No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Innovation, Mission Statements and Learning
Abstract
In the current study, we surveyed 339 firms to determine the linkages among firm innovativeness, company mission, employee commitment and selected organisational learning practices. Our results demonstrated that significant relationships do indeed exist between the variables studied. The results suggest especially the kinds of practices that company executives need to follow if they are serious about getting the maximum benefits that their mission statements have to offer in terms of enhanced innovativeness. The findings also indicate that mission statements, without appropriate learning on the part of employees, may be just a waste of valuable management time.
... In a similar vein, such behaviour implies, to some extent a sense of loyalty and commitment in relation to the organization's mission. This is in line with extant research in which the link between mission and organizational member behaviour has been generally supported (Bart et al., 2001;Bart, 2004). In this regard, previous studies have examined the way in which various mission-related constructs were actually related with employee behaviour (Bart, 1998;Bart & Baetz, 1998) and their commitment to the mission (Bart et al., 2001). ...
... Similarly, mission statements have an important influence on goal congruence between the organization and its employees (Collins & Porras, 1996). However, despite the generally recognized importance of mission statements to organizations' success, the relationship between mission statements and member behaviour remains largely unexplored (Bart, 2004). Furthermore, previous studies have examined this relationship by assessing the extent to which an employee is committed to the mission, which is different to considering the degree of employee commitment to the organization. ...
... Baetz and Bart (1996) a Bart (2004) a Bolon (2005) b Bart and Hupfer (2004) b Verma (2010) c Sattari et al. (2011) a Baetz and Bart (1996) Richman and Wright (1994) b ; Bart and Hupfer (2004) Bart (2007) b ; Palmer and Short (2008) c ; Weiss and Piderit (1999) c Bart and Tabone (1998) b Bart and Tabone (1999) b Bart and Tabone (2000) ...
The interest among both academics and practitioners in the mission statement has given rise to a large body of research that has attempted to determine the core elements that a successful mission statement need to incorporate in order to produce sounding outcomes. Such efforts have however, resulted in contradictory evidence regarding the link between mission statement and organisational performance. Against this backdrop, the present study examines the role of organisational commitment in explaining and clarifying the mission-performance link. The study provides evidence that the relationship between mission statement and organisational performance is better understood if taken into account the influence of organisational commitment which proved to act as a mediator variable in the aforementioned relationship. The article concludes by suggesting several avenues to further research.
... In a similar vein, such behaviour implies, to some extent a sense of loyalty and commitment in relation to the organization's mission. This is in line with extant research in which the link between mission and organizational member behaviour has been generally supported (Bart et al., 2001;Bart, 2004). In this regard, previous studies have examined the way in which various mission-related constructs were actually related with employee behaviour (Bart, 1998;Bart & Baetz, 1998) and their commitment to the mission (Bart et al., 2001). ...
... Similarly, mission statements have an important influence on goal congruence between the organization and its employees (Collins & Porras, 1996). However, despite the generally recognized importance of mission statements to organizations' success, the relationship between mission statements and member behaviour remains largely unexplored (Bart, 2004). Furthermore, previous studies have examined this relationship by assessing the extent to which an employee is committed to the mission, which is different to considering the degree of employee commitment to the organization. ...
... Baetz and Bart (1996) a Bart (2004) a Bolon (2005) b Bart and Hupfer (2004) b Verma (2010) c Sattari et al. (2011) a Baetz and Bart (1996) Richman and Wright (1994) b ; Bart and Hupfer (2004) Bart (2007) b ; Palmer and Short (2008) c ; Weiss and Piderit (1999) c Bart and Tabone (1998) b Bart and Tabone (1999) b Bart and Tabone (2000) ...
Although mission statements are widely adopted as an important strategic tool, their effective influence on organizational performance are not firmly established due to a lack of consistent results in relevant literature. To shed light on this relationship, the present study proposes a model to examine the mediating role of organizational commitment in explaining and clarifying the mission-performance link. Another merit of this paper is to consider mission as a formative construct.Adopting a quantitative methodological approach, this study reports findings obtained from a representative sample of 112 non-profit health care organizations operating in Portugal. Our findings clearly demonstrate that the relationship between mission statements and organizational performance is better understood if the influence of organizational commitment, as a mediating variable of the aforementioned relationship, is taken into account. This study concludes by discussing conceptual contributions, limitations and possible future research avenues.
... In a study of 339 organizations, Bart (2004) measured firm-level innovation by asking respondents to indicate: ...
