These days any business organization, both small, medium and large, have established their own mission statements. However, the question is how useful these mission statements really are. Do they perform a useful function or are they just a trick, a marketing gimmick?
Advantages of mission statements
In fact, mission statements bring many unquestionable benefits to the business. Some of the arguments used in favor include:
1. Define the organization. By trying to condense the central purpose of a business’s existence into a few sentences, mission statements show what the business is about and what is does. Mission statements try to sum up the aim of the business in an appealing way.
2. Provide an overall sense of purpose. Mission statements inform internal and external stakeholders of the business what the central aim and vision are, and what the business aspires to be (in accordance with the vision statement). Because, they are phrased very clearly, they can be understood by all. Mission statements are limited enough to exclude certain ventures, yet at the same time broad enough to allow for growth in a creative way.
3. Distinguish the business organization from other. Some mission statements are very unique, therefore easily memorable.
4. Motivate employees. Mission statements can be motivational to all the workers by understanding where an organization is looked upon. Workers tend to prefer working in caring and friendly environments – the mission statement helps them to be associated with the positive values.
5. Guide employees’ behavior. Mission statements include moral values to be worked towards, therefore are beneficial in an employee’s behavior during worktime.
6. Help with promotion. In Public Relations (PR), mission statements provide a vision to be disseminated to the public to make stakeholder groups feel good about the organization. In advertising, company’s slogans, TV commercials or billboards are based around the theme from the mission statement.
Disadvantages of mission statements
Despite the advantages of mission statements, there are some limitations. Some of the arguments used against include:
1. Too vague and too general. Mission statements are often not concerned with any specific, measurable goals, so they say nothing or very little about the business or its future plans. Mission statements are often criticized for being too vague and for being interchangeable – could apply to any business at any time and located anywhere. Very often, several businesses in the same industry have very similar mission statements.
2. Impossible to disagree with. Mission statements of some companies are virtually impossible to really analyze because they include only positive aspects. They portray the company like it exists solely to do good things. And, who dares to question good intentions?!
3. Need to be constantly communicated. Mission statements need to be constantly communicated to many parties involved. Businesses communicate their mission statements in a number of ways – feature them in the published accounts, annual reports and marketing materials; they appear in the corporate plans of the business and internal company newsletters. To do so, it all takes effort and many hours of work which must be paid for. There is very little point in writing down the central vision for a business and then not letting anyone else know about it. It is like blinking at the girl in the dark – you know what you are doing but nobody else.
4. A Public Relations (PR) stunt. Many critics argue that mission statements are just a marketing gimmick to trick people in believing that the company is trying to do something good, while the owners just want to earn money. It is after all, the ultimate purpose of for-profit commercial businesses to maximize earnings for shareholders.
5. Not supported by all stakeholders. It is very difficult to construct a mission statement that caters for everybody in and around the business. It is always difficult to make everyone happy. Even the best thought-out mission statements might not be supported by all stakeholders making it difficult for the company to convert people’s beliefs and influence their behavior.
6. Time consuming. Constructing vision statements and mission statements can also be very time consuming as it is quite difficult, especially for very large businesses, to boil down the interests of a multi-million-dollar business with operations around the world and thousands of employees on payroll to just one or two sentences.
In summary, mission statements on their own, rather like the corporate aims on which they are based, are insufficient for operational guidelines. They tell many stakeholders what the business is doing, but they are not enough to instruct managers what decisions to make or how to manage the entire business on daily basis.
