Underperformance by Design: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda of Intentional Task Underperformance at Work

Recent workplace trends reveal that workers frequently discuss and engage in deliberate underperformance, underscoring the growing relevance of intentional underperformance at work. Although various disciplines have long studied purposeful reductions in work effort, these investigations have remained largely siloed, hindering conceptual clarity. In this scoping review, we integrate perspectives from management, social and educational psychology, and economics to establish a unified conceptualization of intentional underperformance (i.e., the deliberate suppression of task contributions, such that contributions fall below a relevant benchmark). In doing so, we make five primary contributions to the performance literature. First, we review and consolidate 36 related constructs to develop an umbrella conceptualization that can promote cumulative scientific understanding. Second, based on our review, we present an organized view of the antecedents and proximal motives of intentional underperformance. Third, we introduce the Intentional Underperformance Framework, a two-by-two that organizes forms of intentional underperformance, and organize the associated outcomes of these different forms. Fourth, we identify cross-disciplinary patterns in operationalizations, summarizing prevailing methods and their implications. Fifth, we outline a research agenda to guide future inquiry into when, why, and how intentional underperformance arises, as well as how organizations can constructively intervene. By integrating disconnected literatures and promoting a shared language, this review provides a foundation for more integrative theoretical and empirical inquiries. Ultimately, we aim to equip scholars and practitioners with a clearer, more comprehensive understanding of intentional underperformance in today’s workplace.