Organisational objectives 3 On completing this chapter you should be able to: Know and understand

a. 
What role do reason, self-perception and emotion play in Hewlett-Packard’s
employees knowing what the mission of the organisation is?
b. 
How important is ‘knowing who you are’ in determining the success of an
organisation?
Effectiveness of these statements
In recent years, virtually every organisation of any size has devised a vision statement 
and a mission statement. Do they perform a useful function or are they just another 
management fad? Below are some arguments in favour of these statements:
• They quickly inform groups outside the business what the central aim and vision
are.
• They help to motivate employees, especially where an organisation is looked upon, 
as a result of its mission statement, as a caring and environmentally friendly body. 
Employees will then be associated with these positive qualities.
• Where they include ethical statements, they can help to guide and direct individual 
employee behaviour at work.
• They help to establish in the eyes of other groups ‘what the business is about’.
On the other hand, these statements are often criticised for being:
• too vague and general so that they end up saying little which is speci
fi
c about the 
business or its future plans
• based on a public relations exercise to make stakeholder groups ‘feel good’ about the 
organisation
• virtually impossible to analyse or disagree with
• rather ‘woolly’ and lacking in speci
fi
c detail, so it is common for two completely 
di
ff
erent businesses to have very similar mission statements.

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Business organisation and environment
38 
1.3
Communicating mission and vision statements is almost as important as establishing 
them. There is little point in identifying the central vision for a business and then not 
letting anyone else know about it. Businesses communicate their mission statements in 
a number of ways, for example in published accounts, communications to shareholders 
and the corporate plans of the business. Internal company newsletters and magazines 
may draw their title from part of the mission statement. Advertising slogans or posters are 
frequently based around the themes of the mission statements – The Body Shop is most 
e
ff
ective in incorporating its mission into its eco-friendly campaigns.
On their own, mission statements are insu
ffi
cient for operational guidelines. They do 
not tell managers what decisions to take or how to manage the business. Their role 
is to provide direction for the future and an overall sense of purpose, and in public 
relations terms, at least, they can prove very worthwhile. It is important that both vision 
and mission statements are applicable to the business, understood by employees and 
convertible into genuine strategic actions.