Is the juice worth the squeeze? Implications of employee perfectionism and excellencism for in-role and extra-role performance

Perfectionism at work is widespread and there is an ongoing debate on its relationship with work performance. Whereas most recent meta-analytic evidence suggests that perfectionistic concerns are unrelated to work performance, perfectionistic strivings showed a positive association with overall work performance. Keeping up with theoretical developments in perfectionism research, the present study draws on the Model of Excellencism and Perfectionism to provide a more nuanced perspective on how perfectionistic strivings relate to both in-role (goal attainment, in-role behavior) and extra-role performance (organizational citizenship behavior directed toward others, innovative work behavior). Multiple regression analyses based on two-wave survey data (N = 223) showed that excellencism was uniquely positively related to goal attainment, in-role behavior, and organizational citizenship behavior directed toward others. In contrast, perfectionism only showed a unique positive relationship with innovative work behavior. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between excellencism and perfectionism as well as between in-role and extra-role performance when investigating the perfectionism-work performance relationship. While they indicate that perfectionism can be beneficial for innovative work behavior, they also cast further doubt on its benefits for other kinds of work performance.