... Perceived innovativeness that the present study measures is similar to Bart's (2004) measure of firm-level innovation. The variable measures employee perceptions of how innovative they consider their organization is, the extent to which activities and processes in their organization are positive and facilitative of innovations, and the organization's approach towards innovations. ...
... In a study of 339 organizations, Bart (2004) measured firm-level innovation by asking respondents to indicate: ...
... Perceived innovativeness that the present study measures is similar to Bart's (2004) measure of firm-level innovation. The variable measures employee perceptions of how innovative they consider their organization is, the extent to which activities and processes in their organization are positive and facilitative of innovations, and the organization's approach towards innovations. ...
This paper explores the linkage between R&D spillovers and productivity for a sample of Indian manufacturing firms for the period 2001- 2012. The R&D spillovers is defined as the function of R&D (R&D, royalty and technical know-how) and information and communication technology (ICT). We consider two measures of productivity, namely total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity for analysis. Our results show that ICT, R&D and technical know-how impact TFP. For labor productivity, our results demonstrate
that firms that are engaged in ICT and invest in technical know how, are more productive than others. Thus, Indian manufacturing firms need to invest in information and communication technology, R&D and technical know-how to enhance their productivity. There are strong linkages among ICT, R&D, technical know-how and productivity
... In a study of 339 organizations, Bart (2004) measured firm-level innovation by asking respondents to indicate: ...
... Perceived innovativeness that the present study measures is similar to Bart's (2004) measure of firm-level innovation. The variable measures employee perceptions of how innovative they consider their organization is, the extent to which activities and processes in their organization are positive and facilitative of innovations, and the organization's approach towards innovations. ...
This paper assesses the role of
trade unions in economic reforms
in India. The study looks at labor
market reforms as the area
of negotiation and conflict to
determine the role of trade unions
in reforms. The paper argues that
the importance of trade union as
an interest group impeding reform
is overstated. In fact all
available evidence points to the
failure of trade unions to protect
the interests of organized sector
leading to emaciated labor. What
is conceived as union strength is
actually partisan political dynamics
operating through the
unions. It is not the independent
strength of trade union but the
location in wider politics that
determines its relevance in reform
process.
... In a study of 339 organizations, Bart (2004) measured firm-level innovation by asking respondents to indicate: ...
... Perceived innovativeness that the present study measures is similar to Bart's (2004) measure of firm-level innovation. The variable measures employee perceptions of how innovative they consider their organization is, the extent to which activities and processes in their organization are positive and facilitative of innovations, and the organization's approach towards innovations. ...
... In a study of 339 organizations, Bart (2004) measured firm-level innovation on a 10-point rating scale by asking respondents to indicate: l How innovative they perceived their organization to be. l How important innovation was to their organization. ...
... The concept of perceived innovation that the present study measures is similar to Bart's (2004) measure of firm-level innovation. There is almost no other evidence available in documented form which studies similar variables, hence, it maybe considered as a relatively new variable in innovation literature. ...
Studies have emphasised that expatriates’
leadership style plays
a pivotal role. It has been considered
as a prime criterion to be
successful and effective in the
host country. This study has examined
twenty-five Japanese and
Twenty-three American expats in
India focusing on their leadership
styles. In order to determine
the leadership styles of these managers
from altogether different
countries the study has investigated
ten leadership components.
Furthermore, these results were
analysed to identify the differences
and similarities. Statistical
tests revealed that there were significant
differences on four leadership
components out of ten and
the remaining six leadership components
had non-significant differences.
The study also sheds
light on the implications for expatriates,
with regard to leadership
effectiveness.
... 2009. su importante papel, es el establecimiento de la misión de la empresa (BART, 2004). La misión es parte de la estrategia y ha sido identificada como la herramienta más conocida del mundo de las empresas. ...
... Además, una estructura más descentralizada para la toma de decisiones, recursos organizacionales puestos a favor de la innovación y la creencia en la importancia de la innovación son determinantes y cuando son estimulados, impulsan una empresa hacia la innovación (WAN; ONG; LEE, 2005). Además, la literatura también constata una relación directa entre innovación y el pensamiento estratégico, pues cuando éste es estimulado y practicado, genera un ambiente de mayor flexibilidad y consecuentemente de mayor creatividad, y capaz de concretarse en nuevos productos o procesos (BART, 2004; QUINN, 1993) 1988). Así, si la misión especifica claramente la innovación como un objetivo final de la empresa que se transmite intensamente a todos los niveles, sumado a una estructura organizativa proclive a lograrlo, el resultado de convertirse en una empresa más innovadora será más eficazmente alcanzado (BART, 2004). ...
