By Mark W. Cannon
(Commissioner’s Lecture Series, Brigham Young University Press, 1974)
In the early 1970’s, when Neal A. Maxwell was Commissioner of LDS Education, he invited several scholars and people with unusual experience to relate the Gospel to their professional specialties by creating and delivering one of his new Commissioner’s Lectures.
Many non-LDS observers have been highly impressed by the ability of Mormons to organize themselves into innovative programs that enriched and improved people’s lives through effective uncompensated Christian love and service.
Reflecting my long interest in what makes large organizations able to set and accomplish meaningful goals, this Commissioner’s Lecture identifies some of these historic creative social programs that are among the fruits of Mormonism. Such successful programs led world class organization and management expert Peter Drucker to conclude that “The Mormons are the only Utopia that ever worked.” His letter to me authorizing the use of that remarkable quotation is included after the cover page of this lecture. What an extraordinary recognition of the fruits of Mormonism!
Since my lecture was given, there have been a bevy of new innovations. I will summarize some of these in a separate article. However, below is my full Commissioner’s Lecture for those who wish to see this persistent successful creative process that produced so many fruits of Mormonism in a historic panorama from the 1830’s to the 1970’s.
===================
The Innovative
Heritage of
Mormonism
Mark W Cannon *
FOREWORD
COMMISSIONER'S LECTURE SERIES
by Neal A. Maxwell
It is a privilege to present scholars from
various academic fields in a lecture series
which permits them to draw upon their
knowledge and insights in the context of their
religious commitments.
The series seeks to achieve several objectives.
First, it will provide forums for presentations,
the content of which will reflect
aspects of the congruence of high-level secular
scholarship and spiritual truths.
Second, it will create opportunities for
young members of the Church, as well as
others, to hear from these high-achieving but
orthodox individuals who have made their
mark in various fields of scholarship.
All of the participants have my deep gratitude
for their "second-mile" willingness to
participate in this series, which has involved
them with multiple audiences. These participants
represent a large body of scholars of
similar quality and with similar commitment
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is fortunate
that we can have the words and writings of at
least a few.
Mark W. Cannon has had broad experience in administration
and in analysis of administrative practices. He graduated in
1949 from the University of Utah, where he was student body
president. He received an M.A., an M.P.A., and a Ph.D. in Political
Economy and Government from Harvard University.
From 1954 to 1960, he was administrative assistant to Congressman
Henry Aldous Dixon and then legislative assistant to
Senator Wallace F. Bennett. From 1961 to 1964, he was chairman
of the Department of Political Science at Brigham Young
University.
In 1964, Mr. Cannon joined the Institute of Public Administration,
New York. Initially, he was director of the Venezuelan
Urban Development Project; in 1968, he was appointed director
of the institute; later, he was named to its board of trustees. His
work with IPA took him to fifty-six foreign countries and
numerous American states, where he developed and supervised
many of the institute's policy analysis, planning, and administrative
studies dealing with executive development, municipal
administration, metropolitan reorganization, and such urban development
fields as mass transportation.
In 1972, Mark Cannon became the first administrative assistant
to the chief justice of the United States. In this position, he
assists the chief justice in a wide range of planning, leadership,
administrative, and liaison responsibilities which fall outside the
area of case decision making.
Dr. Cannon has coauthored two books and has authored
numerous articles and studies on a wide range of subjects.
Recent articles include "Can the Federal Judiciary Be an Innovative
System?" Public Administration Review (January/February
1973) and "Administrative Change and the Supreme
Court," Judicature (March 1974).
Mr. Cannon is the first non-lawyer admitted to the American
Bar Association's new Judicial Associates Program. He is a member
of the National Academy of Public Administration, and he
has served on the Inter-American Advisory Council to the U.S.
Department of State.
He is married to Ruth D. Cannon, and they have three children.
He served a mission to Argentina and is a high priest who
currently teaches the investigators' class in the McLean Ward.
In abbreviated form, this paper was delivered as a Commissioner's
Lecture at Brigham Young University and the LDS Institutes
of Religion at Arizona State University and Weber State
College.
@ 1974 by Brigham Young University Press. All rights reserved
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602
Printed in the United States of America
1974 875 3687
The Innovative
Heritage of Mormonism
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints has
produced important new methods of dealing with
social problems. However, since skeptics may doubt
that Mormonism has been a creative social influence,
the question should be examined. These skeptics note
that, historically, Latter-day Saints have been viewed
as a substantially isolated group and that they are still
regarded as a very small one. After all, they do comprise
only one percent of the U.S. population and,
thus far, an even smaller percentage of most foreign
populations. Their greatest concentration is in the
Intermountain West, far removed from the focal
points of economic and political power, culture, and
communications, as well as the intellectual centers
which influence the directions of change. In the
northeastern states, for example, Latterday Saints
average less than one per thousand. Furthermore, the
Mormons have not generally attracted extensive
serious attention from the sophisticates who do influence
national policies and cultures.
In fact, in earlier decades, some writers predicted
Mormonism's attenuation or death. Even such noted
historians as Morison and Commager, in a history text
used until well after World War 11, dismissed Mormons
as having remained near to the low "cultural
level from which they were recruited" and as being
"barren in the arts" and "too autocratic for wholesome
civic life."l There are even some among
those who might be called cultural Mormons who see
the Church as both a bundle of constraints which
stifle creativity and as an inwardly oriented organization
which is only peripherally concerned with the
problems of society.
In reality, the constraints of the doctrines of Christ
do not stifle but, on the contrary, assure freedom,
and the restored church has a remarkably creative
heritage of programs which were and are examples to mankind.
These programs, when put to use, can help,
and often have helped, other groups solve their problems.
Also, this constructive approach is increasingly
expressed in the lives of countless Latterday Saints
who are contributing imaginatively to their professions,
their communities, and their countries. In spite
of possible problems, young Mormons today, if they
acquire needed skills, can find opportunities to make
contributions superior to those made by most of us in
previous generations.
This lecture deals with three areas. First, it briefly
sketches examples of the problem-solving innovations
of the Church; second, it explores some contributions
of individual members and examines the growth of
opportunities for such leadership; third, it explores
some challenges and problems of the future, including
the way Mormon values relate to emerging executive
roles and styles.
Hopefully, by giving attention to this panorama of
creative achievement, we can enlarge our faith,
strengthen our resolve to overcome adversities and
tests, and inspire ourselves to greater service to our
fellowmen in ways suitable to our individual talents,
abilities, and circumstances.
The emphasis on managerial leadership in the
second and third sections is not intended to elevate
the importance of that role, or the material trappings
of success which normally accompany it, over excellence
in teaching, research, or the many other professional
areas. Many people, such as Hugh Nibley,
Truman G. Madsen, and Richard L. Anderson, who
have chosen careers in gospel scholarship have made
incalculable contributions. In fact, conscientious
effort in any vocation, when blended with genuine
love of God and man, has eternal importance. Nevertheless,
carefully attuned leadership has been and will
continue to be critical to the quality of human life and the resolution of increasingly difficult social problems. Particularly during the last decade, Americans,
as well as people in some other countries, have
become disillusioned and have lowered their expectations
concerning most of their institutions. There is a
pervasive need for great leadership which can arrest
pessimism and channel existing and emerging forces
into new, purposeful directions.~
Not everyone can be a high achiever, no more than
everyone will want to seek executive leadership.
Nevertheless, a review of some high achievements
may stimulate us to avoid ruts and to seek more inspired
ways of serving our neighbors in relation to our
circumstances. Some young people have the potential
for significant service, but they often fail to appreciate
their own possibilities and become unduly discouraged.
For example, the executive vice-president
of the New York Clearinghouse, John F. Lee (an LDS
Sunday School teacher), despaired in his youth
because he felt success came only to the gifted. He
came to realize, however, that gifted children often
become aware of their genius early and use it as a
crutch. On the other hand, the less gifted who strive
harder not only develop better skills, but may develop
sound judgment as well, a quality not innate
but acquired through introspective experience. The
realization that success comes to the brilliant, handsome,
and talented only to the extent that they
develop good judgment helped motivate Brother Lee
to high achievement, just as it can many young
people today.
From its inception a century and a half ago at a
time when it was virtually nothing in historical terms,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has
made the daring promises of both spiritual and material
salvation to those who embrace its concepts. The
Church further promises that the Saints will become a
source of blessings for the rest of mankind. Church
members, like all who believe in Jesus Christ, have the
obligation not simply to be concerned with themselves,
but to be the "light of the world" (Matthew
5:14), to be the "salt of the earth" that retains its
"savour" (Matthew 5:13; D&C 101:39). The Saints
are to be the "leaven," uplifting the "whole"3 (Luke
1391). Moreover, the Saints are apprised that "love
thy neighbor as thyself" applies even to remote and
despised people, people like the Samaritans of Bible
times. Thus, even though disciples of Christ must
not be "of the world," succumbing to greed and lust,
they are "in the world" as they strive to set examples,
solve problems, counsel and uplift others, and help to improve
life not only for themselves, but also for the
rest of mankind. An additional social responsibility of
modern disciples of Christ is their obligation to help
maintain Constitutional liberties for all people.
SOCIAL INNOVATIONS OF THE CHURCH
How has The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday
Saints carried out the mandate to be a light unto the
world? Until recent decades, it did so by gathering
converts from various countries to communities in
the Intermountain West, organizing Christian love and
cooperation to foster spiritual and material progress,
and making the desert "blossom as a rose." During
the period from 1830 to 1890, persecution reinforced
the solidaristic impulse of the "gathering." Consequently,
there was little opportunity for Mormons to
integrate with the rest of society, even if they desired
t o do so. Yet even during this period of isolation, the
Church, as this partial review illustrates, became a
light unto the world by developing its own exemplary
problem-solving programs.
It should be recognized that time permits reference
in this review only to the highlights of innovative
programs. Each of these programs could be analyzed
in great detail, and numerous human problems of
implementation could be explored. However, the
intent here is to suggest the breadth of the social
innovations of the Church, rather than to provide a
detailed examination of any of them.
Irrigation
The first Anglo-Saxon watermaster in history was
Mormon pioneer Edson Whipple, who was appointed
in 1849 in Salt Lake City. Whipple's appointment was
followed by the replacement of the traditional individualistic
riparian rights water law to the more cooperative
prior-appropriation system. This system
spread throughout Mormon communities up and
down the Wasatch front and may have influenced
similar developments in non-Mormon communities in
the arid West.
Subsequently, Mormons have made numerous
theoretical and operational contributions to irrigation
and water management. A partial list of contributions
includes John A. Widtsoe's research in drainage and
water requirements of crops, W. W. Gardner's work in
soil physics, Wayne Griddle's evapotranspiration
formula, J. E. Christiansen's work on sprinkler irrigation,
George D. Clyde's forecasting of water runoff through snow
surveys, and Dean Peterson's work on
the interaction of engineers, economists, and others
t o solve complex irrigation problems. Mormons
employed by the Bureau of Reclamation, including
its recent commissioner, Ellis Armstrong, have designed
irrigation projects throughout the arid West.
Retired chief dam designer for the Bureau, Oscar L.
Rice, designed and supervised more dam construction
than any other man in the United States. In addition,
a review made by Garth Jones indicates that
Mormons have apparently helped every major free
world irrigation development in which the United
States has been involved since World War 11. An illustration
is Utah State University's work for the Organization
of American States in developing the Inter-
American Center for Water and Land Development.
