Can Perfectionists Be Cheaters? The Roles of Fear of Performance Failure and Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality

Li Guo (), Jih-Yu Mao (), Xinyan Mu () and Yamei Cai ()
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Li Guo: University of International Business and Economics
Jih-Yu Mao: University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Xinyan Mu: NingboTech University
Yamei Cai: Macquarie University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 200, issue 1, No 5, 114 pages

Abstract: Abstract Although nascent research has begun to examine the consequences of perfectionism in organizations, the understanding of whether perfectionism may incur ethical costs in the workplace remains limited. This paper enhances knowledge about the potential ethical consequences of perfectionism by focusing on an important yet previously ignored behavior—workplace cheating. Across two multi-wave, multi-industry survey studies and a preregistered experiment (Ntotal = 1005), the results show that the relationship between employee perfectionism and workplace cheating depends on the dimension of perfectionism. We find that employees with a high level of perfectionistic concerns (as opposed to perfectionistic strivings) may cheat in the workplace due to elevated fear of performance failure. In addition, supervisor bottom-line mentality exacerbates concern perfectionists’ fear of performance failure, leading to more cheating. Our findings hold even when several alternative explanations are accounted for, suggesting the robustness of our results. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Perfectionism; Fear of performance failure; Workplace cheating; Supervisor bottom-line mentality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05906-6

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