An analysis of mission statements from top companies: content and style.

Godkin, Lynn ; Valentine, Sean ; Boler, Heather 等

INTRODUCTION

Interest in the development of mission statements has intensified over the last decade (Fairhurst, Jordan, & Neuwirth, 1997; Stone, 1996). They are one of the most widely used tools in organizational development, a process that involves teaching organizational members to solve problems and to seize opportunities (Bart, 1999; French & Bell, 1995). A well-documented mission statement can enable an organization to transform broad aims into specific strategic plans and long-term objectives (Cheng, 1999; Sunoo, 1996).

Mission statements tend to positively influence the performance of organizations in several notable ways. Mission statements frame and motivate the work of individuals within the corporation by outlining and communicating explicit organizational goals and priorities (Chubb, 1990; Weiss, 1996). Communication tends to flow much more efficiently in organizations that have well written mission statements because employees share a common frame of reference (Chubb, 1990). Since communication flows more efficiently, mission statements can articulate needed values to employees, thereby prompting increased commitment and identity with the organization (Campbell & Nash, 1992; Weiss, 1996). Mission statements affirm organizational distinctiveness, outline the firm's contributions to the public, and invite external stakeholder support by encouraging shared ownership of goals. Communication of the mission can also ease the reliance on currently held sources of competitive differentiation by facilitating the procurement of new external resources (Chubb, 1990; Drucker, 1992). Since mission statements prompt organizational activity in response to environmental changes and pressures (Harvey, 1998), they must change as the environment changes, or the firm will not grow strategically (Rigby, 1998; Stone, 1996; Weiss, 1996).

A variety of issues have been considered in previous mission statement research. Some studies describe how to effectively generate the statement itself through strategic planning efforts (Stone, 1996), while others have prescribed the essential features and characteristics of the mission statement (Stone, 1996). Others have sought to identify the content of well-written mission statements from successful companies, and there are several reasons why these content analyses are needed (Abrahams, 1995; Bart, 1999; Rarick & Vitton, 1995). Generally, speaking, there is limited consensus regarding what should be stated in the mission statement itself (Bart, 1999; Rarick & Vitton, 1995). Also, mission statements often "lack clarity, relevance, salience, veridicality (truthfulness or representativeness), inspiration and/or engagement by management" (Fairhurst et al., 1997, p. 244).

Using a convenience sample of 300 mission statements, the purpose of this investigation is to describe mission statement content. The research objectives of this study include describing the average length of mission statements, highlighting their typical characteristics such as voice (passive or active) and readability, and determining the number of keywords as cited by Abrahams (1995) that appear in the mission statements sampled. Based on an assessment of current literature on mission statements, it was predicted that the mission statements sampled would be on average one to two paragraphs, be of active voice, have a high degree of readability, and be written on a high reading grade level. It was also expected that the fifteen keywords cited by Abrahams (1995) would appear frequently throughout the 300 mission statements sampled.

EFFECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT CONTENT AND STYLE

Companies compose, present and distribute their missions in many different ways. The differences become apparent when you examine the basic elements that comprise and distinguish a mission statement. One dimension of evaluation is found in the language or style with which the mission is expressed. Clarity/readability and activist tone are two dimensions of rhetorical style that have been linked to corporate results. The mission statement should be clear if the objective is to clarify goals and priorities, since it becomes the basis for shared expectancies and action plans. The mission statement needs to be action and value oriented, and should precipitate 'emotional energy' among employees by highlighting an organization's direction and leadership philosophy (Porter, 1997).

According to Stone (1996), there appears to be no standardization with regard to length of mission statements. For some companies, a single-sentence mission statement appears to be sufficient, while others generate grand, lengthy documents that begin with the basic mission but also include vision statements, values, philosophies, objectives, plans, and strategies. And still others are somewhere in between, longer than one sentence, but no longer than one page. A general 'rule of thumb' is that a mission should be long enough to reach the target audience (Abrahams, 1995). A mission statement should ultimately describe what would be accomplished in a concise and succinct manner, preferably in one to two paragraphs that are clearly written and simple to interpret. According to Drohan (1999), mission statements that are longer than 30-40 words may unnecessarily highlight topics that are usually documented in other elements of the strategic plan. A mission statement should inform organization stakeholders about the company's purpose and position in the market. To do this effectively, the statement should be adapted to a wide target audience, but should avoid the use of highly technical terminology and unfamiliar words (Drohan, 1999; Stone, 1996). Certainly, organizational values needed to carry out the firm's vision should be briefly presented. Stakeholders will more likely incorporate stated values and vision into short-range planning and daily activities (Drohan, 1999).

