Mission, Vision, and Value Statements
Most organizations with sound strategic plans have established explicit policy statements to guide their purpose and internal operations. These policy statements serve distinct purposes in guiding the scope of operations for the organization. A mission statement would show the existential reason for the organization. It points at the overall intention of the organization and the particular engagement it will be pursuing in the course of its existence. A vision statement shows the desired state of an organization. A value statement points out the beliefs held by the organization and its intended behavior towards living up to the expectations. This study examines the differences between mission vision, and value statements. It also examines how they are created and communicated to the organization, and gives examples where a leader can use interpersonal skills to pursue the organization’s mission.
Mission Statement
The mission statement shows the intention and rationale of business. It explains the center, what it does, and for whose benefit. A mission statement is intended to guide a business entity’s daily activities and decisions by setting the standards for evaluating the programs and the plans. When developing mission statements, it is important to use concise, simple terms that communicate enthusiasm for the organization’s purpose with excellent clarity. Notably, the mission statement captures the core purpose of the organization (David 2011). The board is often expected to adopt and work with a written mission statement. The organization’s mission statement gives guidance to the people served by a business entity, the objectives of the business entity, and the approach to be used to deliver the goals. The board can thus be able to make decisions on staffing, budgeting, and make priority goals.
Interestingly, the mission statement should be framed in a manner that supports the vision for the organization. Over the course of an organization’s existence, it can alter its mission to match its changed priorities and the disposable methods present for realizing the goals captured in the organization’s vision (Kantabutra 2009). The organization’s mission statement should be framed in a manner that justifies the organization’s existence. By pointing out the goals of the organization, the mission statement would be explaining the merits that warrant the continued support of the organization of stakeholders.
Mission statements often capture most aspects of the organization such as the organization’s perspective on its employees, customers, product quality, market survival, product and service offered, market position and technology. The content of a mission statement should create a perception of what the organization does, how it is done, who receives the benefits, and why the action is done. Kantabutra (2009) points out that mission statement are used to communicate critical information to different relevant stakeholders – suppliers, shareholders, creditors, partners, investors, competitors, customers, employees, and investors.
Creation and Communication of Mission Statements in the Organization
Suppose an organization chooses to create a new vision statement first before creating the mission statement, then the mission statement should capture the purpose of existence in the future organizational image – the idea (Urde, 2003). The mission statement may be sourced from culture –specific settings amongst stakeholders such as focused employee discussions and shared stories. The participants get to discuss and determine some description to represent the organization’s mission. The leadership of the proposed organization would then move to create a carefully worded mission statement that would present a public image for the organization, its products, values, priorities, markets, and services (David 2011).
A refinement step may then be done to correct less-proposed changes in wordings for the mission statement. The word choice should be able to communicate the priorities to the employees and managers concerning the manner that the organization plans to deliver the products and services (Moynihan & Landuyt 2009). The words can be chosen through experimental deletion and addition of single words into the mission statement. This approach would help to detect any changes in scope caused by the word deletion or insertion; and it would support the achievement of conciseness. The final mission statement should be able to set apart the organization’s mission from the mission of other organizations – it should be unique.
Vision Statement
A vision statement for an organization points the desired future goals that an organization wishes to attain. Such a desired future remains consistent despite a lapse in time. It presents a future reality that is yet to be recognized. An organization’s vision captures a dream for the organizational stakeholders to pursue (Kantabutra 2009). They get to think about the possibilities of achieving certain set goals and the direction that the organization will follow. Through short words, a vision statement should capture the desires for the organization in a manner that inspires, drives, and motivates the stakeholders. The employees will thus find a reason to go to work in the organization, while the shareholders will find a reason to finance the organization (Urde, 2003). A vision statement should be defined in declarative words that capture the organization’s plans in the long-term.
It is imperative that the vision statement is put forth with correctness, clarity, conciseness, courtesy, completeness, and concreteness. Any organization needs to have the vision to achieve longevity (Kantabutra 2009). The objectives of the organization are often captured concisely in the vision statement. It sets the stakeholders on the path to realize the set targets in the course of time. The employees are the most targeted group in the vision statement. They get inspired to work towards achieving the set objectives. The vision proclamation gives the overview of how the business entity will look like after some time, say five years, in the eventuality that it achieves all goals set out during inception. According to Bryson (2011), the vision statement needs to be aspirational as well as inspirational.
