MISSION STATEMENT AND ORGANISATION'S BASIC PURPOSE

A Mission Statement Describes an Organisation's Basic Purpose

A mission statement describes an organisation's basic purpose

Introduction

The Mission Statement makes clear why the organization lives, and its basic purpose(s). This is utilised externally, often when the public inquires about the organization (Bart, 2001). The significance of mission statements and the genuine reason of a mission statement have been subject to much argument in the academic literature. Some authors (e.g. Wright, 2002) contend that the mission statement is mainly utilised as a 'public relative's statement,' and thus mission statements do not contemplate truth (Bart, 2001).

However, authors with a less cynical outlook to mission statements have mainly recognised the mission statement as a device for interior purposes, such as the development of business strategy, supplying leadership, and performance evaluation (Drucker, 1977; Klemm et al., 1991). For example, Drucker highlighted the strategic importance of the corporate mission (Drucker, 2007): “Only a noticeable definition of the mission and focus of the corporation earns possible noticeable and realistic corporation objectives.

It is the base for priorities, plans, blueprints, and profession assignments.” Others possess highlighted the importance of mission statements for external communication intentions, e.g. towards influence the perceptions of stakeholders (e.g. Campbell, 1997; Bartkus et al., 2000).

Too empirically asses the focus of mission statements, Bart (1997a) and Leuthesser and Kohli (1997) possess contemplated the inclusion of stakeholder categories within mission statements and located that a number of stakeholder categories are mentioned many often than others. In both researches clients were the most frequently referred stakeholder category, stressing the external focus of mission statements. Campbell et al. (2001) also tried towards explain the inclusion of stakeholder categories within mission statements.

The research concludes that granted the fact that a thick range of stakeholders are mentioned within mission statements, the focus of these statements is not limited towards internal intentions (Bart, 2001). In Campbell et al. (2001) stakeholders were classified as many or less economically dependent onto the company. The findings of the research indicate that mission statements many often refer towards economically less-dependent stakeholders.

The authors evoke that “those stakeholders that are less-dependent are those that the organization itself depends upon” (Campbell et al., 2001). The findings of the research therefore would evoke that companies many often address stakeholders which they depend upon. Building onto this submission, we contest that it is the commercial dependence of the corporate onto the respective stakeholders rather than the dependence of the stakeholder onto the corporate that determines the content of the mission statement.

The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise's reason for reality (Bart, 2001). It should incorporate communally significant and discernable criteria speaking to notions for example the moral/ethical place of the enterprise, public likeness, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and anticipations of development and profitability. The intent of the Mission Statement should be the first concern for any employee who is assessing a strategic decision. The declarations can variety from a very easy to a very ...