This project utilized many Latter-day Saints.
City Planning
Joseph Smith's Plat of Zion in 1833 preceded the
American city planning movement by some sixty
years, yet it established the pattern for the settlement
of more than five hundred North American communities
by Mormons. Instead of living in social isolation
on their 160-acre homesteads, as was the pattern of
western settlement, Mormons lived in villages which
encouraged cooperative, recreational, cultural, social,
and educational activities, and they worked "their
farms outside the city according to the order of
God."4 As Neal Maxwell observed in his speech at the
Nauvoo groundbreaking ceremonies in 1969, the
feeling of responsibility for and accountability to
others in the Mormon communities contrasts with the
"heedlessness of the modem metropolis.”
Far-sighted physical planning in Mormon designed
communities-particularly wide streets-has probably
saved hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention
a great deal of psychic loss due to traffic congestion
and the resulting waste of gasoline and time. Observations
of planned Mormon communities appear to
have contributed to the later American planning
movement. This is not to suggest, however, that there
are not contemporary planning problems in Mormon founded
communities which require fresh innovations.
Antipoverty Programs
Desiring to eliminate poverty is not a modern sentiment.
Joseph Smith proclaimed, "We bring thousands from foreign lands
from under the yoke of oppression
and the iron hand of poverty, and we place them in a
situation where they can sustain themselves, which is
the highest act of charity toward the poor."6 Since
that time, in the effort to comply with the Lord's
commandment to search out and take care of the
poor, the Church has always been conscious of taking
care of needy members. This sense of obligation provides
a modern example of Mormon innovation.
The despondency and sense of helplessness growing
out of the Great Depression moved the First Presidency
to create the welfare program, under the
leadership of Elder Harold B. Lee. From its inception
in 1936, this systematic mobilizing of contributed
labor, skills, and means to help the poor has received
national attention. It is a complex program which
assists the poor while preserving their sense of self-reliance
and dignity.
Other lay groups have watched and tried to copy
the Mormon organizational prowess that builds
chapels and houses for destitute members, runs welfare
farms and canneries, and cleans up flood debris.
Some governments have sought to follow the
Mormons in their efforts to shift from welfare to
workfare. The Mormon method of teaching the value
of work and organizing people with talents and resources
to help others improve their lives was important
in moving the Saints from widespread poverty to
moderate well-being. The same method has been
effective for other groups that have enjoyed economic
improvement, as illustrated by the phenomenal
development of Japan. Perhaps leaders of disadvantaged
groups might consider more carefully this
kind of emphasis in helping their own people climb
out of today's poverty traps.
Cooperative Capital Development Aiding Economic
Growth
Since the 1950s, there has been a virtually worldwide
search for the secrets of economic growth. The
early history of the Latter-day Saints provides examples
of planned cooperative economic development7
which can be examined by those working in developing
nations.
Like the populations of most of today's less developed
countries, the early Latterday Saints were
short on capital, a critical element to economic
growth. The Mormons, however, successfully accumulated
investment capital by mobilizing a multitude of
small contributions. Through these efforts, within six months
of the initiation of one program, eighty-one
local cooperative stores were established throughout
the pioneer sett1ements. These cooperatives presaged
American department stores generally by two
decades. Through the efforts of the cooperatives,
prices declined 20 to 30 percent, according to Brigham
Young. In addition, the Mormon settlers established
other distributive and producer cooperatives,
whose examples may have encouraged cooperative
movements elsewhere.
Another example of planned economic development
coming from cooperatively developed capital
was the Perpetual Emigration Fund. This was a revolving
loan fund established to aid needy emigrants.
Money was obtained primarily from donations of
cash, labor, cattle, grain, wearing apparel, jewelry, or
anything else convertible to cash. By 1869, the value
of the fund was estimated by a non-Mormon writer at
$5 million.1° Under the management of the fund
agents, the cost from Liverpool, England, to Salt
Lake City was reduced from the usual twenty pounds
to from ten to thirteen pounds. By the time the fund
was dissolved by the Edmunds-Tucker Law of 1887,
8 5,2 2 0 European converts had immigrated to
America.ll Many of them had been aided by the
fund. Economic historian Katherine Coman suggests:
"It was, taken all in all, the most successful example
of regulated immigration in United States'
history."l2
Another liquid stream of capital derived from
many contributors was the tithing of Church members.
This capital was used to initiate enterprises in
hydroelectric power, iron, salt, cotton, textiles,
cattle, sugar, printing, and communications. Many of
these enterprises became successful and benefited the
region as well as the Church membership.
Educational Progress
The Mormon belief that the glory of God is intelligence
and Mormon commitment to education have
been expressed through such diverse accomplishments
as Utah's pioneering creation of large consolidated
school districts in 191 5, her consistently spending
one of the highest percentages of income in the
nation on education, and her maintaining one of the
highest state averages for number of years of formal
education of her citizens. (These accomplishments
should not make Utah Mormons complacent, however,
in light of continuing needs to improve the
quality of public education.)
Recent innovations have produced a fascinating
array of Church Educational System programs currently
reaching more than a quarter of a million students
in nearly fifty countries. Three years ago these
programs were carried out in only one language,
English; today they are carried out in sixteen languages.
In spite of the widespread notion that education
conflicts with religion, it is significant that the
LDS Church is unusual among churches in its striking
correlation of education and religious activity.
Latterday Saints have also been leaders in adult
education. The Church has been involved in adult
education since the time of Joseph Smith. Charles
Dickens, in observing a boatload of Mormons preparing
to embark for the New World, saw the better educated
Mormons teaching the lesser-trained ones.
This and their cleanliness and energy prompted
Dickens, in spite of his prior expectations, to describe
Mormons as the "pick and flower of England."13
The adult education tradition has not diminished
in recent years. In fact, Brigham Young University
has among the highest enrollments in adult education
programs in the nation. In a wider sense, the whole
gamut of Church activities provides a lifetime of educational
experience.
Early Activities in the Arts
Even as early as the 1840s, Mormons in Nauvoo
had a concert hall, three musical bands, a library association,
a flourishing lyceum, and some debating
societies. In Utah, the Mormons antedated many
religions, as well as other western settlers, in their
enjoyment of dramatic arts, particularly through the
Salt Lake Theatre, erected in 1862. Shortly after
arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Mormons
created the original version of the Tabernacle Choir,
which since 1929 has broadcast wholesome music and
counsel in the longest continuous series of noncommercial
programs in American radio.
The Salt Lake Tabernacle, designed by Henry
Grow and William Folson, has been recognized for its
architectural creativity by the National Council of
Engineers. Built almost entirely without metal, it was
the largest structure unsupported by pillars in the
United States, and probably in the world. The latticework
principles used in constructing the roof, which
have since been used in quonset and other structures,
were original in their frontier setting. Also built into
the tabernacle is the famous organ, which yet ranks
among the finest pipe organs in the world.
Youth Development Programs
Many people outside the Church have been intrigued
with the Church's missionary program
through which young people demonstrate their willingness
and capacity to take responsibility and dedicate
their energy to their ideals. It is unique that so
many young people (as many as one-third of the male
LDS youth and an ascending proportion of girls)
accept full-time mission calls without compensation
from the Church. The force of this example has
spread to other organizations. With the LDS missionary
model in mind, Church member Dale Clark conceived
of and drafted the charter for International
Voluntary Services. Clark then recruited the Board of
Directors, commencing with former BYU and Utah
State President Franklin S. Harris. IVS then became a
model for the Peace Corps, as Hubert Humphrey
indicated on the Senate floor on 15 June 1960.
Senator Humphrey justified his new bill to create the
Peace Corps in part by describing in some detail the
"extraordinary success" of "the International Voluntary
Services, the organization which has the experience
most directly relevant to the proposed Peace
Corps."
The early programs for recreation and skill development
among youth, particularly expressed in the
Mutual Improvement Associations created for women
in 1869 and for men in 1875, and the Primary for
children to the age of twelve, initiated in 1878, have
been widely emulated by other churches whose view
of recreation, particularly dancing and drama, has become
more positive over the past century. A frequently
asked question by others planning religious
youth programs is "Hour do the Mormons keep their
young active?" Consequently, Latter-day Saints are
often called upon to contribute to youth organizations,
such as the Boy Scouts of America. Elder
Marion D. Hanks was a member of the President's
Citizens Advisory Committee on Youth Fitness and
was one of the major speakers at the White House
Conference on Children and Youth in 1960. Recently,
he was again appointed to the President's Council
on Physical Fitness and Sports.
It is remarkable that in spite of widespread change
of values and greater condescension toward organized
religion in the United States, Mormon youth continue
to arm themselves with enduring values. The dynamism
of the elderly prophetic leadership of the
Church in mobilizing talent within the Church, in
improving the management of its resources, and in
adopting programs to attract and retain youth defies
conventional wisdom.
Examples of effective new youth development programs
are annual individual awards for girls and boys
based upon fulfillment of goals they set for themselves;
expanded summer youth educational programs
at BYU; enlarged recreational programs and competitive
sports tournaments; strengthened seminary and
institute systems; student branches and stakes at
colleges; calling of new types of missionaries to
promote health, education, and economic improvement;
organization of college youth into their own
simulated families; improvement of the correlation of
people and information to help individual members;
and better coordination of teaching programs and
methods.
Perhaps even more far-reaching is the shift of
responsibility for their own programs to the youth.
For instance, the new Aaronic Priesthood and Young
Women's programs allow youth to plan, execute, and
evaluate their own activities with the assistance of
advisers. Now instead of rigid programs planned by
adults, youth can rely upon their own inspiration to
respond to their individual needs. As Richard L.
Bushman, Cambridge Stake President and recent
guest faculty member at Harvard, observed, the new
program promises to produce "precocious youthful
executives."
These programs and the general vitality of the
Church help to explain the phenomenon that, despite
the general disenchantment with religion of the last
decade, three-fourths of Mormon youth view themselves
as active members of the Church. It is also
noteworthy that almost two-thirds of all new converts
are ages eight through twenty-four.
Home Teaching
The Church long ago instituted a systematic
method to identify members' problems and to help
solve them. The home teachers are asked to visit
specified families at least once monthly and are given
responsibility for the families' spiritual and temporal
welfare. A similar program is carried out by the Relief
Society visiting teachers. Thus, about four out of
every five Church families are visited at least once a
month, and many twice or more. This not only relieves
the burden on the bishop, but also trains home
teachers to be sensitive to others' needs and to be
personally accountable for their lives.
These programs are often eye-openers to protestant
ministers trying, without the assistance of a lay priesthood,
to keep track of and to organize their flocks.
Social Services
There have always been troubled people and those
willing voluntarily to assist, but there have been insufficient
mechanisms to get the two together. The LDS
Social Services Program ingeniously identifies individual
needs, and identifies and brings to them appropriate
resource packets and personnel through the
organized priesthood of each ward and stake.
The broad services include adoptions, services to
unwed parents, day camps for children with special
problems, foster care, and Indian student placement.
In addition, the program assists members in dealing
with alcoholism, drug abuse, blindness, deafness,
pornography, imprisonment, homosexuality, marital
stress and family breakdown, emotional illness, disturbed
or neglected children, and other severe problems.
