Jacinda Ardern's compassionate leadership: a case of social change leadership in action

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2022-0071
• Published date: 23 June 2022
• Date: 23 June 2022
• Pages: 641-658
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Montgomery Van Wart,Michael Macaulay,Katie Haberstroh

Jacinda Ardern’s compassionate

leadership: a case of social change

leadership in action

Montgomery Van Wart

CSUSB, Riverside, California, USA

Michael Macaulay

Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, and

Katie Haberstroh

California State University San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California, USA

Abstract

Purpose –This article investigates the leadership style of Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of Aotearoa New

Zealand. It uses the model of Social Change Leadership (SCL) to evaluate her approach to leadership as well as

some notable successes and failures of her premiership.

Design/methodology/approach–The article adopts a grounded theory approach in which five increasingly

refined research iterations were conductedto detect and articulate patterns of significance (Strauss and Corbin,

1997). Ultimately, the team selected 19 leadership examples to be cross referenced with the SCL model.

Findings –The article finds that in terms of leadership style Ardern corresponds closely to the SCL

framework. The 19 examples show clusters of behavior that clearly denote a SCL constellation in terms of her

approach. It also finds, however, that in terms of performance goals there is a less clear picture with less

coherence to the framework. These findings in turn point to an interesting potential tension in the SCL model

that has hitherto not been acknowledged.

Originality/value –The article is the first of its kind to apply SCL to a major global political leader. It is the

first structured, academic assessment of Ardern’s leadership. It adds a theoretical contribution to ongoing

discussions on the efficacy and utility of the SCL framework.

Keywords New Zealand, Leadership, Social change leadership theory

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive

enough, or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against

that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong (Jacinda Ardern, 8

Sep, 2018).

Jacinda Ardern, the relatively young prime minister of New Zealand, has a global

reputation that shines brightly and remains undimmed throughout the five years (and

counting) of her leadership thus far. She is known around the world for her passion, positivity

and perseverance in the face of crises (Duff, 2019;Blackwell, 2020;Chapman, 2020;Le Fevre,

2021;Head, 2021;Vani and Harte, 2021). Her reputation within Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ)

also remains strong, albeit with more dissenting voices along the way than may be recognized

abroad. While these dissenting voices remain few in number they have become increasingly

loud: this article is being finalized during the middle of one of the biggest and most vociferous

protests in NZ history, in which the Parliamentary grounds have been occupied by thousands

of protestors, many of whom shamefully proclaiming anti-Semitic rhetoric and symbolism.

With the present currently being contested how, then, will history judge Ardern’s reign?

Compassionate

leadership

641

We wish to provide special thanks to Hector Ramirez for his assistance.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 15 March 2022

Revised 25 March 2022

Accepted 25 March 2022

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 35 No. 6, 2022

pp. 641-658

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-03-2022-0071

Assessing a leader’s place in history while they are still in power is clearly difficult: to

quote the old expression “the Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at dusk”. Nevertheless,

there are a number of frameworks that can be used to accomplish the task and this article

draws on three of them. We first look at trends in political leadership from a historical cycle

perspective (Modeslki, 1987), which explains the likely flow of history, leaving ample room for

complexities, ironies and occasional contradictions.

Second, we examine the comparatively new phenomenon of women gaining office through

democratic political leadership mechanisms. While women have famously peppered history

in leadership roles, they have not done so through democratic political processes until

recently because of the inability to vote. The first indirectly elected female prime minister was

in 1960 and the first directly elected president in 1980, well within the memory of people

alive today.

Third, we examine the New Zealand political and economic context which is full of

contrasts. New Zealand is moderately ethnically diverse, but relatively homogenous in terms

of religion. It is known as a humane society (Kennedy, 2007) but is among the world’s most

economically neoliberal societies (Heritage, 2021). These political and economic factors play

an enormous role in her leadership, especially in a strongly democratic state, so a quick

review of them is essential for perspective.

Our conclusion returns to the role of Jacinda Ardern on the complex world stage and

reframes questions around potential legacies as a politician, Prime Minister and party leader.

A leader who is a paragon of what the age needs, but also a leader out-of-step with the times

the world lives in.

Theoretical models of political leadership

Over thirty years ago it was argued that “it is prima facie surprising that a general analysis of

the phenomenon [political leadership] should be so little advanced”(Blondel, 1987, p. 13) and

prominent commentators suggest there has been little subsequent improvement (Morrell and

Hartley, 2006;Blondel, 2014). There have, however, been some Aoteroa-specific attempts to

look at political leadership in New Zealand. Bassett (1999) suggested the following range of

characteristics as a means to assess New Zealand prime ministers:

“The need for robust health, high energy levels, a good temperament, intelligence, a willingness to

take the right, as opposed to a political decision and a modicum of luck, has been constants

throughout the century. A supportive spouse has helped and that intangible thing called charisma,

or magic, has ensured that one or two of our leaders have been remembered-if not for their superior

vision or decision-making abilities, then because of an ’X’factor that caught the public imagination”

(Bassett, 1999, p. 108).

At best, while there seems to be an emphasis on virtue here this list is somewhat ad hoc. While

the opening quote to this article shows Ardern emphasizes virtues such as empathy and

compassion, more rigor is needed to be able to evaluate her leadership. Sheppard’s (1998) five-

fold model of New Zealand’s political leadership includes the categories of: general leadership,

parliamentary leadership, party management, legislative achievements and crisis

management. This is closer to the type of leadership model Ardern herself acknowledges:

one that cuts across roles and builds relationships. Ardern has stressed the importance of

avoiding leadership dichotomies. In a 2018 appearance on NBC’sToday show she stated:

“I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you’re

constantly focused on scoring hits against each one another. Yes, we need a robust

democracy, but you can be strong and you can be kind”(Arden, 2018).

In order to provide a more structured approach, therefore, this article utilizes the Social

Change Leadership (SCL) model (Van Wart, 2017). It assumes the goal of leadership is to solve

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