Ethical Dilemmas in Church Leadership | An Interview with Brad Agle

Brad Agle, the author of The Business Ethics Field Guide, is a professor of Ethics and Leadership in the Marriott School of Business Management at BYU and has also taught at the University of Pittsburgh. In this podcast, he discusses how ethical dilemmas can come up in the church setting and how to better approach them. Highlights 05:31 GRAY AREAS Ethical gray areas come when values conflict. He teaches practical tools for prioritizing. 06:46 His well-received book, The Business Ethics Field Guide, started with collecting thousands of written accounts of ethical dilemmas faced by executive MBA students in North America, São Paulo, and Prague. 07:23 Thirteen types of fundamental ethical dilemmas: 09:12 REPAIR As a church member, knowing how to repent provides a really good formula to help you repair when you or someone in your organization has done wrong: recognize what you did wrong, ask for forgiveness, provide restitution if you can, and resolve never to do it again. People don’t often do all these steps in repairing harm done to others. 10:54 SHOWING MERCY Church members who have served in bishoprics or stake presidencies have particularly been trained well in the appropriateness of showing mercy from experiences serving in a Church Membership Council (formerly known as a Disciplinary Council). In these councils, showing mercy is balanced with ensuring the good name of the Church and innocent victims are protected. 13:00 CONFLICT OF INTEREST In the church, we’re not well trained for situations when we are in two different roles, such as business positions and church leadership. 14:25 MAKE A PROMISE AND THE WORLD CHANGES We church members teach each other that we keep our promises: we keep covenants and keep our word (e.g. a bishop gets an emergency call which conflicts with a commitment to a family member). Church leaders must teach boundaries for marriages and family and how to make tough decisions: sometimes you need to say no. 17:29 Imperfect leaders make mistakes 18:11 INTERVENTION DILEMMA (or Counseling Together) How do we balance sustaining leaders with the command to council together in decision making? When do we sustain revelation and when do we push back by speaking up for something we think is wrong? 19:24 SCENARIOS An Intervention Dilemma (or Standing up to Power): As a bishop who lived close to the site of a new stake center, Brad was delegated by a beloved stake presidency to coordinate with Church Facilities, the general contractor, and the local architect. The first plan from Church Facilities had the kitchen close to the bishop’s office and chapel instead of the cultural center. He proposed the change to the stake presidency but was denied. A bishop serving in the one other building built according to this new plan agreed that a change was needed from personal experience, so Brad asked again and was denied again. The switch would cost about $1,500 for a multi-million dollar building that you want to get right. On the third time requesting a change to the stake presidency, he came with the change request from the whole ward council, and they finally granted the change: he wore them down like the petitioner to the unjust judge. Meanwhile, the granted change actually ended up saving $500. 24:47 QUESTIONS for the 13 DILEMMAS in The Business Ethics Field Guide The book provides examples of and pitfalls for each of the thirteen dilemmas. It also includes actions for prevention as well as questions. Some questions for an intervention dilemma include these: (1) Are you the right person to intervene? Intervention is necessary because of a violation of ethics, or harm may be done to people: i. e.