Perfectionism as a Double-Edged Sword: How does Perfectionism Influence Innovation Performance

Abstract

This paper offers a novel theoretical account of how and when employee perfectionism leads to better innovation performance. Grounded in achievement goal theory, we develop a moderated-mediation model showing: (a) learning goal orientation mediates the different effects of negative and positive perfectionism on innovation performance (how), and (b) failure analysis (as an organizational culture) moderates this mediated effect (when). We examine our model by a survey of 378 core developers from nine high-tech manufacturing companies in China, the results show that: (a) negative perfectionism negatively affect innovation performance while positive perfectionism positively affect innovation performance both via learning goal orientation, and (b) the mediated effects between positive perfectionism and innovation performance is stronger when failure analysis is higher than lower, while makes no difference for negative perfectionism. Our study advances our knowledge of employee perfectionism and innovation performance in three ways. First, it highlights the multidimensional characteristics of perfectionism and its impacts on innovation performance through the mediating effect of learning goal orientation. Second, it emphasizes the importance of learning during the innovation process by introducing learning goal orientation as a mediator. Third, it considers organizational culture as analyzing failure and discusses its impacts on the individual motivational innovation process.