Mechanisms of knowledge workers’ adaptive perfectionism on taking charge

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the mechanisms of adaptive perfectionism on employees’ taking charge (TC), the mediating role of work family enrichment and the moderating role of perceived organizational support (OS) in the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and employees’ TC.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on 305 knowledge workers working in diverse organizations in China to examine the hypotheses.

Findings

The results showed that adaptive perfectionism had a significant positive effect on employees’ TC. Both directions of work-family enrichment (WFE) and family-work enrichment (FWE) play a mediating role between adaptive perfectionism and employees’ TC. Perceived OS moderates the relationship between WFE/FWE and employees’ TC. Perceived OS moderates the indirect effects of adaptive perfectionism on employees’ TC through WFE and FWE.

Originality/value

This study explores the impact of adaptive perfectionism on employees’ TC, expands the scope of existing perfectionism research, enriches the research on adaptive perfectionism outcome variables and provides evidence and reference for follow-up research.

Citation

Wei, C. and Zhang, L. (2023), "Mechanisms of knowledge workers’ adaptive perfectionism on taking charge", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 620-636. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-12-2021-0508