The professional qualifications of the ten thousand
volunteers providing assistance have been improving,
and operations are being refined, resulting in increased
effectiveness of the program.
As of 1972, three cities refer all LDS juveniles
picked up by the police to their bishops or home
teachers. By the end of 1972, services were available
to members in thirty-two states and three Canadian
provinces. By the end of 1973, services were planned
for all fifty states and all the provinces in Canada. In
1973-74, services are anticipated for the Asian Rim
and the South Pacific.
Correlation
A serious problem of public and private agencies is
their inability to coordinate activities of various
groups that assist the same person, yet often produce
isolated, conflicting, or duplicate results. The Church
correlation program, through which all activities
affecting Church members are worked into a cohesive,
interrelated, comprehensive plan, would be
the envy of virtually all social planners and would
attract considerable attention if it were written up
and published in planning journals.
Programs Aiding Family Solidarity
The Church has always taught that the family is
the basic unit of society and that worthy families will
continue throughout eternity. To ensure the basic
solidarity of the family, such programs as the family
home evening have been instituted. In view of the
decline of the American family, these programs are
often a source of wonder to those who observe them.
Public concern over this decline is becoming more
acute, as expressed by Lawrence H. Fuchs of Brandeis
University in his book Family Matters and by
Patrick Moynihan, who cited the breakdown of the
family as a principal source of problems among
B1acks.l The extensive media coverage recently
given to Mormon family home evenings-the half-page
New York Times article on 4 June 1973, for instance suggests
that many people may look to
family-related programs of the Mormons as models.
Illustrative of this is the declaration of a Family
Unity Month by the governors of states such as
Florida and Virginia, and by many local officials.
Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr., of Virginia issued the
following statement on 1 March 1974:
FAMILY UNITY MONTH
1974
Today's society rests upon a foundation composed of home
and family, moulding the individual character aid abilities of
its younger members within an environment of mutual love
and respect.
Emphasizing these qualities, The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints observes May as FAMIL Y UNITY MONTH,
and I call its importance to the attenti011 of our people.
Mobilization of Managerial Talent for Religious Programs
In addition to the managerially able General
Authorities assigned to direct Church programs, the
First Presidency has assembled a highly competent
group of relatively young Church executives to assist
them and the Council of the Twelve in directing some
major programs. These have included Neal A. Maxwell,
commissioner of education, and his assistants
and institutional presidents; James Mason, commissioner
of Health Services; J. Thomas Fyans, managing
director of Internal Communications; U'endell J.
Ashton, managing director of Public Communications;
Arch Madsen, president of Bonneville International
(Broadcasting); Dr. Leonard J. Arrington,
Church Historian; and others, such as Lee Bickmore,
one of America's top managers, who recently retired
as board chairman of Nabisco and is now general consultant
to the First Presidency. These men constitute,
under the direction of the General Authorities, an
inspired and brilliant management team whose effectiveness
is difficult to match. This situation in the
LDS Church contrasts with the rarity of effective
management in religious organizations generally and
with their increasing practice of resorting to management
consultants from without their memberships to
assist them. It is noteworthy that Thomas Fyans and
Neal Maxwell, as well as another talented Church
executive, Gordon B. Hinckley, were themselves
called to positions among the General Authorities of
the Church.
Indian Placement Program
Considering the vast sums of tax funds which have
been spent to help minority groups in America, often
with indifferent results, the Mormon program that
places Indian students in homes of volunteer Church
members during the school year is a creative effort to
help disadvantaged children at nominal costs. The
program has provided more than thirty thousand enriched
years of schooling to Indian children. The program
is designed to help Indians learn to function
successfully in white society while still retaining tribal
ties. Some Indians who wish to keep apart from white
society are hostile to this program, and many of those
who enter the program undergo some confusion and
frustration trying to relate from year to year to different
foster parents as well as to their real parents.
But even granting the inevitable problems, in terms of
its own goals and those of the Indian families who do
not have good schools nearby and who choose to
participate, the program is a major successful innovation.
Besides becoming bicultural, graduates from
high school who have participated in this program
have significantly better incomes than those who remained
on reservations, and many are pursuing college
and postgraduate educations. This inspired,
daring program, as well as others which have helped
Indians, was initiated by Spencer W. Kimball.
Prisoner Rehabilitation
The Mormon program of having families temporarily
adopt a prisoner into their family groups, including
him in family home evenings and otherwise
helping him to adapt to society, has drastically cut
down recidivism (prisoner recall), one of the most
desperate problems faced by our society today.
Fewer than 15 percent of the inmates participating in
the program at the Utah state prison during the past
five years have returned to prison, and these included
prisoners with bad records. By contrast, more than
half of the prisoners at the Utah state prison who did
not participate in the program have returned to
prison. This successful program has received considerable
national publicity. l6
Illustrative of the way such Mormon-initiated programs
are transferred to the larger society is the
example of Alan Baird, the chaplain at the Utah state
prison who helped make the program a success. He
has been employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
to help establish an adapted program at the federal
level, initially in the federal correctional institution in
Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Baird has found many families
and inmates willing to undertake the program,
and he has developed appropriate manuals and regulations.
Even though the family home evenings will be
different from Mormon ones, the Lutheran chaplain
has called upon Mormon families to demonstrate the
family home evening program to other families who
will participate. In all, eighteen other prisons in
eleven states have initiated or are planning to begin
similar projects.
While we cannot trace precisely the influence of
each of these innovations on the larger society, it is
apparent that over the decades numerous planners
and leaders have been intrigued by such innovations
and that their own thinking and efforts have been
influenced by what they have observed and read.
Thus, the Church has let its light shine by originating
far more solutions to human problems than
most non-Mormons or even many Mormons realize.
Some observers, particularly in earlier decades of this
century, pronounced that, though Mormonism might
have been creative in the 1800s, in this century it had
joined middle America and lost its inventiveness. This
review of many recent programs demonstrates that,
far from having been lost, the Church's inspired
originality has continued strong. With social changes
and problems developing rapidly, further innovations
as well as refinement of current programs can be
expected. Their success will be contingent upon the
vitality of members' active support.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERS AS
INDIVIDUALS
The collective innovations are not the only contributions
of the Church to society. Individual Mormons have had
increasing opportunities to let their
lights shine through personal and professional contributions.
This has occurred as Church membership
has become increasingly distributed throughout the
world. In 1910, only 25 percent of all Latter-day
Saints lived outside Utah and Idaho, and many of
those lived nearby. Yet, a decade from now, 75 percent
of all Mormons are expected to live outside these
two states. Between 1960 and 1970, the increase in
the number of Mormons in Mexico (55,270) and in
metropolitan Los Angeles (54,418) each exceeded the
increase of Mormons in Salt Lake City (53,010). In
the four years 1970-73 the increase in Church
membership in Mexico was greater than during the
entire decade of the 1960s. From 1960 to 1973,
Church membership outside the United States increased
by 439 percent compared with just 49 percent
within the United States.
The gathering of Latter-day Saints from various
parts of the globe to the Rocky Mountain region
apparently served its purpose and is being reversed for
the following reasons:
1. Mormons have in recent decades come to be
tolerated or accepted instead of being persecuted.
This is partly a result of favorable publicity since the
1930s about the welfare plan, which expressed the
Mormons' preference to solve their own problems
rather than to rely on the government; the good
record of LDS servicemen in World War I1 and subsequently;
the increasing number of Mormons who have
developed personal friendships with non-Mormons
through Mormon relocation outside the Intermountain
West; and the growth in the nation as a whole of
commitments to equality and acceptance of diversity.
These and other communicative processes have served
to mitigate or dispel the folklore about Mormonism
circulated since the Church's inception.
2. Well-educated youth have been and still are
leaving Utah and Idaho for better economic opportunities.
3. The conversion rate has risen in the missions (all
outside Utah) from one and one-half converts per
missionary per year in 1945 and 1950 to four and
one-half recently. Furthermore, the number of missionaries
has grown from 5,387 in 1957 to nearly
18,000 in 1973. The missionary force is continuing to
grow and is likely to reach 30,000 before today's
children reach missionary age.
As a result of the increasing size and success of the
missionary program, Church wards and stakes, with
self-generating strength, are spreading far and wide
and now exist in forty-eight states and twenty-one
foreign countries. By contrast, at the end of World
War 11 wards and stakes existed in only two foreign
countries and six states outside Utah and adjacent
states. Thus, Church members now see that they can
blend occupational fulfillment with a wholesome and
full religious life for their families almost anywhere in
the United States and in many areas abroad. They are
finding that they do not need to come to the Rocky
Mountains to associate with others who share their
religious ideals.
4. Church leaders are confident that after decades
of reinforcement through proximity, faith can endure
even in unsympathetic environments. Thus, they have
encouraged more widespread location patterns of
Church membership through such actions as building
temples on the west and east coasts and in countries
outside the United States and by redirecting educational
investment abroad.
Scientific Contributions
While this lecture deals principally with contributions
of LDS executives, it is worth briefly mentioning
other areas, particularly education and science, in
which Mormons have excelled. This kind of achievement
came earlier and may have developed confidence
and patterns of thought and behavior that
contributed to subsequent organizational leadership.
The demand for education in the Church promoted
many great minds to become teachers, instructing the
youth from Canada to Mexico. In contrast to the
hostility to the natural sciences exhibited by many
religions, Latter-day Saints fit science into their
emphasis on the pursuit of truth, by intellectual as
well as spiritual means, and their confidence that all
truths are reconcilable. Science, regarded by many as
the greatest contribution of Western civilization, was
seen by Mormons as a way to help mankind. Also,
science and technology could be mastered and
applied regardless of one's religion.
During most of its history, the Council of the
Twelve Apostles has included at least one scientist-
Orson Pratt, James E. Talmage, or John A. Widtsoe--as
well as Ph.D. engineer Joseph A. Merrill. It is interesting
that in the decades prior to World War II, the
largest three schools of higher education in Utah
produced undergraduates who obtained Ph.D.'s in
science or made outstanding scientific contributions
at an average rate of 50 percent higher than did
M I T.
Contributions illustrative of Mormon scientific and
engineering excellence include the application of
quantum mechanics to chemical reaction rate theories
by the President's National Science Medal winner,
Henry Eyring. Eyring's findings had universal application
to chemical changes in scientific laboratories and
industries. Other contributions are the development
of the modern science of acoustics by Harvey
Fletcher, which led to such inventions as stereophonic
sound; the development of psychopharmacology, including
drugs to suppress epilepsy, by Ewart Swinyard
and a colleague; the development of computer
sciences to a fine art in medical diagnosis, particularly
for heart ailment, by Homer Warner; coal research,
including development directed toward the transformation
of coal for liquid automobile fuel, by George
Hill; outstanding new methods for the beneficiation
of minerals by Rlilton Radsworth; the application of
high pressure to chemistry and physics, including the
first repeatable synthesis of diamonds, by Tracy Hall;
fundamental work in the science of catalysis and contributions
to the production of high octane gasoline
and synthetic ammonia by Alex Oblad; theoretical
contributions to explosives and the development of
slurry blasting agents, which have largely replaced
dynamite, by hlelvin Cook; contributions to lubrication
by Robert G. Larson; and contributions to
synthetic textiles by Emerson Tippetts. Other contributions
of researchers with Mormon cultural backgrounds
include the scanning technique used in television
by Philo Farnsworth and the development of
psychoacoustics (the theory of hearing) by Smith
Stevens.