Brasil] Resumen Este trabajo se propone a analizar los vínculos entre innovación y estrategia, a partir de la idea de que la innovación es consecuencia de un pensamiento estratégico, trasladado a toda la organización a través de la misión. A través de una revisión bibliográfica y análisis de estudios empíricos publicados recientemente, se buscó la respuesta a las cuestiones: ¿Qué comportamientos estratégicos favorecen la innovación? ¿Qué factores son determinantes y llevan a una empresa a la búsqueda de la innovación? ¿Qué relaciones se establecen entre el pensamiento estratégico, la creatividad y la innovación? Se encontró que hay comportamientos estratégicos que conducen hacia un entorno que favorece la innovación y factores relacionados con actitudes flexibles, de aceptación de nuevas ideas, que favorecen la creatividad, la apertura hacia los cambios del entorno. Estos comportamientos estratégicos caracterizan la relación existente entre el pensamiento estratégico, la estrategia, la creatividad y la innovación como consecuencia. Palabras clave: Innovación, pensamiento estratégico, estrategia,reatividad.
... A consensus is yet to be reached amongst authors and managers as to the exact meaning and use of mission and mission statements. Fundamentally mission statements define either explicitly or implicitly the organization's purpose (Drucker, 1973;Hill and Jones, 2001;Bart, 2004;Bart et al., 2001;Gibson et al., 1990). Mission statements are supposed to capture the overriding purpose of an organization in line with the values and expectations of stakeholders and should typically answer the simple questions: "what business are we in?" or "why do we exist?" ...
... Bart and Baetz (1998) also documented significant performance differences between organizations with "satisfactory" versus "non satisfactory" mission statements. Indeed most recent investigations (Bart, 2002(Bart, , 2004Bart and Hupfer, 2004;Sufi and Lyons, 2003;Wheelan and Hunger, 1998) support the position that mission statements get results. The body of research thus far that support High-performing organizations in Ghana the correlation between mission statement components and firm performance are compelling, moreover depending on the measures of performance studied a case can always be made for the existence of some relationship inferring from evidence from the literature. ...
Purpose
High performing firms have been associated with “quality” mission statements defined by the choice of components. In an attempt to extend our knowledge in order to give more legitimacy to these claims and also provide more local and relevant reference for Ghana‐based firms, the purpose of this paper is to investigate, through a component analysis, how high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define their mission.
Design/methodology/approach
Mission statements of 50 of the Ghana Club 100 firms, primarily extracted from the official web sites, Initial Public Offer prospectuses and annual reports of the firms, were subjected to content analysis which evaluated and scored the mission statements based on the occurrence of 20 specific components.
Findings
The paper found that high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define missions to include components that the literature uses to measure quality; and these are similar to those of the UK, Canada and Ireland. Based on the ranking of the components, three categories were identified: the imperatives, the highlights, and the adjuncts.
Research limitations/implications
The paper lumped together all firms irrespective of industry or sector. There is, therefore, the need to conduct further research to identify possible industry or sectoral differences, for better insight and relevance.
Practical implications
Ideas generated in this paper provide a guide to practitioners and firms regarding how they can develop mission statements, drawing on experiences of high‐performing Ghana‐based firms.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to study how high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define their mission and hence is a major contribution to the scarce if not non‐existent Africa‐specific studies. It also provides a more prescriptive approach to crafting mission statements by proposing hierarchies of the components of mission statements.
... The findings of this study suggest possible issues in the communication of mission statements and implications for sport psychology organizations are discussed. Living in a highly competitive and ever-changing world that is driven by knowledge (Bart, 2004), organizations must continuously find ways to direct and enhance the performance of their members. Organizations employ a number of tools and techniques for strategic organizational planning and among these, the mission statement has been and continues to be one of the most widely used (Bart & Hupfer, 2004). ...
... Research has shown that members knowledgeable of their organization's mission statement are more motivated towards achieving an organization's purpose and are more disposed to embrace an organization's values and goals as their own (Bart & Baetz, 1998). Without appropriate levels of knowledge, mission statements might just be a misuse of administrators' time and effort (Bart, 2004). The results of this study have implications for sport psychology organizations. ...
Mission statements are widely employed as a tool for strategic organizational
planning. In sport, various types of organizations utilize their mission statements to
communicate objectives that range from the development of responsible citizens to the
importance of establishing professional standards of ethical practice for members.
