Organizational Virtuousness: The Customers’ Perspective

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on organizational virtues to construct a concept of organizational virtuousness from the perspective of customers. Definitions of organizational virtuousness are missing important virtues and fail to consider the views of customers, who benefit from virtuous organizations, at least as asserted by the extant literature. This paper is theoretical, not empirical. The ideas come from an array of disciplines and include virtues not presently considered in the organizational virtue literature. In addition, the paper emphasizes the perspectives of customers, a dimension missing from existing studies.