If anyone believes it is necessary to choose between
distinguished creative achievement and Church
activity, he will be surprised to learn that of this
group, 85 percent have been regularly active Church
members. Robert A. Larson, a pioneer of synthetic
textiles, was the first president of the first European
stake; George Hill is a Regional Representative; and
Henry Eyring. who recently completed his five hundredth
scientific publication, was long a member of
the Deseret Sunday School Board. Going beyond this
group of distinguished contributors, a 1956 study of
Mormon scientists born in Utah indicated that 73 percent
believed Joseph Smith to be a prophet.18
Government Leadership
A trickle of Mormons moved into staff and administrative
positions of the federal government during
the first decades of this century. This was due to
Senator Reed Smoot's interest in encouraging
talented youth, the fact that his proteges performed
well, and the expanding demand for these "bright
young men." The first top-level political appointment
was James Moyle as assistant secretary of the treasury
in 1917. (This may have resulted partially from the
fact that Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo
had, in his youth, been required to defend the Mormons
in a successful law school debate for which he
obtained help from territorial delegate George Q.
Cannon. McAdoo became friendly toward the Mormons
while developing his case.)
Several Mormons were subsequently appointed to
other positions, particularly regulatory commissions,
generally rising from lesser government positions.
Edgar Brossard served on the Federal Tariff Commission
from 1925 to 1959. This was one of the longest
tenures in the history of independent regulatory
commissions. Harold A. Lafount was a commissioner
on the Federal Radio Commission from 1927 to
1934. Rose1 Hyde served on the Federal Communications
Commission, like Brossard, under five presidents,
from 1946 to 1969. Jay Knudson served on
the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1948 to
1954. Three of these four served as chairmen of their
commissions.
Many of these Mormon officeholders made substantial
contributions. In 1928, while he was under
secretary of state, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., authored the
"Clark Memorandum," which repudiated the Roosevelt
Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, thereby rejecting
American intervention in Latin American countries
in "purely inter-American relationships." This
landmark and originally controversial document was
not published for more than a year after it was
written. It is one of the few major documents in diplomatic
history named after an official below the
level of secretary of state. It was widely viewed as an
important turning point in improving the relations
between the United States and Latin America.
Another person of Mormon heritage to receive a
top appointment in Washington was Mariner Eccles,
who was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from
1936 to 1948. The impact of the "exceptionally able
Utah banker" was described by John Kenneth Galbraith
as follows:
Not often have important new ideas on economics entered the
government by way of its central bank, nor should anyone be
disturbed. There is not the slightest indication that it will ever
happen again. 20
Another creative contribution by a diplomat of
Mormon background is that of Cavendish Cannon,
who, as ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1947 to
1950, helped persuade Tito to break out of the Soviet
orbit.
The dream of a Mormon's being appointed to the
president's cabinet was realized with Ezra Taft
Benson’s appointment as secretary of agriculture
from 1953 to 1958. It is questionable whether any
other man in the United states could have withstood
and overcome the almost irresistible pressure against
commencing the transfer of controlled segments of
agriculture into relatively free markets. The final of
several victories came through his spearheading the
fight against the 1963 referendum on a certificate plan
for wheat after he had left his cabinet position.
This was the first time the farm families of America
had ever voted not to accept price supports with
controls.21
Two Mormons recently in the cabinet were George
Romney and David Kennedy. David Kennedy let his
light shine, in part, by demonstrating that a man of
great wealth and power can be humble and gracious.
George Romney has for more than two decades
sought to bring citizens' groups into the political
process. As his effort to create a "concerned citizens"
coalition illustrates, he is attempting to deal constructively
with the persistent problem of the control of
public policy by interest groups rather than by the
general public.
Does history indicate that there are growing opportunities
for Mormons in top positions of public service?
In order to shed light on this, I prepared a list of
Mormons holding top positions in each of the three
branches-legislative, executive, and judicial-of the
federal government in 1952 and 1972 to examine the
amount and nature of the difference (see table 1).
Analysis of level of religious activity revealed that
more Mormon top officials were active and a smaller
share were completely inactive in 1972 than twenty
years earlier (see table 2). These figures suggest
further that top LDS public officials are as active as,
and perhaps more active than, the general membership.
Among the current officeholders, religious
activity is highest among the judiciary, followed by
those in the executive branch.
This study indicates that as late as 1952, almost the
only Mormons in top federal positions were executive
appointees of the president. Since 1952, however,
Mormons (like other minorities) have begun to be
accepted and integrated into state political machinery.
This has opened up opportunity for their
election to Congress from states outside Utah and has
permitted the consideration and occasional appointment
of outstanding lawyers to federal judgeships
normally filled by senatorial nomination. However,
the number of Mormons who are federal judges or
receive presidential appointments is less than the
Mormon share of the population. This contrasts with
the Congress, where Mormons are more numerous
than their percentage of the population. Since 1960,
many Mormons have also won electoral contests
below the federal level. These include George
Romney, who was elected twice to Michigan's governorship;
John Driggs, who served two terms as mayor
of Phoenix (along with three active Mormon mayors
of suburbs of Phoenix); Harry Reid, who at thirty two
is Nevada's youngest lieutenant governor; and
Robert Riggs and A1 Hall, mayors of two Minneapolis
suburbs.
The increasingly active roles which Mormons are
playing in state legislatures are suggested by the fact
that in 1972, the chairman of the Western States Conference
of State Legislators was LDS. In addition, the
legislators chosen by the executive committee to head
four of the seven committees were Latterday
Mormon legislators at times campaign for
higher office; witness California State Senator John
Harmon's race for lieutenant governor. There has also
been a rise in the number of department heads in
western states as well as a notable increase in city
managers who are LDS.
Professional Association Leadership
Mormons have risen not only to top government
positions, but also to positions in the analysis of
public affairs. This is suggested by the following: In
1952, there had apparently never been a Mormon
officer of the American Society for Public Administration
or the American Political Science Association.
By 1972, there had been at least seven national
officers of these organizations and at least four
members of the 143-member National Academy of
Public Administration. Of these people, 75 percent
are active in the Church, and almost all of these active
members have served in Church positions ranging
from members of bishoprics to stake presidents.
Mormons often participate in rising as well as in
established leadership. One of the few conventions
where young insurgents succeeded in defeating established
leaders was at the American Society for Public Administration
Convention of 1970. This was due in
part to the finesse, moderacy, and intelligent selection
of issues by Church member H. George Frederickson,
a key leader.
Institutional Leadership in Higher Education
Mormons have long been active in education. The
increase in the number of Mormons in higher education
is suggested by the jump from 3,938 listings in
1961 to 4,800 listings in 1967 in Members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Higher
Education and School Administration. The quality
and breadth of Mormon scholarship have been improving,
and this merits study, but since this survey
focuses on management contributions, it examines
top executive positions in colleges and universities. In
this area, the growth has not been as rapid as in the
public affairs area (see table 3).
In terms of religious activity, the breakdown is as
follows:
While the numerical increase is not quite one-third,
the prominence of the universities in which Mormons
have risen has increased. This is illustrated by Chase
Peterson's vice-presidency at Harvard and David
Gardner's vice-chancellorship (until 1973) in the
California State system. David Gardner's innovative
contributions include effective methods of dealing
with campus violence and the development of a
campus without walls.23
All of these people in both periods were either
active or friendly.
Business Management
Let us shift attention to another area of leadership-
business management. Because persecution and
prejudice presented an impenetrable barrier, it would
have been virtually impossible during the first century
of Mormonism for a large corporation to appoint a
Mormon to a top executive position. Mormons as a
people, however, were enterprising during this period
and moved from a degree of poverty to moderate
well-being. Such individual Mormons as David Eccles,
Charles Nibley, and Jesse Knight became wealthy
through their own entrepreneurship and helped to
build the West. The entrepreneurial tradition continues,
and there are numerous Mormons who have
substantial equity in their own companies, some of
which are quite sizable. Two such companies are the
$3.5 billion Michigan National Corporation, the
banking empire created by the Stoddard family, and
the $750 million Western Savings and Loan, created in
Arizona by the Driggs family.
A noted Mormon entrepreneur is J. Willard Marriott.
Raised amid the adversities of sheep ranching,
he built a root beer stand into a dazzlingly successful
restaurant and motel business. The Marriott Corporation
has a compounded growth in sales and earnings
of 20 percent a year and in early 1973 had a stock
market value exceeding $1 billion, of which the
family owns about one-fourth.
Articles in Nation's Week, Business Week, and
Forbes attributed the company's success in part to its
incorporation of the Mormon ethic. 24 A Reader's
Digest article pointed out that Marriott's Hot
Shoppes thrived during the depression while luxury
restaurants failed, because the Marriotts had developed
the techniques to blend "inexpensive, high-quality
food and good service."25 Other developments
which parallel Christian obligations include a
merging of the interests of owners and employees in
providing good service through a profit-sharing plan
which is making millionaires of a number of employees.
Upward mobility programs include a besieging
of employees with training programs and "opportunities
to make the most" of themselves, including a
novel technique of permitting employees to try
higher-level jobs for about an hour and a half per day,
to see if they can develop the capacities to handle
them. This has permitted twenty-one hundred minority
group employees, mostly Blacks, to move upward
in the company. In addition, the corporation has
been honored by the National Rehabilitation Association
with the 1973 Organizational Award for their
record in employing the physically and mentally
handicapped. The Reader's Digest article, titled
"Everybody Likes to Work for Bill Marriott," suggested
that "if all companies treated their people the
way this one does, there would be no employee relations
problems. . . . Indeed, should Bill Marriott's
brand of enlightened capitalism ever become widely
adopted, there is no telling what altitudes the American
economy might reach."26
George Romney's successful attack on the "gas-guzzling
dinosaurs" broke American drivers' Freudian
chains to ever-larger cars and made the compact
popular. This innovation saved us from millions of
pounds of pollution long before the antipollution
movement; it saved consumers millions of dollars one
or two decades before consumerism became fashionable;
and it saved vast quantities of gasoline before
the energy crisis made this imperative. Is that not
Christianity in action?
J. Willard Marriott's religious and charitable contributions
of countless millions of dollars also reflect
the Mormon belief that each person must account for
his stewardship. This characteristic has been found
among other Mormon businessmen. As one example,
when Sterling Sill headed the Utah office of New
Y ork Life Insurance Company, he channeled
one-third of his income into social contributions, including
contributions to missions and to poor youth
who wanted to go to college. Another example is
Douglas Driggs, whose contributions and solicitations
of funds from others have resulted in contributions
and pledges of well over $1 million to BYU. Charles
Nibley, for an earlier example, is said to have donated
$.5 million in sugar stock to the Church.
What has changed in recent decades is that, in addition
to Mormon entrepreneurs who started their own
companies, the talents of Mormon executives are
welcomed into corporate hierarchies. A major effort
was made for this summary to identify top Mormon
business executives, and some fascinating information
resulted. The increase here, as shown by table 5, is
even more dramatic than in the field of public affairs.
* In spite of an extended search effort, it is apparent that
many names were missed at the vice-presidential level. In other
categories of these charts, the higher-level visibility and greater
breadth of the search is likely to have made them more nearly
complete.
