Of tricks and tumors: Some little-recognized costs of dishonest use of effective social influence

Although the question of which social-influence principles and practices ar e most effective has long been a central focus among marketing professional s, an equally important question has received much less attention: What are the circumstances under which the use of an effective influence principle is ethically acceptable? Consideration is given to one system for determini ng such acceptability. It is then argued that the failure to use powerful p rinciples of influence in ethical ways has deleterious practical consequenc es for both individuals and organizations. In the case of marketing organiz ations, the consequences take the form of tumorlike costs that are difficul t to detect by standard accounting methods as the causes of poor organizati onal performance and profitability. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.