John Antonakis and his colleagues just came out with a new paper on power and corruption (and Testosterone).
Why are leaders corrupt? This question has teased and taunted researchers over the years; however, there is not much research that has examined this question using experimental designs that give real power to leaders in real-stakes situations. In this animated, fun, but also science-packed podcast, Prof. John Antonakis explains what he and his colleagues–Dr. Samuel Bendahan, Prof. Christian Zehnder, and Prof. François Pralong–found in two experimental studies. Both power (leader choice set and number of followers) and the person (baseline testosterone) caused corruption. The implications of this study are far reaching and should make individuals responsible for organizational governance mechanisms to pause and think about how much power and discretionary choices leaders should have.