Analysis of this information suggests that prior to
the mid-1950s, it was rare, and peculiarly circumstantial,
for a Mormon to become a top executive in a
major corporation. For example, Mormon attorney
Wilson McCarthy was appointed president of the
Denver and Rio Grande railroad in 1947 because he
had done so well as receiver after the railroad had
gone into receivership years before. Nathan Eldon
Tanner was named president of Trans-Canada Pipeline
in 1954, and, following this, a number of executives
with Mormon background were named to corporate
presidencies.
Only a few of the Mormons to be named presidents
of major corporations at this early date were religiously
active, however. As recently as six years ago, I
reviewed the top Mormon executives of major corporations
in metropolitan New York who had organized
themselves into the Lochinvar Club. A large
majority of the vice-presidents were religiously active,
but only a minority of those who became president
or chairman of the board were active. Among the
questions which this discovery raised were these two:
Were there virtually irresolvable time conflicts between
Church activity and ascent to the top of the
corporate ladder? Had Mormonism done a better job
training highly reliable, productive workhorses at the
second level than it had in producing dynamic, imaginative
leaders who rose to the pinnacle of power?
With such questions in mind, the preliminary findings
of the current survey produced some startling
conclusions.
In contrast to the thirteen in 1952, sixty-one chairmen,
vice-chairmen, or presidents of sizable corporations
were identified in 1972. (A third of these corporations
are insurance companies and banks. Most of
the rest deal with food, manufacturing, minerals, retailing,
and hotels and restaurants. The companies are
located in seventeen states, as well as in Japan and
Canada. The greatest numbers of these Mormon top
managers are in Utah, California, New York, metropolitan
Washington, D.C., Hawaii, and Michigan.)
An amazing 79 percent of these sixty-one men are
active in the Church, and an additional 11 percent are
friendly. This suggests that the reasons for the dominant
inactivity of the early Mormon corporate presidents
were a combination of the lack of many strong
wards and stakes outside of the Intermountain Nest
to encourage religious activity and a carryover anti-
Mormon prejudice which may have expressed itself
more against practicing than against non-practicing
Mormons. It may also be that in recent decades, the
Church programs have done a better job of developing
and continuing to attract top leaders.
Although we do not have comparable data, something
similar appears to have happened to Mormon
intellectuals. A significant share of those who obtained
Ph.D.'s in the 1930s became inactive. Some of
them regret this now, because their children often
lack qualities which traditionally come from Church
activity. Such parents belatedly realize that their children
could not obtain the fruits of Mormonism without
its roots. (One prominent intellectual critic has
said with regret that if he had to relive his life, he
would do everything he could to assure that his children
were fully active in the Church.) LDS Commissioner
of Education Neal Maxwell has observed that
a higher share of Mormons who obtained Ph.D.'s in
recent years are active, many of them holding leadership
positions in student branches and stakes. Clyde
Parker at the University of Minnesota is presently
conducting research on this question.
The cause for previous discouragement over the
loss to the Church of many of the highest corporate
executives and early intellectuals has been dissipated.
The contemporary scene is highly encouraging.
MORMONS AND THE FUTURE
We have seen that the number of Mormons making
serious social contributions through high-level executive
positions has grown from an insignificant few
early in this century to a number that substantial,
though still not particularly large for a group as large
as the Church. The question remains as to the future
positive influence of Church members. Let us delineate
some emerging societal changes which provide a
context for the remaining discussion. Then, we will
discuss characteristic Mormon values which can help
Latterday Saints continue to become responsible
leaders in the future, referring to admonitions of Mormon
executives supplied through letters to me. Next
we can identify possible problem areas for Mormons
and, finally, summarize the lessons drawn from this
research.
Changes and Their Implications upon Future Opportunities
for Service
There are at least five trends which merit consideration.
One of the most dynamic is the accelerating
rate of change in technology. Technological changes
with implications that tax the imagination are underway.
A few of the breakthroughs expected during the
1970s include three-dimensional television, plastic
automobiles, a practical blood substitute, and artificial
eyesight.
Reliable thirty-day weather forecasts should be
technically possible by 1985, and weather control
over sizable regions should be possible by 1990. Even
plastic-domed cities, which protect against the
weather, are expected to be in the breakthrough stage
by 1990.
Medical researchers report that drugs which permanently
raise the level of intelligence should be
possible by 1990, with economic feasibility by 2005
and widespread application by 2010.27
Thus, those who wish to contribute to the emerging
world must prepare themselves to adapt to rapid
change involving increasing technological and social
complexity.
This rapid technological change leads into a second
trend, the changing management needs which result
from such advances. Scientific discovery and technological
innovations encourage the development of
larger systems to contain, channel, and control them.
In his recent book The Future Executive, Harlan
Cleveland observes that
accelerated growth in the size and complexity of organizational
systems seems destined to move the whole spectrum away
from the more formal, hierarchical, order-giving way of doing
business and toward the more informal fluid workways of
bargaining, brokerage, advice and consent. 28
Cleveland sees a near universal movement of
organizational effort toward horizontal relationships
among relatively independent clusters of people and
activities.
A brief analysis of the new position of administrative
assistant to the chief justice of the United States
illustrates this direction of change. A major part of
working time goes to liaison with dozens of important
officials, agencies, boards, and committees outside
the Supreme Court with whom exchange of
information can be fruitful. Among these are the
governing Judicial Conference of 25 judges with its
26 committees comprising 215 members; the Federal
Judicial Center, which does research and training,
with 16 board members and officials and 3 to 6 committees;
the administrative office of the U.S. courts
with 11 top executives and 242 employees: 600
active and 126 semiretired federal judges and their
staffs; 11 circuit judicial conferences and 9 new circuit
executives; institutions which the chief justice
helped to create, such as the National Center for
State Courts, the Institute for Court Management,
and the 44 state-federal judicial councils; and numerous
other bench, bar, and university organizations.
This extended, though partial, list suggests why at
least one current definition of an executive is one
who can deal constructively with ambiguity. Cleveland
believes the future executive will be "low-key,
collegial, optimistic and . . . he will positively enjoy
complexity and constant change."29
A related change in the type of institutional leadership
required in the coming era presents a third trend
for our consideration. This is the shift from proficient
production-line management to a much broader
entrepreneurial management able to deal creatively
with a wider set of policy influences than short-term
profit-and-loss analysis. It has been suggested that
modern American management may be caught in
inertia produced by its own past success and that it
may be inadequate for coping with new social challenges
so distinct and different that it may be called a
new era-the "postindustrial era."
H. Igor Ansoff, dean of the Graduate School of
Management, Vanderbilt University, suggests the
following needed characteristics for the new entrepreneurial
manager:
He is globally minded and socially aware. He gains
satisfaction from creative managerial work, not
simply from money and power. His familiarity with
his firm is less in terms of what it has done and more
in terms of what it can do, based upon its strengths,
weaknesses, and constraints.
His problem-solving perspective is broad-technological,
competitive, economic, political, cultural,
sociological. He is a man of many talents-entrepreneur,
planner, administrator, system architect,
politician, and statesman. (Perhaps group management
is the only possible way to bring all these
talents together.) He is not biased in favor of the
familiar, nor is he a habitual gambler. He is a skillful
leader of group problem solving, particularly in bringing
about bold departures from past tradition.30
Ansoff summarizes the new entrepreneurial manager
as "an innovator, willing risk taker, charismatic
leader, self-actualizer, a loner who has the psychological
strength to promote unpopular causes and live
without social acceptance or approval."31 One reason
this summary is provocative and impressive is that it
describes many actual leaders, such as Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger, who have been highly effective in
achieving beneficial changes in complicated systems.
A related fourth consideration which has implications
on an executive's contribution in emerging
organizations is the increasing emphasis on hiring
eminently qualified people. With other changes has
come a growth of professionalism and a recognition
by those in power of the necessity for seeking top
talent and for weeding out those who do not develop
the multiple skills necessary for high-quality performance.
Thus, such factors as family pull and financial
status are becoming relatively less important than
proven performance in the emerging "meritocracy."
Superficial or narrow qualifications will not prepare a
young executive to deal adequately with the difficult
problems of the postindustrial age. Indicative of these
changes is the fact that Ph.D.'s do not appear to be
irrelevant to administrative leadership. Many of the
strongest performers among recent public servants,
Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, James Schlesinger,
and Arthur Burns, for instance, have been men with
outstanding educations.
Fifth, despite the critical demand for such well-trained
candidates, we find a scarcity of young people
qualifying themselves for these roles. Most young
people are not sufficiently goal-oriented and serious
about their academic programs and the pursuit of
personal discipline and excellence. Many of the young
intelligentsia have become alienated from business
and government during the past decade and thereby
have substantially reduced their opportunities for the
institutional leadership needed by our society. The
so-called "greening of America" produced multitudes
of able young people who believe that the postindustrial
age permits people to "do their own thing,"
with little concern about producing for society.
Because they often fail to develop skills and discipline,
such people reduce their ability to compete for
significant positions.
Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell has chronicled
this development and expressed the concern
that people "are being cut adrift from the type of
humanizing authority which in the past shaped the
character of our people." He was not referring to
governmental authority, but to "the more personal
forms we have known in the home, church, school
and community" which "once gave direction to our
lives."32
An article in the New Republic signaled the implications
of this cultural revolution, diametrically
opposed to the Protestant ethic of "discipline,
achievement and faith in the onward and upward
thrust of technological society." Ironically, the
people most untouched by the revolutionary tide
"face new prospects for upward social mobility." The
article continues, "if Yale should become hopelessly
greened, Wall Street will get used to recruits from
Fordham or Wichita State," and, it might be added,
from the universities in Utah, Arizona, and Idaho.
"Italians will have no trouble running the RAND Corporation,
Baptists the space program. Political personnel
will change in the wake of social mobility."33
Interestingly enough, the space program is currently
headed by a Mormon, Dr. James Fletcher. Even
though the strength of the counterculture appears to
be receding, it still leaves many people disoriented.
Mormon Values Which Encourage Executive Development
To explore the extent to which Church members
may reach positions where they can make future significant
social contributions, let us review common
Mormon characteristics which contribute to their
advancement. Most of those listed are fundamental
qualities which are important to achievement in any
situation; however, those at the end are particularly
relevant to the emerging leadership needs which have
been described here. Following that, let us explore
characteristics sometimes found among Mormons
which may inhibit their advancement.
First, although there are those who question it, we
should emphasize that faith and spiritual values may
be important in supervisory effectiveness. In an
article deemed so important as to be granted the
rarity of a second appearance in the Harvard Business
Review, 0. A. Ohmann agrees.
We observe again and again that a manager with sound values
and a stewardship concept of his role as boss can be a pretty
effective leader even though his techniques are quite unorthodox.
I am convinced that workers have a fine sensitivity to
spiritual qualities and want to work for a boss who believes in
something and in whom they can believe. . . .
. . . Man is searching for anchors outside himself. H e runs
wearily to the periphery of the spider web of his own reason
and logic and looks for new "skyhooks"-for an abiding faith
around which life’s experiences can be integrated and given meaning.34
Clarity of purpose. The type of faith called for by
Ohmann, is, of course, widespread among members of
the Church. Basic conflicts over which many people
wrestle internally much of their lives are reconciled
once they convert to the principles of the gospel.
