Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Introduction

Transformational leadership is a leadership style where the leaders encourage and inspire followers. It is aimed at bringing change, which contributes to shaping the success of the country in the future. The essential action of transformation leaders is that they are involved in changing the culture of leadership and come up with another better culture and one that delivers results (Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy, 2014).  Transformational leaders are, involved in making tough decisions, and they will dare assume the most significant risk in a decision. However, if properly executed, this leadership style can help a country get results faster (Van Eeden et al., 2008).  This is the leadership style that has been adopted by Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand.  Despite her young age, she has received accolades from every corner of the globe due to her response to national calamities. This essay will focus on the life and political career of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and her transformational leadership style.

Early Life and Education

Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, was born in Hamilton New Zealand on July 26, 1980 (Carter & Ardern, 2018). She was brought up in Marmon in Morrinsville and Murupara. Her father, Ross Ardern, was a police officer while her mother, Laurell Ardern, was a school catering assistant. Ardern grew up and studied in Morrinsville college. She was elected as the student representative on the board of trustees. While she was still in school, she got her first job, where she worked at the local fish and chip ship. She later moved to the University of Waikato in 1999 and graduated with a Bachelor in Communication Studies (BCS) in politics and public relations in 2001 (Wallenfeldt, 2019).

Background

Prime minister Ardern hails from the background of the traditional social democrats who believed that profit should be made as long as this motive is made subservient of the interests of other people on the planet. She is an advocate of human rights and strongly advises for kindness as the governing virtue of her leadership. Her world view is entrenched on the need to enhance the wellbeing of everybody in the county. She believes that with the right leadership, she can be able to enable people to create value. She is concerned about the wellbeing of the people as opposed to the use of the GDP as the measure of progress in society. She believes that real progress in society can only be attained by enhancing the welfare of all the other people.

Professional Background

Ardern started her political career in the year 2008 when she first stood as a candidate for the labor party in Waikato in 2008.  This gave her the first entry into parliament as a list MP.  In 2017, general election, Ardern was able to register a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections where she won.  She was elected in Mt. Albert, a region that strongly supports the labor party. She ascended to the leadership of the party when the party deputy leader Annette king resigned from the party, and she was unanimously elected to replace her. This was at the backdrop of the waning popularity of the labor party even after being in power for nine years. The voters seemed less interested in voting for the labor part to be in power.  According to the poll opinion in July 2017, it was evident that the support for the party was just less than 25 percent. The party leader Andrew Little, stepped down from the leadership of the party after he secured the pledge of Ardern that she would stand in for him. She refused seven times but later agreed to take the position. She ran unopposed and was elected the leader of the party on august one.  Right away, she was heavily involved with the re-election campaign for Member of Parliament, Harry Duynhoven. After graduating from University, she then became a researcher for another Member of Parliament, Phil Goff.  She would apply these experiences into a Prime Minister Staff position. She would work directly for Helen Clark, the second female Prime Minister of New Zealand. Clark would become a mentor to Ardern and eventual political hero (Wallenfeldt, 2019).

Influences

Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has not just been a significant influence in New Zealand, but she also has strong support from the global community. She shares a prestigious position in the global platform, where she is widely recognized as a global leader. This was after she has been able to lead the country in an exemplary way. She has made New Zealand a country that rarely appears on the global media to featured due to her decisive stand not only on matters of interest to New Zealand, but also of significance to women, minorities, and the global community (Mustaqim, 2019). She has been recognized as being among the one hundred most influential women in the world by Forbes.

 Risen to power 

Ardern would travel to Britain in 2005 to gain some overseas experience.  A traditional excursion for most of the middle- and upper-class New Zealanders; the intention is to travel abroad to widen their horizons. Most spend it working part-time jobs and taking in views. For Ardern, she would spend her time in the cabinet office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. For two and a half years, she served as the associate director for the Better Regulation Executive (Mustaqim, 2019).

Ardern worked for two and a half years in the cabinet office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair as an associate director for Better Regulation Executive with the primary responsibility of improving how local authorities interact with small businesses. In 2007 she was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), a position that took her to destinations such as Algeria, China, India, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Ardern took over as Minister of New Zealand in October of 2017. At the age of 37, she became the world’s youngest female leader (Carter & Ardern, 2018).

Why The Leader Sought Power 

Prime minister Ardern sought power with the hope of transforming New Zealand (Barker & Wood, 2019). She is a strong advocator for human rights. This can be attested in the Christchurch attach, where 51 Muslims were killed (Reicher et al., 2019). She came out strongly as a compassionate leader and was able to overhaul the gun rules in New Zealand. She is also advocating for the rights of the gay community in New Zealand. She also believes in social justice and equality of her countrymen (Daghigh, & Rahim, 2019). She advocates for the role of community and democracy. She is striving to ensure there is equality where all people in New Zealand will be able to have the basic necessities for life. For example, she laments about capitalism, which has led to homelessness in New Zealand. Even though she laments about capitalism, there may not be an imminent idea of an alternative.

Explain How the Leader Came to Power

She got into power through an appointment. This was after the national party, and the labor party formed a coalition with Ardern becoming the new prime minister for the country. Generally, in New Zealand, the governor-general has a duty of appointing the prime minister, and the person who has the highest chance of becoming the prime minister is the leader of the party that has the highest number of seats in parliament. Since the labor party had the majority of seats, it meant that she had the confidence of parliament to run the affairs of the government (Keith, 2008).

