Can Pursuing Perfection Ignite Sparks of Creativity? How and When Self-Oriented Perfectionism Leads to Radical and Incremental Creativity

Although perfectionism has received considerable attention from organizational scholars, research on how it enhances employee creativity remains limited. Drawing on the model of proactive motivation and trait activation theory, this study investigates the relationship between employees’ self-oriented perfectionism and creativity (including both radical and incremental creativity), with job crafting as a mediating mechanism. In addition, we incorporate work stress as a moderator and propose a moderated mediation model. Multi-wave survey data were collected from employees in several Chinese organizations. The results show that self-oriented perfectionism is positively associated with both radical and incremental creativity, and that job crafting mediates these relationships. Furthermore, work stress moderates the mediated relationships, such that the positive indirect associations are stronger when work stress is higher. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.