Abstract
Workers high in other‐oriented perfectionism have unreasonable standards for others and place considerable importance on others meeting these standards. Although other‐oriented perfectionism is thought to be maladaptive, we investigated whether other‐oriented perfectionists might help others achieve the high standards that they set for them by engaging in task‐focused interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICB). We suggest that the relationship between an individual's other‐oriented perfectionism tendencies and his or her task‐focused ICB is non‐linear. Furthermore and in line with trait interactionist theory, we argue that an individual's conscientiousness moderates the other‐oriented perfectionism–task focused ICB relationship. As hypothesised, data from 154 employees of a public sector organisation, using self‐reports of personality and supervisor reports of task‐focused ICB, revealed that increases in other‐oriented perfectionism for workers high in conscientiousness generally led to those employees engaging in greater levels of task‐focused ICB. However, there were diminishing returns at high levels of other‐oriented perfectionism. The opposite was found amongst workers low in conscientiousness. Thus, we conclude that conscientiousness brings out a bright side of other‐oriented perfectionism.
Published Version
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