The tone of a mission statement is a crucial part of its makeup. "If the language used is lofty or ponderous, even the most on-target mission statement will not be taken seriously" (Drohan, 1999, p. 117). Establishing the right tone requires the deliberate choice of pointed but easily understood words that give a statement character and uniqueness. Even though the statement should be easily understood, it should speak convincingly to the target audience (Abrahams, 1995).

Many scholars and practitioners suggest that mission statements be inspirational and challenging to organizational members. They also recommend that statements be written in future tense because such language sets an agenda. Mission statements should also use first person language because this promotes employees' identification with the mission more so than third person. Finally, it is recommended that statements be written in the active voice, since this style is more likely to motivate than the passive voice. According to Porter (1997), the statement should be both active and outcome oriented.

Another dimension for evaluation is the substantive content of the mission statement. The content of the mission is usually driven by several elements such as an organization's role, the way an organization satisfies its objectives, and an organization's environmental conditions (Fawcett, 1997). According to Rarick and Vitton (1995), mission statements commonly refer to several distinct operational elements that include concern for company image, concern for quality, commitment to survivability, growth, and profitability, identity of customers and products, and statement of company philosophy. These basic elements may be expressed with keywords and phrases that set a mission statement's tone and generally highlight ideas regarding operations, key values and principles, company objectives. According to Abrahams (1995), the most often-cited words in mission statements are best, commitment, communities, customers, employees, environment, growth, leader, mission, quality, respect, service, success, team, and values.

An element that shapes mission statements is the target audience, or the select group of stakeholders for which the mission statement is intended. While some companies provide mission statements that are intended for the general public, others target the mission specifically at employees. Still others target their mission statements toward stockholders and potential investors by incorporating such communication into annual reports and other investment literature (Abrahams, 1995). Overall, the target audience has a significant impact on the length, tone, and visibility of the mission statement. Since the tone of the mission statement may vary, knowing the target audience enables the mission to be customized to the preferences of a certain focal group (Drohan, 1999).

Format influences how the mission statement is distributed to a variety of target audiences (Abrahams, 1995). The manner in which the mission is presented to stakeholders also influences how the statement may be perceived. For instance, some statements appear primarily in an organization's annual report, while others surface in other mediums so they can be easily dispersed in published brochures, booklets, and handbooks (Fairhurst, Jordan, & Neuwirth, 1997). Some companies that are formal in nature publish mission statements that can be publicly framed for display in high traffic areas (see Morris, 1997). Other companies reproduce their mission statements in small wallet-size formats for ease of distribution to employees and other interested parties (Rigby, 1998).

In summary, an exceptional mission statement expresses a firm's aim, conveys the organization's identity, and considers the organization's strategic direction. Such a statement should add meaning and stability to a company's purpose, especially when a firm must deal with transitions and instability. Besides providing such security, mission statements challenge organizations to accomplish realistic goals.

METHOD

A convenience sample of 300 corporate mission statements was taken from The Mission Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America's Top Companies (Abrahams, 1995), which considers the mission statements of 301 highly successful companies. Each statement was analyzed individually, and results from a grammatical check produced information about word, paragraph, and sentence count. The average number of sentences per paragraph, percentage of passive sentences, and statement readability, as measured with the Flesch Reading Ease percentage and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, were also calculated. The results of these analyses along with the industry classification of each statement, which provided additional interpretive information, were then coded, and descriptive statistics were produced.

The grammatical analysis of the mission statements provided valuable content information. The passive sentence analysis indicated the percentage of sentences in the document that used passive instead of active voice. Sentences in the active voice are considered more direct and, therefore, easier to understand. The Flesch Reading Ease analysis displayed statistics based on the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per 100 words (Note: Standard writing averages 17 words per sentence and 147 syllables per 100 words.). Flesch Reading Ease Level of difficulty is quantified in the following manner: 90-100 very easy, 80-90 easy, 70-80 fairly easy, 60-70 standard, 50-60 fairly difficult, 30-50 difficult, and 0-30 very difficult. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is another readability index, also based on the number of syllables per word and the number of words per sentence. The Flesch-Kincaid number specified the approximate level of education required to easily read and understand the document. A score of 7 or 8 is approximately equivalent to a Flesch Reading Ease Score of 60-70, the range for standard writing. The higher the score, the more difficult the material is to read (Alki Software Corporation, 1995-96).

