On an ego trip: the relationship between supervisory responsibility and leader altruistic behavior

Purpose - Prominent corporate scandals involving companies like Wirecard, Enron, VW and Tyco underscore the corrupting influence of power, with leaders often engaging in antisocial behaviors. Provoked by this, this study investigates the relationship between supervisory responsibility and one specific dimension of altruistic behavior. Understanding the dynamics of how structural power, particularly supervisory responsibility, associates with altruistic behavior is essential for organizations, given the well-documented advantages of altruistic leaders in terms of performance, innovation or ethical leadership. Design/methodology/approach - Drawing upon the approach-inhibition theory of power, this article proposes that individuals with greater structural power in terms of prolonged duration and greater scope of supervisory responsibility will show diminished altruistic behavior. Following theoretical considerations, power influences leaders’ behavior by decreasing attentiveness, reducing empathy and increasing self-focus. The study uses recent German linked employer-employee data to test the relationship between supervisory responsibility and one specific dimension of leader altruistic behavior (n = 2,752). Findings - The results support that a prolonged duration and a greater scope of supervisory responsibility correlate negatively with the dimension of leader altruistic behavior under study. Originality/value - The research empirically validates the findings on behavioral consequences of structural power from experimental settings for organizational leaders by explicitly focusing on the duration and the scope of supervisory responsibility. The findings provide useful insights for organizations concerning leader selection and leader governance mechanisms.