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

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Title: Can Perfectionists Be Cheaters? The Roles of Fear of Performance Failure and Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality.
Authors: Guo, Li1 (AUTHOR) ericguoli@uibe.edu.cn, Mao, Jih-Yu2 (AUTHOR) jim.jy.mao@nottingham.edu.cn, Mu, Xinyan3 (AUTHOR) xinyanmu@nbt.edu.cn, Cai, Yamei4 (AUTHOR) yamei.cai@students.mq.edu.au
Source: Journal of Business Ethics. Aug2025, Vol. 200 Issue 1, p91-114. 24p.
Subject Terms: *Job performance, *Fear of failure, Perfectionism (Personality trait), Employee misconduct, Superior-subordinate relationship, Organizational ethics
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Business Ethics is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Can Perfectionists Be Cheaters? The Roles of Fear of Performance Failure and Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Business+Ethics%22">Journal of Business Ethics</searchLink>. Aug2025, Vol. 200 Issue 1, p91-114. 24p.
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  Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Job+performance%22">Job performance</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Fear+of+failure%22">Fear of failure</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Perfectionism+%28Personality+trait%29%22">Perfectionism (Personality trait)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Employee+misconduct%22">Employee misconduct</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Superior-subordinate+relationship%22">Superior-subordinate relationship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Organizational+ethics%22">Organizational ethics</searchLink>
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  Data: 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Business Ethics is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1007/s10551-024-05906-6
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              Text: Aug2025
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