Typically, this conversion produces an inner peace
which releases energy from internal conflict that can
be used in creative accomplishments. The fact that a
person is committed to a set of positive values permits
and encourages the purposefulness which attracts
support from other people and is essential to
using one's energy wisely.
Goals of love and service. The great commandments
are love of God and man. In a talk at Brigham
Young University, Reed Braithwaite, vice-president of
Carnation Corporation, encouraged students to
"recognize in your life that the strong must help the
less fortunate and that service to others is more
important than self-service."35 An individual filled
with love and a sense of personal responsibility to all
human beings, such as Alyosha in The Brothers
Kararnazov, is an attractive individual in the eyes of
others, particularly if he develops the skills to convert
that emotion into meaningful service. Such a person
is likely to find reciprocal feelings in friends who will
wish to help, support, and protect instead of undermine
him.
Leadership development. The impact of comprehensive
leadership and public-speaking programs is
frequently mentioned by Mormon executives as
having helped in their youth to give them the confidence
to succeed. Even those who did not stay
active in the Church often attribute success partly to
their Mormon training in childhood. For example,
retired Woolworth board chairman Robert Kirkwood
described this training as "the most wonderful thing
that ever happened to me." James B. Jacobson, vice president
in charge of western operations of Prudential
Insurance Company of America who served in
stake presidencies on both the east and west coasts,
wrote: "The further I progress in my business career,
the more I realize how much of my success is due to
the fruits of Church training."
The development of energetic, assured leadership
from these programs is common among Mormon
youth, who frequently win elections to student offices
in their schools, even in such sophisticated areas
as metropolitan New York. For example, a girl and
boy in the Short Hills Ward in New Jersey were recently
student body presidents of two large junior
high schools. In the McLean Ward in Virginia, a
recent president of the cosmopolitan Langley High
School was converted to the Church and is now on a
mission. Just before he left, he baptized the person
who had preceded him as student body president.
Industry. Since the divine injunction that "in the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis
3:19), it has been necessary to work for what one
gets and spurn the curse of idleness. It was only by
prodigious effort that the pioneers were able to make
the desert "blossom as a rose." Those Church members
who perpetuate this heritage in their own lives
have a great advantage over the many people who are
not so committed to living useful lives. The quality of
industry is not only essential to achievement, it can
refine and ennoble the person in the process.
Stamina, a requisite of industry, heads the list of
underestimated requirements for executive success by
Jerry Davey. This young Mormon executive's company
was selected over giant competitors to computerize
credit information on twenty million people for
the banks of New York City. That innovation has
speeded up people's loan approvals and saved millions
of dollars' worth of labor. His subsequent enterprise
in computerized medical diagnosis has great potential
contributions to health care.
Mormon executives such as Anthony I. Eyring,
president of Washington Mutual Savings Bank, have
urged aspiring young Mormons to "work hard and
make certain they give a little more than a full day of
effort for a day's pay." Lorenzo N. Hoopes, senior
vice-president of Safeway Stores, put his formula for
success succinctly: "Prepare well" and then "work
harder, smarter and longer" than your associates.
Ultimately one can reap only what one sows, and
neither the reaping nor the sowing comes without
considerable effort.
Trustworthiness. Unfortunately, considerable
energy in many organizations goes to the protection
of one's flank from colleagues' stilettos. This means
employers often seek subordinates who are not only
personally honest, but who are also loyal to those
who place trust in them. This is summarized in a
statement of Elbert Hubbard's which is hanging in the
office of Chief Judge Irving R. Kaufman of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit:
"An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of
cleverness."
Lee Bickmore, recently retired chairman of the
board of Nabisco and now adviser to the First Presidency
of the Church, believes that the integrity
taught by the Church was a most important element
in his ascending the corporate hierarchy. Prominent
men in business recognize this trait and seek
those who have it. For example, Walt Disney employed
a number of Mormons because he felt they
were dependable and had character. In fact, the new
president of Walt Disney Productions, E. Cardon
Walker, comes from a Mormon background.
This same trait of trustworthiness may help to explain
why many Latter-day Saints have risen in financial
institutions. DeWitt Paul was able to serve simultaneously
as patriarch of the New Jersey Stake -- a
position requiring outstanding spiritual attunement--and
chairman of the board of Beneficial Finance, the
nation's largest consumer finance company, with
assets exceeding $1.5 billion. (This company has no
relationship to Mormon-owned Beneficial Life Insurance
Company.) It is noteworthy that when Patriarch
Paul was nominated to the board chairmanship, the
outgoing board chairman commented on his standards
and said: "I have kept an eye on this fellow for
many years, and never once have I seen him slip. I
recommend him to you as a man of integrity."
0. Leslie Stone is another example of a man of
integrity who engenders trust. M. B. Skaggs, founder
of Safeway Stores, Inc., had been impressed with the
leadership and speaking ability of returned missionaries
he met in Idaho. Consequently, in 1932, when
he decided to organize the National Safeway Employees
Association, he sent out a circular asking
recommendations for a Mormon for the job. 0. Leslie
Stone, a divisional manager operating seventy-five
Safeway stores at the age of twenty-six, was given the
job. He subsequently became a vice-president.
In 1946, Mr. Skaggs offered to entrust $1 million
to Brother Stone for the creation of a general merchandising
business. He told Brother Stone, in effect,
"If you fail, you will have lost your entire business,
but I will have lost only my money--and I have
plenty more." This confidence in Leslie Stone was
well placed. Skaggs-Stone became the largest general
merchandising wholesale distributor west of Chicago.
Seventeen years after the company was founded, it
merged with McKesson Robbins, and $7 million
worth of stock was turned back to Mr. Skaggs. While
president of Skaggs-Stone, Leslie Stone also served as
president of the Oakland-Berkeley Stake, and he is
now an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve.
Family Solidarity. The strength of exemplary
Mormon families that teach cooperation, industry,
respect for authority, and financial responsibility provides
security, motivation, optimism, and guidance to
the youth. This helps them reduce or avoid the disorientation
common to their generation. Furthermore,
the Mormon emphasis on living up to the endurance,
faith, and resourcefulness of pioneer progenitors
is a driving force for many Mormons. The
challenge of matching or exceeding an ancestor's
achievements, albeit in a new setting and in a different
way, has been an important stimulus for many
Latter-day Saints. Converts to the Church are often
motivated to build their own family heritage and thus
to provide an influence for their children similar to
the one those descended from early pioneers have.
Stephen H. Fletcher is vice-president, general
counsel, and member of the board of Western Electric,
as well as a stake patriarch. He emphasized the
security of a strong Mormon family in his success. It
is noteworthy that his mother was chosen American
Mother of the Year. (Two other Mormon mothers,
Lavina Fugal and Phyllis Marriott, have received the
same honor.)
Today, widespread marital tension drains off much
energy executives could otherwise give to their professions;
however, gospel standards and the supportive
attitude encouraged by the Church in wives some
times create a family unity that can be a major factor
in a Mormon executive's achievement. It is no wonder
that Bill Marriott, Sr., ended his brief set of prescriptions
to succeed with the injunction to choose a
"good wife."
Organizational discipline. Youth who are the
products of overly permissive homes or who rebel
against authority often find it difficult, or even
impossible, to take responsibility, adapt to organizational
discipline, respond to explicit assignments not
always of their own choosing, and meet deadlines. In
this regard, the frequent strength of Mormon families
and the demands of Church service teach people to
discipline themselves to institutional needs without
losing their individuality. In addition, the rich and
varied heritage of Mormon cooperative programs influences
the behavior of many Latter-day Saints and
makes them good team players. This is particularly
valuable as management teams grow in importance.
Employers frequently comment that their Mormon
employees who exemplify Church ideals respond with
alacrity to any variety of assignments. This contrasts
with some employees who drag their feet if they are
not interested in an assignment or perceive it as
beneath their status.
Pursuit of knowledge and excellence. Even with
the urbanization of the Latter-day Saints, a significant
proportion of Mormons are still raised on farms
and in small towns. This may contribute to an inner
toughness, common sense, empirical orientation, and
resourcefulness. It also means that their early education
is sometimes less sophisticated than it might be
in metropolitan areas. Nevertheless, Latter-day Saints,
by virtue of the doctrine of eternal progression,
should be motivated more than others to transcend
limitations and to attain excellence. Many highly
achievement-oriented businessmen-among them Alex
Oblad, the innovative former vice-president of research
and engineering development at Kellogg attribute
much of their success to the constant inculcation
into their minds, from both family and pulpit,
of the importance of the pursuit of knowledge and
excellence.
As another example, J. Clifford Wallace of San
Diego became, soon after his appointment, one of the
most productive federal district judges in the nation.
When asked to explain this, he responded that he
constantly searched for and implemented superior
methods for all aspects of his work. In addition to
fulfilling his responsibilities as a district judge and
subsequently as a court of appeals judge, he also
served the Church as a Regional Representative of the
Twelve.
The educational aspirations of Mormons are expressed
in a visionary statement of President John
Taylor:
You will see the day that Zion will be as far ahead of the
outside world in everything pertaining to learning of every
kind as we are today in regard to religious matters. You mark
my words, and write them down, and see if they do not come
to pass.36
It is noteworthy how frequently continued learning
was tied to achievement by LDS executives.
Glenn Nielson, chairman of the board of Husky
Petroleum Corporation, who in 1973 became president
of the Delaware-Maryland Mission, urged a
"thirst for greater knowledge in this highly technical
age. . . . Today, one new development follows so
rapidly on the heels of another, we need to adapt and
readapt with almost staccato frequency. . . . The years
ahead will make today's spectacular progress look like
child's play."
The fact that college must be the start rather than
the completion of education was emphasized by such
LDS executives as Reed Braithwaite, who wrote:
"Education is a voyage, not a single trip." He also
recognized the value of a Harvard business school
professor's advice to him to choose the job which
offers the greatest opportunity for learning because
"what we know offers the only security we have."
Weston Edwards, who obtained his doctorate from
Harvard business school, chose in his early career to
do economic research for a Wall Street investment
firm, not only because he believed the company most
needed strengthening in this area, but because of the
personal learning growth this could provide. Subsequently,
he became an entrepreneur and created the
rapidly growing Ticor Relocation management Company.
This company grew to a one-year sales volume
of $17 million in his four years as president. He and
his talented wife Jeroldeen have twelve children and
have magnified many Church positions.
Rigorous standards of ethical conduct. Ethical performance
may generally be eroding as suggested by
such indices as growing crime rates and reduced sense
of accountability to religious and moral standards.
Yet, if the close scrutiny recently given to federal
judge nominees and to Gerald Ford when he was
nominated to be vice-president are any indication, it
may be that demands are increasing for a higher
standard of ethics in leaders.
If it is true that there is a growing demand for a
decreasing supply of highly ethical people, then an
increasing number of employers may be expected to
search for religious people who have high ethical
cod&. These people would be sought, however,
only when such high ethical conduct is blended with
well-developed, needed executive skills.
