Abstract
The marketplace has become increasingly sophisticated. Products and services are more complex resulting in greater customer reliance on salespersons for guidance. The salesperson's role presumes superior knowledge with respect to the buyer because he is consulted as an expert on the quality and uses of his product. Thus, it is important that a tacit professional ethic for sales be established to protect customers from possible exploitation. The purpose of this article is to propose a realistic professional ethic for sales — “limited paternalism.” Limited paternalism implies that a salesman should “be his buyer's keeper” in the sense that he should serve the interests of his customers by identifying their needs, while disclosing all relevant information about products or services in order to facilitate mutual exchange to mutual advantage.
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Reference
Gerald Dworkin: 1971, ‘Paternalism’, in Morality and Law, ed. Richard Wasserstrom (Belmont, CA), p. 108.
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James M. Ebejer, after studying psychology and philosophy as an undergraduate, received his M.B.A. from Oakland University in 1986. Mr. Ebejer has recently begun a sales career in the ROLM Systems Marketing Division of IBM.
Michael Morden received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oakland University where his courses include Medical Ethics and Business Ethics.
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Ebejer, J.M., Morden, M.J. Paternalism in the marketplace: Should a salesman be his buyer's keeper?. J Bus Ethics 7, 337–339 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382535
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382535