Abstract
We challenge the assumption that employee flourishing is automatically beneficial to both the organization and wider society. To this end, firstly, we posit that flourishing needs to be bound by some sort of moral guide in order to mitigate unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). Study 1 (N = 170) supports our proposed moderation hypothesis in that flourishing was related to more willingness to engage in UPB the less central morality was to employees’ identity. Secondly, we posit careerism as a mechanism between flourishing (in interaction with moral centrality) and UPB. Study 2 (N = 208) supports the predicted moderated mediation hypothesis. In a final study, we consider the relevance of context. Specifically, we suggest that internal moral guidance (in the form of moral centrality) will result in lower careerism and hence lower UPB, but only if not overridden by the pressures of a perceived self-interested organizational climate. Study 3 (N = 208) reports evidence consistent with our moderation mediation hypothesis. Overall, we make the case that flourishing needs morality to rein it in. Only then will flourishing represent the original Aristotelian notion of eudaimonia that modern positive psychology wants to promote.