As an interesting example, in 1965 and 1966,
Lyndon B. Johnson made the highly unusual decision
to have two Republicans serve as chairmen of important
regulatory agencies. Even more unusual, they
were both Mormons-Kay Randall at the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation and Rose1 Hyde at the
Federal Communications Commission. Hyde recalled
during his commencement address to the College of
Social Sciences at BYU in April 1974 that while President
Johnson was talking to him, he said: "I don't
know why I am appointing so many Mormons to high
positions. I guess it is because I have never known a
Mormon who was active who was mean or unfair."
Letters from Mormons in top executive positions
stress the importance of adherence to Church standards.
This emphasis on ethics suggests great strength
of character among a great many of these men of high
achievement.
Robert D. Bolinder, president of Albertsons, advised
aspiring young Mormons:
Be proud of your heritage and religion. Stand up for it, never
compromise on its standards, and dare to be different, tempered
with empathy for other people's viewpoints and way of
life. There is no w q a Mormon can live two lives and reap the
benefits and strengths that are great advantages of his religion.
Similarly, James B. Jacobson, one of the top vice presidents
of Prudential Insurance Company of
America, urged young Latter-day Saints "to hold
steadfast to your beliefs, don't hide them, but also
don't flaunt them." Sam D. Batistone, president of
Sambo's Restaurants in California, indicated that
Mormons who abide by the teachings of the Church
will generally find this "different set of principles and
moral responsibilities more of an asset than a problem."
Douglas Driggs admonished aspiring young
Church members always to keep their "personal conduct
above reproach." Glendon Johnson, president of
American National Life Insurance Company, commented
that "integrity is respected, and character is
admired, but only if they exist in the observance, not
in the breach."
Entrepreneurship. Whether we talk of the entrepreneurship
of immigrants in developing nations or
the intellectual virtuosity of the Kissingers, Einsteins,
and Veblens in the United States, creativity comes
much more frequently from bicultural than monocultured
people. People who can function effectively in
more than one culture see problems from multiple
perspectives and have more varied resources from
which to draw. If we view Mormonism as a subculture,
and if we acknowledge that Mormons are continuing
to function more effectively in larger societies
and in foreign cultures, as well as in the Mormon
subculture, then we can see Mormons as bicultural or
tricultural, with a broad range of resources upon
which they can draw in being creative. Furthermore,
Mormons draw upon considerable entrepreneurial
heritage. They also are deeply committed to education.
As more of them blend wide-ranging sophisticated
education and experience with their entrepreneurial
heritage and with the gospel, more of them
are likely to assume the entrepreneurial leadership
roles called for as our institutions cope with complicated
new external and internal forces.
Furthermore, there is another dimension of Mormon
experience which is likely to be useful. Many
Church members have long sought to blend two
apparently divergent qualities: love of their fellow
beings and the practical requirements of professional
success which often include vigorous competition.
What is new about the multiple forces confronting
corporate executives is that they require a similar
effort to reconcile institutional and social welfare.
For example, in a recent conference board panel discussion,
a major corporation president indicated that
virtually every day he now has to take into account
an expanded range of factors in decision making including
environmental impact, consumerism, public
interest groups, and new demands for employee
involvement-which would have been generally classified
under the separate rubric of corporate philanthropy
a decade previously. At the same time, as
managers are facing these types of pressures, many
need to step up their productivity to meet fierce
foreign competition.
Consultative management. The shift in management
from authoritarian to consultative persuasion
and negotiation fits well with LDS management
philosophy. Indeed a number of Mormon executives,
such as Lee Bickmore, have been in the vanguard of
this shift to more compassionate management. The
restored Church doctrine of the use of authority of
the priesthood was over a century ahead of this
modem management trend. In a revelation given to
Joseph Smith in 1839 we read:
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue
of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by
gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge
the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile-
Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upor1 by
the Holy Ghost; and the11 showing forth afterwards an increase
of love toward him who thou hast reproved, lest he esteem
thee to be his enemy. (D&C 121:41-43)
This leadership method, fused with a desire to help
one's coworkers attain maximum wholesome fulfillment,
provides Mormons with experiences and views
which help achieve the newly stressed management
virtues of diplomacy, empathetic consultation, and
negotiation.
Potential Problem Areas Which Must Be Overcome
Even though Mormonism teaches and fosters characteristics
which are in great demand by responsible
decision makers, there are certain limitations and
deficiencies which many Mormons share and which
must be overcome. In addition, there are aspects of
the gospel which have been attacked by people who
misunderstand or misinterpret them. We must be alert
to these problem areas so that we can either correct
and eliminate them or handle them with grace, confidence,
and efficiency. Several of these potential
problem areas are listed below.
Provincialism. As suggested above, some Mormons
have "rough edges" in terms of their knowledge,
sophistication, cultural background, grammar, and
manners. Of course, they may still rise because of
native ability, motivation, inner toughness, and internal
harmony. But polish must be added to enable
them to compete with others for opportunities which
can be used for major service. It is noteworthy that
truly great leaders such as Joseph Smith and Harold
B. Lee compared themselves to rough stones that
were polished by their experiences.
Clannishness. Mormons often tend to socialize
among themselves. This is understandable in that
people generally like to spend time with others who
share the values they cherish. Nevertheless, this sometimes
arouses resentment among non-Mormons, as the
following story illustrates. A social psychologist did a
study with a Mormon in California that involved considerable
travel. Virtually everywhere they stopped,
the BYU graduate would make a phone call or two
and would usually receive a social invitation for the
evening from a Mormon he had known. The psychologist,
who was a Catholic, said that although there
were many more Catholics than Mormons in these
communities, there were none he could phone to
work out some evening recreation. He indicated that
while he admired the Mormon social organization
which worked so well, he was also jealous and resentful
of it. Many Latter-day Saints need to learn to
demonstrate much greater love and concern for the
non-Mormons with whom they live and work.
Time restraints. Active membership in the Church
takes time, an unexpandable and precious resource
which is essential for executive achievement. Thus, to
fulfill one's Church obligations and make significant
professional contributions, one must pay "careful
attention to priorities and timing," as B. J. Anderson,
vice-president and general manager, plastics group,
Northern Petrochemical Company, put it.
But this examination shows that Church activity
and professional achievement are not mutually exclusive.
There are many examples of highly creative
scientists and other outstanding leaders who still find
time to be successful bishops or members of stake
presidencies. Dr. Russell Nelson, for instance, served
on the original team of four medical scientists who
created the first successful artificial heart and lung
and is one of the best thoracic surgeons in the West.
Yet at the same time, he is a model husband, a father
to ten children, has served as stake president, and has
been recently named as the general Sunday School
president of the Church.
Another example is Boyd Schenk, president of Pet,
Inc., a company with a sales volume approaching $1
billion. In a talk to the business students at Brigham
Young University, he stated:
During the last seventeen years -- the period of my own fastest
career progress- from a production supervisor to an assistant
plant manager to a plant manager to a general production
manager to general manager of a division to a corporate
vice-president and a corporate group executive to my present
position as president and chief executive officer. . . I presided
over one independent branch, three separate wards as a bishop,
and now in my present calling as stake president. and I can
recommend no other course to each of you. 37
And there are many others who have followed the
same course. Clendon Johnson, president of American
National Insurance Company. the largest life insurance
company in Texas, serves as president of the
Houston Stake.
It is notable, and to some people it will be surprising.
that the overwhelming share of achieving Mormons
who have been identified in this survey arc
active in the Church. They do not all hold high executive
positions. but they normally find time to teach
classes or take organizational assignments, in addition
to their family and professional responsibilities.
Renowned chemist Henry Eyring indicates that
while time invested in Church activities is sometimes
a professional cost, it is more than offset by other
benefits, such as the inner peace the Church brings
into one's life. "and besides," he says, with classic
simplicity, "the gospel is true."
Doctrinal peculiarity. With widespread agnosticism
in the world, much of the faith of the Latter-day
Saints will continue to be controversial. The Mormons'
belief in a finite God, though scriptural. seems
strange to many people. The LDS commitment to
chastity. the importance of bearing and raising children,
the importance of the maternal role, and the
nonconsumption of intoxicants, tobacco, and drugs
may cause tension in situations where there is pressure
for conformity.
(Implications of these doctrines can be easily misunderstood.
For example, the elevated status of the maternal role docs not
preclude major social contributions
by LDS women. Three Mormon women were
playing important public roles as long ago as 1896.
when Dr. Martha Cannon was elected to the Utah
senate, becoming the first female state senator in the United States
Mormons must recognize that though in
some instances Mormon behavior patterns may be an
asset to their professions, . LDS beliefs arc not universally
admired, and there may still be discrimination against them at times.
It is possible that the recent trend toward social diversity allowing each
person to do his own thing, will make it easier for
Mormons to be diffeent.
Geoge Q. Cannon of Hawaii typifies the cautiously optimistic view
predominant among Mormon executives that discrimination against
Mormons is dwindling and that it is easier than in the past for them
to rise to their natural potential. At the same time as George Q. Cannon
was president of the Pearl Harbor Stake of the Church, he was also
chairman of the board of Meadow Gold of Hawaii, managing
director of the far eastern division of Beatrice Foods,
president and chairman of the board of a holding
company of insurance companies, and president of the
Honolulu Chamber of Commerce. Notwithstanding,
Church members would be wise to develop the
strength of character and finesse necessary to meet
sharp challenges of their religious views.
The Church did not confer the priesthood on
Blacks until 1978 but they have come into the
Church in considerable numbers and have been
accepted with enthusiasm and love. Mormons can
and should be exemplary leaders in achieving
equal civil rights for members of all disadvantaged
groups. George Romney, for instance, received the
Brotherhood-in-Action Award for being "the one
member of President Nixon's cabinet most directly
concerned with America's ghettos." He was also
praised for creating in Michigan "the nation's most
advanced civil rights commission."38 I t is notable
that Edward Brooke, the only modern Black senator,
campaigned for his friend George Romney in
Michigan. When G. Homer Durham was president of
Arizona State University in the early 1960s' he led
out among universities outside of major metropolitan
centers in bringing Black faculty members to his university.
When Henry Aldous Dixon served in Congress,
the only discharge petitions (petitions to bring
bills out for vote which had been bottled up in committee)
he ever signed were for a civil rights law and
for home rule for the predominantly Black District of
Columbia. The Marriott Corporation received special
recognition for being one of the first companies to
shift deposits into minority-owned banks that were
trying to get a foothold and needed only a little help
from business. Members of racial minority groups also
make up a relatively high 13 percent of Marriott
management. These arc only some of the prominent
Latter-day Saints who have endeavored to make significant
personal contributions to the development of
equal rights.
Failure to develop analytical and writing skills. Returned
missionaries are frequently self-confident, gregarious, and
verbally articulate. Some, however, fail to develop comparable
skills in analysis, writing, and detailed follow-through -- skills
which are necessary to perform well in many jobs. Those who
would neglect writing skills as less important than verbal skills,
should weigh the following:
Consider some of the techniques a modern manager should
command to be fully effective-all of which are subject to
achievement by proper training. First, skill in written expression.
In large organizations, use of only oral discussion is extremely
risky because each step in transmission degrades the
message. It is sometimes fully unrecognizable to its originator,
as it careens through a hierarchy, rebounding from the
prejudices, anxieties, and vested interests of each receptor. 39
False and selfish misuse of the gospel. Instead of
emphasizing in their personal lives the attractive
qualities of love, service, humility, and trustworthiness,
some Mormons distort the gospel to serve their
psychic needs; they become self-righteous, self-exalting,
vain, exclusive, narrow, and contentious. They
feel no responsibility to be of service outside the
Church because they believe that the world is evil and
deserves the calamities it is bringing upon itself. Like
Jonah, they wait expectantly for Nineveh's overthrow,
rather than trying to prevent its happening.
