Identifying Personality Types of Mayors in Local Government in Bulgaria According to the Myers – Briggs Typology

Abstract

In this article, we make an attempt to explore and identify the personality types of mayors in Bulgarian local government by applying the Myers-Briggs typology indicator. This article presents part of the results of a more extensive author’s survey of mayors in municipalities and districts across the country. The fieldwork was carried out in the period between June 2022 and September 2023, with responses received from 57 of the mayors. The attention will be directed towards one of the questionnaires applied in this author’s study, which included questions regarding leadership models in Bulgarian municipalities. The methods used to analyze the collected data are descriptive statistics and calculation of an arithmetic mean value. The analysis identifies personality types of Bulgarian mayors and the strengths and weaknesses for each type. The results show that the personality type ‘Executive’ is the most common one among mayors in Bulgarian municipalities. The results provide an opportunity to expand the research and include qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups and others, with the aim of examining the specifics of the individual case and linking it to the context of the environment. In addition, in the future, the relationship between personality type, charisma, emotional intelligence and the managerial style of the mayors will be investigated, as a result of which a profile can be built, through which candidates for public positions can be selected. Further research will also look at the relationship between the personality type of the mayor, the financial and economic condition of the municipality and the attracted investments during their mandate term.