In December, TU Dresden is holding a university forum on power and the abuse of power in science. But what does this actually mean? Prof. Daniel Leising (Chair of Assessment and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology) is a member of the "Network against Abuse of Power in Science" and in this interview he explains how complex the problem is, what encourages the abuse of power and how it can be countered.

What is "power"? And what is "abuse of power"?

Prof. Leising: I myself mostly use the classic definition of power put forth by Max Weber. According to this definition, you have power to the extent that you can assert your will in social relationships against resistance from others, regardless of what this ability may be based on. I think that is apt and useful, because one can gain power in very different ways. There is "official," conferred power. For example, a professor can decide relatively freely, based on their office, who is to be given a job and who is not.

But there are also more informal forms of power. As a professor, one also has power, for example, because one is "well networked." In other words, a professor may know many colleagues personally and is respected and perhaps even feared by them. Such status is not conferred, but is acquired. And knowing that can affect whether others dare to upset or disappoint you – because that might, in the long run, damage your own career prospects. 

To gauge how legitimate a person is in using his or her power, I would always consider the likely consequences of his or her behavior for anyone who might be affected. The use of power becomes ethically more problematic the more someone increases their own benefit – or the benefit of a group to which they belong – at the expense of others, the more dishonest the means used to do so, and the more lasting the consequences for those affected. That's a very utilitarian definition.

In what forms does abuse of power occur in the academic world?

Prof. Leising: On the one hand, in the same forms as in other work contexts: exploitation, humiliation, sexual misconduct, corruption in the use of money. But there are also a couple of more specific forms that are really only encountered in an academic environment. This includes, for example, the theft of ideas or the blocking of competitors within the framework of evaluation procedures. Or the being named as an author as a result of mutual favors or simply due to a position of power. The corrupt treatment of authorship has now reached such proportions that it has actually lost all meaning as an indicator of scientific performance.

Another form of academic abuse of power, which in my view has thus far been “flying under the radar,” is what a former German university rector once very aptly described as "shop window research": This refers to the phenomenon of carrying out expensive large-scale projects and selling them to the public as being in their interest, when it is actually clear that this will probably not bring any relevant advances in knowledge, but actually only improves a person’s or institute’s own third-party funds balance sheet. 

What are the causes of abuse of power?

Prof. Leising: In my view, the classical psychological concept of person-environment interaction helps quite a lot here. The first important factor is the scope to which it is possible to misuse one’s power undetected and with impunity in the organization ("environment"), and the extent to which such misuse might be worthwhile or entail risks. If you dishonestly extend your list of publications, you greatly improve your career prospects, for example. So it's pretty much worth it. At the same time, the risk of being caught with such a thing has so far been very small. On the other hand, the personal integrity of those active in this sphere is also important. The temptation to abuse power could be all the greater – but if all of the people involved had an adequate level of personal integrity, there would be no problem. Conversely, even if the staff were completely corrupt, there would be no need to worry if institutional conditions made it impossible to act upon those inclinations. Unfortunately, the academic system is far from robust, but offers ample scope and incentives for unethical behavior. And people are indeed using this scope for unethical action, as we have seen more and more recently.

To what extent can abuse of power be prevented? In your view, what is needed to combat abuse of power effectively?

Prof. Leising: We need a more even distribution of power in the system. Professors in Germany have an enormous amount of power that cannot really be rationally justified. They must therefore relinquish some of that power. If, as a subordinate, you no longer have to be afraid of being punished for speaking your mind or even stating your actual observations, the academic world would probably be a lot more honest. We also need better supervisory and sanction mechanisms. To be effective, the bodies responsible for these activities must have sufficient expertise, resources and powers, and must be independent of the institutions concerned.

What can you do if you witness abuse of power or are affected by it yourself?

Prof. Leising: Little, because then you're usually in a pretty weak position. I have by now heard dozens of stories about sometimes ludicrous abuses of power in German science. My estimate of how much of it ever becomes visible is one to two percent. In all other cases, the victims and others who know about it remain silent, often for years, out of understandable fear. Some can be helped temporarily by helping them to avoid at least the gravest mistakes in dealing with the perpetrators. And emotional support is often seen as helpful in itself. However, this is not the way to really eliminate grievances. The most effective way to combat abuses of power in science is to take away some of the power and also some of our blind trust from those who currently have the most power in the system. In my view, prevention of this kind must be the main objective. Although we might wish otherwise: Not all scholars are people of integrity. And powerful people lacking integrity and operating within weak structures can do immense damage.