Is Perfect Good?

Although the concept of perfectionism is familiar to most people, its relationships with organizationally relevant variables remain unclear because of the dispersed and multidisciplinary nature of extant research. The state of the literature is particularly concerning given the likely widespread influence perfectionism has on individuals’ workplace attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, research in multiple disciplines of psychology has revealed the phenomenon of perfectionism to be multidimensional. In addition, the totality of effects surrounding perfectionism remains unclear as perfectionism carries both benefits as well as consequences for employees and organizations. To cogently synthesize and empirically disentangle the possible differential effects associated with perfectionism at work, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of perfectionism and work-related antecedents and outcomes. The resulting qualitative and quantitative review reveals perfectionism to have sizable and consistent relationships with several organizationally relevant factors but an equivocal overall relationship with job performance. The authors provide a theoretical and empirical overview of the state of the literature and suggest avenues for future research that may facilitate better integration of perfectionism into organizational research.