Psychologists view: How power corrupts

Swiss psychologists conclude that power is a drug for bosses, and power can blind top executives from reality.

Pierin Vincenz,  the former Raiffeisen CEO is in custody in Zurich, his reputation in ruins. The allegation is that he initiated acquisitions of companies with which he personally had business ties, and thus acted in bad faith and enriched himself.
Vincenz is not the first manager to fall from grace. Hans Ziegler was accused of insider trading. The ex-Novartis boss Daniel Vasella created a scandal around a 72 million francs “handshake”.

Less sense of reality

Why do powerful bosses repeatedly succumb to the lure of power - exactly those who already have enough money? It is a kind of illusory world in which many managers live, said Milan Kalabic, a specialist in psychiatry at the Teufen Group clinic: "There they are constantly getting applause from psychofants, and this confirmation leads them to want more and more - almost like a drug. Personal enrichment thus is not considered problematic, but normalcy."

The ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) psychologist Simon Hardegger who specializes in leadership development, also firmly believes that a position of uncontrolled power changes people. "Too much power removes executives far from reality, Bosses are under huge social pressure and this can negatively influence behavior," says Hardegger.

This influence is expressed, for example, in the fact that a manager does things that are "no longer okay," as the psychologist puts it. Suddenly other goals come to the fore - such as the financial gain, and decency and honesty fall by the wayside. "In a position of power, it is often difficult to be true to one's principles" explains Hardegger.

For persons at the highest management level, the justification mechanism also comes into play from a psychological point of view. "Even if they know that they are actually doing something bad - such as scams - they are setting up reasons for themselves to justify them and to live with deceipt."

Deceptive sense of integrity

Chief physician Kalabic speaks in this context of a perception disorder. Kalabic is a specialist in psychiatry and knows the personality of many managers, many of whom who he treats.  "Even if a senior boss makes a mistake: As long as the business figures are correct, he often still has the feeling of acting with integrity - he does not feel that his behavior is deviant."