Alterity & sensitivity in inter-organizational relations: contours of the tutor in marketing ethics education.

Purpose & literature addressed: This paper scrutinises the way in which ethics is taught in the modern business/industrial marketing syllabus. We argue for a reappraisal of the tutor-student relationship such that we may facilitate a greater understanding of how marketing students can make sense of themselves and of ‘the other’ within industrial networks.
Research method: This paper is conceptual in its approach. Drawing on literature from the history of marketing thought, educational philosophy and the work of Emmanuel Levinas, we suggest that the conceptualisation of ethics in marketing cannot be divorced from the question of
pedagogy and the responsibilities of the tutor.
Research findings: We suggest that the ideas of alterity and proximity offers space for a discussion of justice within the global supply chain, providing entry into the marketing discourse for those members of the industrial network not normally encountered by students in the course
of teaching.
Main contribution: Importantly for teachers of inter-organizational relationships, Levinas offers an opportunity to simultaneously re-imagine the relationship between the student and the tutor. In the process we are forced to confront and acknowledge the responsibility that the role of a moral mediator entails.