Source of Power and Extent of Power

The source of power for the prime minister Ardern is situated in the formal documents, decisions, or conventions that have been passed in the past. This is because New Zealand, just like the UK, does not have a written constitution.  It is governed through acts of parliament, legal documents, decisions made by courts, and the conventions that are generally accepted. The prime minister is accountable to the governor-general, the house of representatives, and the labor party.  She will give a reason for her decisions and their justifications. Ultimately, this means that a prime minister in New Zealand is accountable to the people of New Zealand (Keith, 2008).

The prime minister is the senior-most minister of the government. She has the power of chairing the cabinet meeting and allocating posts to the ministers. She is also the spokesperson of the government, and she is tasked with the duty of advising the sovereign (Queen of England) or their representatives in New Zealand (governor-general) (Keith, 2008).

Leadership Style

Jacinda Ardern is a transformational leader. When she was campaigning, she was campaigning saddled with the word “transformational.” One of the significant characteristics of transformational leadership is the ability to recognize issues before they become problems (Ardern & Leader, 2018).  This can be seen with Jacinda Ardern, where she was able to come up with tight gun laws that would help tame racism in the country (Besley & Peters, 2020).  After the Christchurch attack, she came out strong and led the nation in making laws that were pivotal in controlling automatic guns (Mustaqim, 2019).  It is the nature of transformational leaders to make significant changes in policy or lifestyle as long as it is necessary. Furthermore, transformational leaders can change the culture and introduce something different (Barker & Wood, 2019).  When Ardern comes into the position, people expected that she was going to follow the kiwi form of leadership, but she introduced a different style of astuteness and compassion. This was something new that the people had not anticipated, although it has been widely praised both locally and internationally. Through her leadership, she has been able to devise solutions to some of the toughest situations by critically analyzing them (Nawaz & Khan, 2016).  For example, the wellbeing budget is unique in her leadership. She feels that capitalism is resulting in inequality in the country, and she thinks that the wellbeing budget should be used to determine how well people are living. This now becomes the measure of national success.  Unlike the GDP that focused on the income that the country is getting, the wellbeing yardstick uses multi-dimensional living standards as an indicator of the success of the country. The prime minister was able to see the problems that were lodged in the present system and was able to come up with a solution that would address the problem. It is a slow overhaul of the current system to come up with a better way of measuring the success of the country.

Another important aspect is her decisiveness while making decisions. She is quick to respond to issues like, for instance, immediately after the attack, she addressed the perpetrator by stating that even if they chose her, she rejects such actions. Through her exceptional leadership in the situation that had the potential of creating a rift between races, she helped to strengthen the unity of the people.

This leadership style has a significant impact on Jacinda Ardern’s decisions and actions. For example, in the choices she makes, she has to show them through action. A transformational leader becomes like a couch or monitor as opposed to being a boss. After Christchurch’s attack, she went to the Muslim community to ask them whether they needed any support from the prime minister (Mustaqim, 2019).  This was a demonstration of transformational leadership. This leadership style is also pivotal in helping the leader to guide and inspire the citizens. She has been able to guide her fellow countrymen in adhering to unity and avoid racism (Besley & Peters, 2020).  She had been able to project the big vision that she has for New Zealand by communicating with optimism and confidence.  Furthermore, in this leadership style, she has been the role model because the action of the leader has a more noticeable impact on influencing the actions of the followers.

Major Actions/ Decisions

Ardern has focused a lot of her attention on the environment since taking office. Her initiatives have included planting over 140 million trees and banning of one-time-use plastic bags.  She has also passed a bill for New Zealand to have a carbon-neutral footprint by 2050.  Jacinda has aided the working sector to find a better balance between family and employment. She extended paid parental leave and even took six weeks to care for her newborn child, a rarity for a Prime Minister (Ardern & Leader, 2018).  This resulted in the establishment of the climate change commission, which would oversee the transition. This was necessary to avert the climate change that has resulted from environmental degradation, such as the use of poor farming methods.

Another critical decision that has been made by prime minister Ardern is the changing of the measure of success from the traditional GDP to the new measure of wellbeing. Some of the aspects that need to be addressed include child poverty in the country, violence, and mental health, which are primary priorities.  She has pointed out that capitalism is creating an unfair society where most of the people are not able to own home. The impact of the expansion of the economy was not being felt by every person living in New Zealand and, therefore, the decision to measure the success of the national by looking at its wellbeing.   Through the welling budget, it could enable New Zealanders to live a life of purposes and a better life with all the relevant services.

These decisions have been very pivotal in helping to demonstrate the transformative leadership of Ardern. She has been very specific on the need for environmental conservation by calling on Australia to do more (Ayson, 2018). This shows that she is determined to confront the status quo and bring a difference by confronting present circumstances. Through her approach to issues, she has been able to bring an overhaul of the existing system by developing a better alternative.  Generally, I think her leadership style has been effective.

Conclusion

Prime minister Ardern has used a transformational leadership style in leading New Zealand as prime minister. Even though she is one of the youngest leaders in the world, she has been recognized by bringing change in the leadership style in New Zealand. Unlike her predecessors, who adhered to the kiwi system of leadership, she has decided to introduce empathy and compassion, which have been instrumental in bringing change to New Zealand. She has shown a lot of decisiveness in her leadership style and brings an overhaul to the traditional system. She has been firm in calling for unity among the people of New Zealand and avoid racism. She has also been vocal calling for environmental conservation, and she has championed the course by committing her country to reduce the carbon footprint to zero by the year 2050. These decisive actions have made her stood out, and this influences my perception of her.  I think that her leadership style is effective, which has made all the global leaders want to associate with her.

References

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