Virtue ethics and customer relationship management: Towards a more holistic approach for the development of 'best practice.'

Business Ethics: A European Review; Vol 20(2), Apr 2011, 121-130

By Christopher Bull and Alison Adam

Abstract: This paper focuses much-needed attention on the ethical nature of customer relationship management (CRM) strategies in organisations. The research uses an in-depth case study to reflect on the design, implementation and use of ‘best practice’ associated with CRM. We argue that conventional CRM philosophy is based on a fairly narrow construct that fails to consider ethical issues appropriately. We highlight why ethical considerations are important when organisations use CRM and how a more holistic approach incorporating some of Alasdair MacIntyre’s ideas on virtue ethics could be relevant.

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