Power Does Not Corrupt Absolutely: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Corruption, many believe, is simply the price we wittingly pay to have leaders capable of dealing with the complexities and challenges beyond our sphere of influence. Lord Acton’s maxim, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, has long embodied this notion. Implicit therein is a dichotomy, with desire for power on one end of a continuum and ethical behavior on the other. In this study, scores measuring the strength of executives’ power motive and level of ethical reasoning are correlated with an effectiveness criterion. The findings suggest strong predictive ability of both measures in assessing leader effectiveness, with level of ethical reasoning predicting leader effectiveness in all cases. It is suggested, thus, that a strong power motive is not in itself corruptive.