Public debate often swings between 'there’s no room for morality, we play to win' and 'being good will eventually pay off.' But what does the evidence say?

In thieir paper Morality in careers: A systematic review, integration, and ways forward, the Amsterdam Business School researcher and his co-authors scrutinise the existing research literature, map this fragmented field, and develop directions for more rigorous research on the role of morality in careers. The goal is to bring morality to the forefront of career conversations. Understanding how morality shapes individual careers is, they argue, a crucial step toward addressing the complex challenges of our time.

Insights

The authors' findings include the following insights:

• Moral considerations influence career choices, and people’s moral capacities are malleable, shifting across career stages.
• Whether morality supports subjective career success (how people personally evaluate their careers) depends on how strongly moral principles are tied to one’s self-concept.
• For objective outcomes (visible achievements) , the picture is mixed: traits with moral connotations (like narcissism or Machiavellianism) can cut both ways, while the role of positive moral traits (e.g. humility, integrity) in promotions, compensation, or leadership remains underexplored. Sometimes, people with strong principles may even face disadvantages when perceived as rigid or inflexible.

Exploring morality in the workplace

This paper is part of the broader research project 'Does the place make the people? Moral development in the workplace', which Pircher Verdorfer initiated a few years ago. It also marks one of the questions that will be further explored within ARLEAD, the Amsterdam Center for Responsible Leadership.

Readers interested in this topic are invited to contact ARLEAD. Some of the questions that could be explored together include:

• In which organisations, sectors, or workplaces is morality a career asset, and where might it be a liability? And why is that so?
• What are the 'moral moments' employees, leaders, and entrepreneurs encounter, and how do these shape their development over time?
• How are these dynamics linked to organisational performance and long-term success?