RESULTS

The results of the descriptive analyses are presented in Tables 1 and 2. The shortest mission statement sampled was 3 words, and the longest was 484 words. The mean mission statement word count was 77.68 words with a standard deviation of approximately 68 words. The median number of words in the sample of mission statements was 56 words, which implies that 50% of the 300 mission statements had word counts between 3 and 56 words and 50% had between 56 and 484 words. The mode was 29 words, corresponding to 9 mission statements or 3% of the 300 statements. The shortest mission statement sampled was 1 paragraph, and the longest was 20 paragraphs. The mean paragraph count per mission statement was 2.54 paragraphs with a standard deviation of 2.72 paragraphs. The mode is 1 paragraph, corresponding to 175 mission statements or 58.3% of the 300 statements. With regard to sentence count, the mean value was 3.73 sentences with a standard deviation of 3.81 sentences. The mission statements that had the fewest number of sentences had 1, while the statements that had the most had 22 sentences. The mission statement mode was 1 sentence, corresponding to 113 mission statements or 37.7% of the 300 statements.

With regard to sentence structure and readability, 248 or 82.7 % of the 300 mission statements sampled had passive sentence percentages of zero. Therefore, the majority of the statements sampled are considered direct and easy to understand. The average mission statement sampled has a Flesch Reading Ease score of 25.17, which corresponded to very difficult reading. A frequency distribution completed on the basis of the Flesch Reading Ease Scale determined that 169 or 56.3 % of the mission statements sampled fell into the very difficult reading scale, 108 or 36 % of the mission statements sampled fell into the difficult reading scale, 11 or 3.7 % of the mission statements sampled fell into the fairly difficult reading scale, only 8 or 2.7 % fell into the standard scale, and 4 or 1.3 % fell into the fairly easy to very easy scales. The average mission statement sampled had a Flesch-Kincaid Grade level of 11.56. Of the 300 statements sampled, 235 or 78.3 % have a grade level score of 12, which confirmed that many of the mission statements were difficult to read.

Since keywords and phrases frequently set mission statement tone, word counts on the fifteen most often cited keywords identified by Abrahams (1995) were executed for the 300 mission statements sampled. The most widely used keywords included customers (310), service (308), quality (201), employees (161), values (161), mission (132), and growth (99). The least extensively used keywords included best (88), communities (63), commitment (62), environment (56), success (54), leader (42), respect (41), and team (35). The word counts comprised 8% of the total word count of the 300 mission statements sampled.

An assessment of the mission statements sampled with regard to the thirty-five industry classifications identified by Abrahams (1995) was also conducted. After carefully considering the outliers, five industries that have mission statements with average word counts above 100 can be identified, which include banking, chemicals, electronics, food and beverage, and media/printing/publishing. Four industries had the highest mission statement word count in the sample, including banking (Meridian Bancorp, Inc. 319 words), chemicals (Olin Corporation 300 words), food & beverage (Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. 484 words), and media/printing/publishing (Banta Corporation 388 words). Conversely, four industries were found with average word counts less than 50, which included advertising, agriculture, oil & gas, and real estate. All other industry word counts fell between a range of 51 to 99 words.

In addition to word count reading ease between industries was considered. It was found that 8 of the 35 industries sampled had a Flesch Reading Ease score above 30, and these industries included advertising, agriculture, business products, construction, consumer goods & services, media/printing/publishing, motor vehicle & related, and retail. As stated above, the reading ease score above 30 is still difficult reading. The other 27 industries fell on average below 30 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale, therefore indicating very difficult reading. All 35 industries had an average grade reading level of 10.07 and above, indicating an education level of tenth grade necessary to read and understand the statements.

OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the average mission statement sampled was one to two paragraphs, three to four sentences, and 78 words in length. The majority of the statements sampled were active in voice, which could easily lead to the conclusion that the missions were direct and easy to understand. However, the reading ease of the statements was found to be very difficult, and a twelfth grade reading level is necessary in order to comprehend the majority of mission statements sampled. Furthermore, the mission statements were made up of several keywords that expressed the tone and spirit of the statements, and 8% of the total word count of all the mission statements sampled were comprised of 15 of these keywords. Looking at the industry classifications, the mission statements in several industries were much lengthier and more difficult to understand than in other industries.

Analysis suggest that many successful companies rely on brief but concisely written mission statements that incorporate a preferred group of keywords that enrich the communication itself. According to Rarick and Vitton (1995), high content or enriched mission statements tend to increase the average return for firms. Unfortunately, many of the statements in the sample required a high reading level for adequate comprehension, and this raises some concerns regarding effectiveness. If stakeholders cannot completely understand the mission statement, the mission will tend to lose its effectiveness and credibility. There is already a perception among many managers and scholars that mission statements are not as essential as many organizational leaders have implied in the past (Goett, 1997; O'Gorman & Doran, 1999). Even if the stakeholders understand the message, wispy statements of lofty goals that do not communicate the company's genuine purpose are not usable.

