Identifying the Characteristics of Khairy Jamaluddin as a Leader by Using the Social Media Throughout the 29^th SEA Games

There are many leaders and politicians in the world, however not all of them are well-liked by the society. Those who are not people-centric leaders are usually are less favoured because he might be a person who only does decision-making according to his own desire. Another factor is probably because the leader has committed less interaction and societal engagements which have made him to be seen as unfriendly person. By looking at this problem, the researcher got the idea to observe how a popular leader can become a likeable leader, therefore, the researcher has decided to analyse Yang Berhormat (YB) Khairy Jamaluddin, who was the Minster for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia. In conjunction to his popularity and nicknames such as ‘Daddy’, ‘Abah’, and ‘Tall, Dark, and Handsome’ kind of leader, he managed to influence Malaysians to support the 29th SEA Games 2017 which was held in Kuala Lumpur. Since Khairy Jamaluddin is the minister for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia, the researcher has decided to observe the leadership style of Khairy Jamaluddin, by understanding which leadership traits that have made him to be likeable by everyone. Hence, the method of observing this research study is by using Qualitative approach, specifically by using Content Analysis method. 256 tweets from Khairy Jamaluddin Twitter interactions in August 2017 are analysed by using a coding sheet as a guideline to determine the leadership traits. As for the findings in Chapter Four, the highest leadership trait which is possessed by Khairy Jamaluddin is the Feedback Skill. Thus, it shows that by having a good communication skill, it helps a leader to have higher likeability in the society.