The Impact of Perfectionism and Its Practice

First published: October 20, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2546

Commentary

Existing evidence suggests that perfectionism is associated with depressive symptoms, burnout, and clinical impairment, and that socially prescribed perfectionism, rather than self-oriented, is most maladaptive.

This suggests that social expectations of perfection may negatively affect workers and have negative organizational consequences.

In this study, a sample of 176 Arizona attorneys was used in a two-wave longitudinal study to determine whether psychosocial safety climate (PSC) decreases the ideal of perfectionism and improves employee well-being.

As expected, PSC negatively impacted physical and psychological distress directly and indirectly through socially prescribed perfectionism after two months, suggesting that the beneficial effects of positive PSC are relatively short-lived.

Conversely, self-oriented perfectionism was not related to PSC, suggesting a mismatch between demand and resources, and was positively related only to physical symptoms.

These results suggest a more complex relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and employee well-being, depending on other variables.