Leader unethical behaviour depends on the degree of felt power, responsibility, and Machiavellianism
A widespread belief suggests that power corrupts. But we posit that individuals differ in how they use their power. We examined the effect of power and individual differences on unethical behaviour. Using incentivised experimental games, in study 1 we manipulated power by the number of followers and the amount of control a leader had over the followers’ outcomes. In Study 2, we manipulated the understanding of leader’s position with regards to responsibility. In responsible condition, leaders directly decided the followers’ outcomes but in control condition, followers’ outcomes were decided randomly. We measured leaders’ Moral Disengagement and dark triads. We found no support for a general effect of “power corrupts”. However, in study 1 (N=80) we found a positive interaction effect between Machiavellianism and power predicting leader’s unethical behaviour. No such relation was found for Moral Disengagement. Results of the study 2 (N=128) showed that narcissism increased the likelihood of leader’s unethical behaviour in positions with responsibility. But in positions with low responsibility, leader’s Machiavellianism predicts leader’s unethical behaviour. This study highlights the importance of personnel selection for high stake positions with regards to the narcissistic and Machiavellian orientations.