University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

The Responsible Leadership Identities of Al Gore and Wangari Maathai
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There are similarities and differences between the identities of the two responsible
leaders, Al Gore and Wangari Maathai. Both leaders adopted their value bases early
on and developed and strengthened them during their lives. Both have had to struggle
to gain acceptance to their self-image – Wangari Maathai as a woman much more
than Al Gore – when critics have portrayed an opposite external image of them. The
time perspective of both leaders has been long, although Wangari Maathai seems to
have had her vision clearer in her mind from the start than Al Gore. Both leaders
have experimented with roles and both have integrated environmental activism and
politics – Wangari Maathai much more deeply than Al Gore. Both anticipated
achievement; yet while Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement succeeded well
locally and internationally but it had to fight nationally against the government for 25
years, success for Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth about Climate Change was
practically self-evident at every level. Both Gore and Maathai are strong leaders who
can cooperate with others but might not be good followers. The fact that they do not
burn out despite not succumbing to followership in some issues implies that they can
focus on the essential and delegate. – Responsible leaders, Al Gore and Wangari
Maathai, have built responsible organizations around them. Responsible
organizations often have strong leaders.
Organizations: Building Blocks of Some Responsible
Leaders
The Body Shop
One of the pioneers of environmentally and socio-culturally responsible leadership
has been The Body Shop, which was founded by Anita Roddick in 1976. It is the
second largest cosmetic franchise of the world. The value basis of The Body Shop is
built on five core values: activate self-esteem, stand against animal testing, support
community trade, protect our planet and defend human rights (The Body Shop 2009).
Over the years and decades many critics have attacked the environmentally and
socio-culturally responsible self-image of the Body Shop by making various claims
to portray the company’s external image as environmentally or socio-culturally
irresponsible. Most of the claims have been unfounded, but the company has
responded to those with factual backing by correcting the problems (Roddick 2000).
None of the claims have permanently tarnished the company’s green and caring
image despite the fact that cosmetics do not really belong to necessities of life but
could be seen as luxury items.
The Body Shop grew rapidly from one store company in the United Kingdom to a
2,400 store corporation in 61 countries (The Body Shop 2009). Anita Roddick took
business opportunities and created them while maintaining and developing the
company’s environmentally and socio-culturally responsible identity. Thus the
company’s time perspective has been twofold: business has been run for profit, but
not at the expense of taking responsibility. Long-term responsibilities have