Women Leading a Responsible Global Business: A Study of Dame Anita Roddick, Founder of the Body Shop

Abstract

We end the collection with a study of Dame Anita Roddick, the founder and former CEO of the Body Shop. After having been exposed to Collier and Esteban’s description of “systemic leadership”, and Uhl-Bien, Marion and Kelvey’s analysis of “complexity leadership theory”, as well as some of the more practical exposés of these dynamics in various contexts, we would like to challenge the reader to track some of these dynamics in the life of Anita Roddick. In this paper, it becomes clear that Roddick exemplifies what Pless and Maak identify as “responsible leadership,” which certainly displays certain parallels with what the other authors call “systemic leadership” or “complexity leadership theory”. Roddick managed to read and navigate a very complex set of dynamics, taking into account the global environment in which the Body Shop interacts, providing outlets for indigenous products, and being profitable as well. Pless argues that Roddick is an exemplar of the female archetype of leadership. Here we seem to have come full circle… The question that emerges once again is: Is it wise to maintain the notion of a “female archetype” of leadership? Does it not do more damage by entrenching dangerous stereotypes that continue to undermine women’s leadership capacities? Well, yes, and no. The “female archetype” at least indicates that there is an alternative to patriarchal leadership theories, and as such, it creates the possibility of change. All of the authors in this volume will agree that this archetype has been socially constructed, but that does not make its effects, both positive and negative, less real. Maybe the best we could hope for is that “systemic leadership” may offer an alternative to both male and female archetypes that would allow both men and women, to lead in different, more relational and more contextually sensitive ways.