Employer acquiring liberal award in flourish (7)
I believe the answer is:
blossom
'flourish' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'employer acquiring liberal award' is the wordplay.
'employer' becomes 'boss' (boss is a kind of employer).
'acquiring' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'award' becomes 'om' (order of merit).
'boss' placed around 'l' is 'bloss'.
'bloss'+'om'='BLOSSOM'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for blossom that I've seen before include "Thrive" , "Bloom" , "better period results" , "Come into flower" , "Girl - flower(s)" .)