could relate well to people, a trait that served well during his 8 long years as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Bill English played a second fiddle role when John Key was at helm. He was playing the role of a Finance Minister, a role that suited him perfectly for the fact being he likes working behind the scenes. Every individual has their own sets of personal traits and observations and perceptions through which they work. Though they belong to the same National Party, their way of seeing and understanding things has been different which is evident from the fact that certain policies that were implemented by John Key during his tenure, was opposed by Bill English, the most popular being the same sex marriage. Both of the leaders have been at high score levels on most of the traits though Key clearly beating his successor in popularity factor. Bill has a bit of negative mindset, where his personal opinions take the centre stage in making decisions though Key’s has always been for the New Zealanders. However, the John Key era was more of an “I” factor, but with English it has been sheer team work, with his partnership with Paula Bennet. John Key has always been a talkative extrovert who rarely tracks down the information and gets upset at the shifting of the products in the supermarkets. Key is more ‘spontaneous’ whereas, English is more conscious. Key a more extrovert in his approach whereas English has been more introverts with his plans and policies. Key has always been stated as a ‘go-getter’ whereas, Bill English has displayed much patience in making his moves.

Background of John Key

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