Week 5 Project: Final Report

The Big Five Model

The Big Five model is an attempt to organize some of the myriad of personality traits existing in individuals. Some of these traits may be more effective for a leader in one field than in another.

The Big Five model was proposed to analyze five common personality traits in people and assess their strengths and weaknesses for leadership positions. These traits are:

· Surgency

· Agreeableness

· Conscientiousness

· Adjustment

· Intellectance

Surgency includes characteristics such as extroversion, high energy, excitability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and a high degree of emotional expressiveness. Those falling into this category are outgoing and take matters into their own hands.

Leaders, and particularly those who strive toward leadership positions, often have outgoing personalities. In the case study covered this week, George J. Beto can certainly be classified as having this personality trait. This trait was a powerful factor and a critical requirement for his professional success.

Whether surgency translates well into criminal justice leadership positions may depend on the scenario. For instance, if a police department is stagnant and lacks energy, vision, and innovation, an extroverted and expressive chief may be a perfect fit.

However, if the police department is doing well and subordinates have a strong rapport with an easy-going police chief, then a new high-energy chief may not work.

Agreeableness includes attributes such as altruism, kindness, affection, and other behaviors that are social in nature. People with these traits are cheerful and optimistic and have a need for affiliation. They are well bonded to the ideas of conventional society.

However, agreeable personalities are often seen as a fair target for those who try to take advantage and shirk responsibilities. Therefore, it is important for leaders to know their groups before becoming overly receptive to their ideas and tolerant to their working styles. For instance, a judge who is too agreeable could be treated as a pushover.