Based on the results, strategic planners must remember to target their stakeholders when writing mission statements instead of their fellow managers and coworkers. The mission must articulately convey the company's purpose, direction, and aim, but it must do so in a competent manner using language and terminology that is familiar to the target audience. With regard to word choice, using the enriched vocabulary highlighted by Abraham (1995) appears to enhance mission statement effectiveness, especially since many of these words are utilized throughout many business literatures. Clearly, establishing the correct resonance requires a careful selection of widely used words that convey a specific identity, character, or value. However, Abraham's (1995) list of key terms is by no means comprehensive, and other words that reflect new trends in business and organizational management should be incorporated. For instance, Rarick and Vitton (1995) found that few companies mention diversity in their mission statements. Global trade, diversity, business ethics, social responsibility, and information technology are all vital sources of competitive differentiation and strategic advantage in today's business environment, and these concepts deserve more attention in mission statements.

Some recommendations for future study include tying the variables examined in this study to company performance and analyzing mission statements from certain industries for content and clarity. These analyses would aid in the development of industry-specific recommendations regarding what enriched words should be used to enhance organizational achievement.

IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATORS

Analyzing the content of mission statements is a productive endeavor that deserves richer attention in class. Since such statements provide valuable insight into strategic planning, for example, much can be learned from mission statements that are used by successful companies. Consideration of the Mission Statement in the context of case analysis might be considered in light of these findings.

REFERENCES

Abrahams, J. (1995). The mission statement book: 301 corporate mission statements from America's top companies. Ten Speed Press.

Alki Software Corporation (1995-96). Word Info: Readability Statistics dialog box. http://www.wordinfo.com/how_to/dialogs/Mwdialog00000328.html. (6/21/99).

Bart, C. K. (1999). Mission statement content and hospital performance in the Canadian not-for-profit health care sector. Health Care Management Review, 24(3), 18-29.

Campbell, A. & Nash, L. L. (1992). A sense of mission. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

Cheng, K. (1999). The seven strategies of effective business. Industrial Management, 41(3), 6-8.

Chubb, J. (1990). Communication effectiveness of organizational mission statements. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 14, 108-118.

Drohan, W. (1999). Writing a mission statement. Association Management, 51(1), 117-121.

Drucker, P. F. (1974). Management: Task, responsibilities, practices. New York: Harper & Row.

Fairhurst, G. T., Jordan, J. M., Neuwirth, K. (1997). Why are we here? Managing the meaning of an organizational mission statement. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 25, 243, 263.

Fawcett, S. (1997). Proclaiming your dream: Developing vision and mission statements. New York: Doubleday Press.

French, W. L. & Bell, C. H., Jr. (1995). Organizational development. (5th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Goett, P. (1997). Mission impossible. Journal of Business Strategy, 18(1), 2.

Harvey, S. J. (1998). A practical approach to stating your mission. Management Review, 87, F1, 3. Morris, B. (1997). Understanding the mission statement. Baylor Business Review, 15(1), 8-9.

O'Gorman, C. & Doran, R. (1999). Mission statements in small and medium-sized businesses. Journal of Small Business Management, 37(4), 59-66.

Porter, M. (1997). Mission statement is a valuable marketing tool. Contractor, 44(11), 38-40.

Rarick, C. A. & Vitton, J. (1995). Mission statements make cents. Journal of Business Strategy, 16(1), 11-12.

Rigby, R. (1998, March). Mission statements. Management Today, 56-58.

Stone, R. A. (1996, Winter). Mission statements revisited. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 3137.

Sunoo, B. (1996). Weighing the merits of vision and mission statements. Personnel Journal, 75(4), 158-160.

Weiss, J. (1996). The value of mission statements in public agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 9(2), 193-222.

Lynn Godkin, Lamar University

Sean Valentine, University of Wyoming

Heather Boler, Christus Health

Tahwanda Lambert, Jefferson County, Texas

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics

Variable Mean S.D. Median

Word Count 77.68 68.00 56
Paragraph Count 2.54 2.72 1
Sentence Count 3.73 3.81 2
Passive Sentence Percentage 3.90 10.82 0
Flesch Reading Ease 25.17 18.32 24.5
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 11.56 1.28 12

Variable Mode Minimum Maximum

Word Count 29 3 484
Paragraph Count 1 1 20
Sentence Count 1 1 22
Passive Sentence Percentage 0 0 100
Flesch Reading Ease 0 0 100
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 12 .6 12

Table 2

Reading Range

Range Frequency Valid Percent

0-30 169 56.3
30-50 108 36.0
50-60 11 3.7
60-70 8 2.7
70-80 2 0.7
80-90 1 0.3
90-100 1 0.3