Creation and Communication of Vision Statements in the Organization
According to David (2011), a vision statement may also be developed through culture-specific arrangements, such as focused group discussions, shared stories. A group of people with interest in forming an organization will participate in focused group discussion to come up with unique definitions that represent the vision for their organization. Developing the vision statement is a critical part of strategic planning for the organization (Moynihan & Landuyt 2009). It involves reducing an initially compelling description of a desired organizational state into possible and realistic form and state (Bryson 2011). The organization’s strategic plan will guide the creation of an attractive corporate image that would motivate the stakeholders to work more. The vision should then be framed in clear and concise words that would be easily inferred by the employees within the organization.
Values Statement
The beliefs and predictable behavior of an organization are frequently captured in its values statement. Organizations that create and uphold their values statement create a moral guidance that can be followed by its stakeholders, especially the employees. They would rely on these morals to make decisions and create standards for evaluating individual action committed by the employees (Darbi 2012). The beliefs defined in the value statement play a role in shaping the ultimate organizational culture. The core values will then be communicated by the organization’s leadership and systemized through an internal framework (Urde, 2003).
It is important to understand that a decision by the management to create new values for the organization will not automatically make them core values. The new values must pass through rigorous phases that would create an opportunity for the stakeholders to embrace them. After the new values mature into core values, they can then be relied on to guide decision-making, attitudes, and actions. It thus takes the time to build an organization that is led by values; calling for willingness for the organizational leadership to make a long-term commitment to live up to the established values (Bryson 2011).
An organization’s core values should be molded around ideas that create a binding effect amongst all stakeholders – vendors, customers, management, and employees. Over time, the organization would develop proper ethics as part of the organization’s identity. Many stakeholders would expect the organization’s leadership to make decisions that mirror the organization’s core values. It is on this basis that the decision models for one manager in the organization will be closely similar to the actions of a different manager in the same organization.
Creation and Communication of Value Statements in the Organization
Values are the core priorities that inspire and influence members’ action within the organization (Kantabutra 2009). Core values take on an important role in shaping the organization’s culture by pointing out the elements and behavior held in high regard and those that are of less priority. Core values would allow strategic planners to create a formidable organization with remarkable longevity. People get to understand the standard terms of engagement in the business by following decisions made by the core values. Developing core values may require working in focused discussion groups to identify the core values that are acceptable and inspiring to all stakeholders in the organization (Darbi 2012). They should capture the values preferred by all stakeholders. The stakeholders may then be given a questionnaire to rank the identified values by priority. The findings should then be harmonized to remove discrepancies and arrive at a ranked list of priority values for the organization.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the main differences between mission statements and vision statements are that the mission statement may change upon different circumstances, while the vision statement will remain constant. Often, the mission statement captures more details with the aim of informing, making it longer than the vision statement that seeks to inspire directly. The mission declaration should show the business desired future state and aspirations, while the vision declaration should communicate the business purpose.
References
Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons. Available at: https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jWwpVIsx5SoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Bryson,+J.+M.+(2011).+Strategic+planning+for+public+and+nonprofit+organizations:+A+guide+to+strengthening+and+sustaining+organizational+achievement+(Vol.+1).+John+Wiley+%26+Sons.&ots=eKL4r6LuzP&sig=-wBPk_V1Vy1Pwfz9NiDtENA7NVU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Darbi, W. P. K. (2012). Of mission and vision statements and their potential impact on employee behavior and attitudes: The case of public but profit-oriented tertiary institution. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(14).
David, F. R. (2011). Strategic Management: Concepts and cases. Pearson/Prentice Hall. Available at: http://dspace.elib.ntt.edu.vn/dspace/bitstream/123456789/7604/1/Fred%20R.%20David-Strategic%20Management,%2013th%20Edition%20%20%20%20-Prentice%20Hall%20(2010).pdf
Kantabutra, S. (2009). Toward a behavioral theory of vision in organizational settings. Leadership & organization development Journal, 30(4), 319-337.Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/01437730910961667
Urde, M. (2003). Core value-based corporate brand building. European Journal of marketing, 37(7/8), 1017-1040. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdf/10.1108/03090560310477645
Moynihan, D. P., & Landuyt, N. (2009). How do public organizations learn? Bridging cultural and structural perspectives. Public Administration Review, 69(6), 1097-1105. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02067.x/full