Just as Jonah did, Latter-day Saints must find that
the true spirit of the gospel is love for, service to, and
forgiveness of others. It is a timeless and, therefore, a
timely paradox that one must lose himself in the service
of others to find himself.
Financial pressure. Mormons are under no less pressure
than any other Americans to enjoy and demonstrate
material well-being, and some are too socially
conscious. Yet, Church members are also asked to
undertake major financial obligations including tithing
and building contributions, raising and educating
large families, and financing children's missions. Furthermore,
in spite of the financial success enjoyed by
many Latter-day Saints, many others are below the
national average in income, particularly those in the
Intermountain West. Consequently, financial stress is
one of the problems members most frequently discuss
with their bishops. Members sometimes waste money
and run into unnecessary debt because they are unrealistic
about their income, expenses, and desires.
And in spite of the warnings of Church authorities
against it, there is an occasional gambling instinct
which sometimes results in financial speculation. In
the most unfortunate of circumstances, financial
stress can result in selling out gospel principles for
financial gain.
If members combine the traditional Mormon qualities
of industry, frugality, good common sense, and
the placing of proper priorities, they need not make
these mistakes. The safest path is to follow the admonitions
of Church leaders, who have warned
against incurring unnecessary or excessive debt as well
as against ostentatious living. The Mormons who have
succeeded are generally those who have built prudently
and deliberately rather than hastily and speculatively.
Conclusions
The Latter-day Saints are rapidly coming to a
stature that will bring worldwide prominence. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no
longer a Utah church or even an American church,
but it is a worldwide church with a rapidly growing
membership. The time is not far distant when active
Church membership in the eastern half of the United
States and many other countries will be common.
It took approximately fourteen years for Church
membership to double to three million at the end of
1971. With the growing number of missionaries, the
next doubling will take fewer years. Yet, even if we
conservatively assume that the rate of doubling will
continue every fourteen years, it would take only
about ninety years before there will be more Church
members worldwide (with the preponderance outside
the US.) than there are now inhabitants of the
United States.
In 140 years, should this rate continue (and no one
knows how long it will continue), there would be as
many Church members as there are currently inhabitants
of the earth. It is no wonder that prominent
futurist Herman Kahn, in a speech suggesting that the
press often determines what is news from its own
predispositions, cited the growth of the Mormon
Church and other religious groups' putting heavy
demands on their members as examples of newsworthy
items which had previously been largely overlooked
by the press.40 The national population may
also grow but much less rapidly, particularly in light
of declining birthrates. Interestingly enough, Joseph
Smith was reported in 1890 to have prophesied that
"a time would come when none but the women of
the Latter-day Saints would be willing to bear chil-
dren.41 While the growth of the Church may increase
the opportunity for people with the ethics and
values of the restored gospel to play constructive
roles in their societies, it will undoubtedly also bring
a host of new problems which will tax the inspired
resourcefulness of the Church leadership and membership
to resolve.
The degree to which Mormon values will be demanded
by various institutions is contingent upon the
ebbs and flows of intellectual, cultural, and social
fashion. Some of these will be advantageous, and
others will be vexatious to Church members.
A review of the innovative programs of the Church
demonstrates its inspired creativity and its continuing
dynamic relevance to social problems. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a static
church, but a creative, expressly relevant, and efficient
organization meant to help both members and
nonmembers of the Church. These programs are
indeed a light unto the world, and in many instances
they have directly influenced the beliefs, efforts, and
methods in the larger society.
Given this heritage, Church members should not be
content with mediocrity. In attempting to be the
"salt of the earth" and a "light unto the world," not
all Latter-day Saints can make spectacular contributions
to society, but hopefully all can live exemplary
lives. They can serve their fellowmen within their
own spheres of influence and strive unceasingly for
excellence in their chosen fields.
Given the time demands on active members, an
often-considered question has been whether or not
distinguished professional achievement and dedicated
Church service mutually exclude each other. It has
now become abundantly clear, as it was not until
recent decades, that it is possible for many Mormons
to live by their religious ideals and simultaneously to
rise to top scientific, educational, executive, political,
and other positions which permit creative contributions
of a high magnitude.
Many of these Latter-day Saints who have risen to
top positions did not explicitly aim for them, but
rather they concentrated upon top quality performance
of their assignments at each stage of their
careers. When opportunities for promotion came,
they were qualified and rose naturally. Thus high
achievement is not, to a major extent, a product of
overreaching ambition (such ambition is often self-defeating),
but rather a result of the willingness to
pay tile price for success. These people prepared
themselves, developed their skills, worked hard, and
concentrated upon performing in their jobs consistently
and with high quality.
Finally, it should be emphasized that no professional
success can compensate for spiritual failure.
Furthermore, success can be dangerous if it leads to
overconfidence or insensitivity. Our primary goal
must be to seek the kingdom of God. As Jesus admonished:
"For what is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew
16:26).
Those blessed with a measure of success will be
judged by how effectively they use their talents to
serve their fellowmen. Through unselfish service, they
can attain personal peace, contribute further to the
innovative heritage of Mormonism, and help to
achieve divine, eternally consequential goals that are
beneficial to mankind.
Notes
1. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager,
The Growth o f the American Republic, 2 vols. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1937), 1:473. [The author wishes to
express appreciation for helpful comments of many friends on
the subject of this lecture.]
2. Henry M. Boettinger, "The Management Challenge," in
The Conference Board: Challenge to Leadership--Managing in
a Changing World (New York: The Free Press, 1973). pp. 2-3.
3. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
comp. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Co., 1938), p. 10.
4. Joseph Smith, History of IKe Church o f Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932-51),
3:56.
5. Neal A. Maxwell, "Na_uvoo Groundbreaking Ceremonies"
(Remarks given at Nauvoo, Illinois, 24 May 1969), p.
5.
6. Smith, History of the Church, 5:33.
7. Leonard J. Amngton, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic
History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1958).
8. Ursula H. Kemper, "Cooperative Movements among the
Mormons" (Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1952), p. 68.
9. Brigham Young in Journal o f Discourses, 26 vols.
(London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1855-86 ), 12:372;
15:128.
10. Reverend John Todd, The Sunset Land, quoted in
Feramorz Young Fox, "Experiments in Cooperation and
Social Security among the Mormons" (Unpublished postdoctoral
thesis available in the LDS Church Library, Salt Lake
City), pp. 12, 13.
11. H. Hamlin Cannon, "English Mormons in America,"
American Historical Review 57 (July 1952): 893.
12. Katharine Coman, Economic Beginnings o f the Far
West (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1912), p. 184: see also
Gustive 0. Larson, Prelude to the Kingdom: Mormon Desert
Conquest, a Chapter in American Cooperative Experience
(Francestown, N.H. : Marshall Jones, 1947) and Mark W.
Cannon, "Programs for Economic Security among the Mormons"
(Unpublished manuscript for a Harvard government
class, 1953).
13. Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller (Boston:
Dana Estes and Company, 1964), p. 303.
14. Lawrence H. Fuchs, Family Matters (New York:
Random House, 1972).
15. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "The Negro Family: The
Case for National Action," in The Moynihan Report and the
Politics of Controversy, ed. Lee Rainwater and William L.
Yancey (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967).
16. "All in the Family," Washington Evening Star, 1
December 1972; "An 'Adoption' Plan to Aid Inmates," Life,
15 December 1972; "37 Mormon Couples Aid Inmates at Utah
State," Washington Post, 16 December 1973.
17. R. H. Knapp and H. B. Goodrich, Origins ofAmerican
Scientists (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952).
18. Richard Wooten, "Religious Orientations of Utah
Scientists Related to Certain Problems of LDS Education"
(Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1956).
19. J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine,
Department of State Publication $37 (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1930), 238 pp.
20. John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics, Peace and Laughter
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971), pp. 47-48.
21. R. Joseph Monsen, Jr., and Mark W. Cannon, The
Makers of Public Policy: American Power Groups and Their
Ideologies (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), pp. 121-25;
Edward L. Schapsmeier and Frederick H. Schapsmeier, "Eisenhower
and Ezra Taft Benson Farm Policy in the 1950s," Agricultural
History 44 (October 1970):369-78;" Conflict within
the Eisenhower Administration: Ike versus Benson over Livestock
Policy," manuscript.
22. These committee heads were Earnest Dean, Utah; Ray
Rigby, Idaho; Jim Gibson, Nevada; Lorin Pace, Utah; and D.
Delos Ellsworth, Arizona.
23. In the summer of 1973, Gardner assumed new duties as
president of the University of Utah.
24. John G. Hubbell, "Everybody Likes to Work for Bill
Marriott," Reader's Digest, January 1972, p. 97.
25. Ibid., p. 98.
26. "J. Willard Maniott, Sr., of Marriott Corp.-Money as a
Means to an End," Nation's Business, March 1971, pp. 61-65;
"Marriott Tries Its Tricks on New Ventures," Business Week,
17 June 1972, pp. 61-64; "The Marriott Story," Forbes, 1
February 1971, pp. 20-25.
27. Douglas Greenwald, "Technological Breakthroughs and
Widespread Application of Significant Technical Developments"
(New York: McGraw-Hill Publications, 1972).
28. Harlan Cleveland, The Future Executive (New York:
Harper and Row, 1972), p. 47.
29. Ibid., p. 89.
30. H. Igor Ansoff, "Management in Transition," in The
Conference Board: Challenge to Leadership-Managing in a
Changing World (New York: The Free Press, 1973), pp.
36-38.
31. Ibid., p. 45.
32. Lewis F. Powell, Jr., "What Justice Powell Says Is
Wrong with America," U.S. News and World Report, 28
August 1972, pp. 41-42;se e also Powell, "What Has Happened
to the Old American Values," Reader's Digest, November
1970, p. 170.
33. Berger and Berger, "The Blueing of America," New
Republic 164 (April 1971):21-22,2 3.
34. 0. A. Ohmann, " 'Skyhooks' with Special Implications
Monday through Friday," Harvard Business Review 33, no. 3
(May-June 1955):33, 41.
3 5. Reed Braithwai te, "Address to Brigham Young University
Graduating Class of 1963."
36. John Taylor, quoted in G. Homer Durham, The Gospel
Kingdom (Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing
Co., 1944), p. 279.
37. Boyd F. Schenk, "Address to Business Students,
Brigham Young University," 1970.
38. New York Times, 28 October 1969, p. 7.
39. H. M. Boettinger, "What if Management, Really Is an
Art?" (Paper delivered December 1973 in Oxford, England), p.
8.
40. Herman Kahn, "The Squaring of America," The Blessings
of Liberty 17, no. 4 (October 1972).
41. Young Women's Journal 2 (1890):81.
Would it be possible to break this up into a number of shorter posts that highlight key ideas? In my opinion that would make the information here more accessible.
ReplyDeleteFor example, a post on irrigation, one on city planning, etc. Or a post on contributions of the Church and another on contributions of members of the Church, etc.
Thank you for the research.
ReplyDeleteWendy from WJS Liahona China office