Companies are no longer the only organizations that develop mission statements; administrations, hospitals, universities, schools and associations are following. After a phase of euphoria in which true miracles were expected, mission statements have come under increasing critique for their moralizing overtones. By applying new approaches from organizational research, this book shows how the development and dissemination of mission statements can be arranged in such a way that two seemingly contradicting goals are achieved. On the one hand the management of the organization’s “display side” to the outside world can be supported, on the other hand new room can be created for the analysis of the unavoidable structural conflicts that emerge in organizations.
Innehållsförteckning
Preface—Developing Models aside from the Model of the Organization as Machine
1. What Are Mission Statements?—Introduction
1.1 Mission Statements—Canons of Values in Organizations
1.2 The Three Sides of Organization
2. Beyond the Cascade Model of Organizations
2.1 The Instrumental-Rational Model of Organization
2.2 The Loose Connection between Visions, Missions, Strategies, Measures and Practices
3. Developing Mission Statements outside of an Understanding of Organizations as Machines
3.1 Between Harmonization and Identifying Contradictory Requirements
3.2 Between Orientation towards Overarching Modes and the Specifics of an Organization
3.3 Between Ideals and Describing the World
3.4 The Same Mission Statement for Everyone, or Different Versions
3.5 Mission Statements between Central Initiation and Decentral Anchoring
4. The Relevance of the Mission Statement Process and Cultivating the Final Product—Conclusion
Bibliography