Breaking free from the perfection trap: Is excellence-seeking an antidote to perfectionism-induced workaholism?

Purpose This research investigates whether excellence-seeking is better than perfection-seeking for reducing workaholism. Accordingly, this study examines the effects of perfectionism and excellencism on workaholism’s components: working excessively and compulsively. Although the prior research has shown the positive impact of perfectionism on workaholism, this is the first study to have examined the effects of perfectionism, conceptualized as personal standards perfectionism, in Gaudreau (2019) model of excellencism and perfectionism, on workaholism’s components: working excessively and compulsively. Design/methodology/approach This study used person-centered analysis to investigate the perfectionism/excellencism–workaholism relationship. Two studies were conducted on corporate and academic samples of 360 and 694, respectively. Latent profile analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings The results of the person-centered analysis showed that excellence-seekers experience a reduction in excessive and compulsive work tendencies. In contrast, perfection-seekers experience strengthened workaholism. Originality/value This research’s novelty stems from its five contributions to the perfectionism–workaholism research discourse: excellence-seeking as the reference point for comparison with perfection-seeking, verifying the application of the law of diminishing marginal return (increasing marginal risks) to the effects of perfectionism on workaholism, validating the conceptual distinction between perfectionism and excellencism and their effects on workaholism’s components, demonstrating the unique results of the person-centered analysis and providing empirical evidence for the psycho-dimensionality of workaholism.