Research has shown that a mission statement’s usefulness is related to organizational
members’ knowledge of it. In sport, it is not known if mission statements and the ethical
messages they convey are effectively disseminated from those who develop them to the
practitioners who implement them (e.g., coaches, athletes, sport psychologists, mental
trainers). Therefore, using a case study approach, the purpose of this study was to trace
the process of how one academic institution’s mission statement was communicated to
and understood by sport stakeholders. Results indicated that administrators were
knowledgeable of the school’s mission statement and that many coaches were at least
familiar with the mission statement whereas parents and athletes reported very little or no
knowledge. The findings of this study suggest possible issues in the communication of
mission statements and implications for sport psychology organizations are discussed.
... In a similar vein, such behaviour implies, to some extent a sense of loyalty and commitment in relation to the organization's mission. This is in line with extant research in which the link between mission and organizational member behaviour has been generally supported ( Bart et al., 2001;Bart, 2004). In this regard, previous studies have examined the way in which various mission-related constructs were actually related with employee behaviour Bart & Baetz, 1998) and their commitment to the mission ( Bart et al., 2001). ...
... Similarly, mission statements have an important influence on goal congru- ence between the organization and its employees (Collins & Porras, 1996). However, despite the generally recognized importance of mission statements to organizations' success, the relationship be- tween mission statements and member behaviour remains largely unexplored (Bart, 2004). Furthermore, previous studies have examined this relationship by assessing the extent to which an employee is committed to the mission, which is different to considering the degree of employee commitment to the organiza- tion. ...
... By reviewing the literature, the authors can conclude that few research papers considered the role of strategic management process as an enabler to organizational ambidexterity. A few number of previous studies focus on the relation between mission statement and innovation rather than achieving organizational ambidexterity (Bart, 2000;2002;2004;Mahama and sausa, 2019). While many studies recommended empirically examining the relationship between mission fulfillment and ambidexterity (Wang & Rafiq, 2014;Palm & Lilja, 2017;Vario, 2017). ...
... Bart and Baetz (1998) found that mission statements articulating organizational values and purposes are associated with improved performance, but those specifying particular financial objectives are not. More importantly, studies have found that an organization's commitment to its mission is essential for the statement to be effective (Mullane, 2002), particularly for fostering innovation (Bart, 2004). ...
This paper extends James March’s pioneering work on exploitation and exploration with respect to Confucian thought. Contrary to the conventional, rational approach that assume a paradoxical relationship between exploitation and exploration, we suggest the possibility of a mutually beneficial relationship by highlighting some features of Confucian thought based on the ontological, epistemological, and axiological foundations of the Confucian program of learning: the li-qi philosophy, the alternation of yin and yang, the penetration into the ultimate principle through seriousness and sincerity, and the morality of learning. We argue that the rational approach may lead to pursuing a superficial balance between exploitation and exploration, whereas a Confucian approach promotes substantive learning in the pursuit of fulfilling one’s mission with seriousness and sincerity, during which exploitation and exploration spontaneously reach a dynamic balance by alternating with each other. We provide implications for innovation by illustrating two cases—Apple and AmorePacific—and discuss some intriguing points derived from our Confucian approach in order to stimulate new ideas for future research on organizational learning and innovation.
... O mundo vive a era da inovação (BART, 2004). A importância do tema, nos últimos anos, é evidenciada por muitos autores que vêm estudando o assunto, tornando seu conceito mais extenso e complexo (SCHUMPETER, 1911(SCHUMPETER, , 1982DOSI, 1982;ANGLE, 1989;DAMANPOUR, 1991;ROTHWELL, 1994;AFUAH, 2003;TIDD;BESSANT;PAVITT, 2005;HAMEL, 2006). ...
A utilização das redes sociais na análise da produção científica permite a observação de aspectos interdisciplinares decorrentes da colaboração dos pesquisadores, além de proporcionar a análise e estruturação de um dado campo do conhecimento. Este estudo insere-se no âmbito das pesquisas que visam compreender as redes sociais no campo da produção científica na área de inovação, pretendendo quantificar a troca de informações para a construção do conhecimento. O estudo tem como objetivo identificar a formação de redes sociais na produção científica de inovação no período de 2006 a 2012, nos periódicos Qualis Capes de alto impacto (A1, A2, B1 e B2) do Brasil. A pesquisa é considerada descritiva, com método quantitativo e de caráter documental. Foram encontrados 678 autores, que representam os “nós” que, juntos, produziram 1.607 relações entre si (chamadas de “laços”) de 459.006 laços possíveis, indicando uma rede social formada por laços fracos, fragmentada, com a existência de 133 subgrupos e de baixa densidade. Os autores intermediários, considerados os mais importantes em uma rede social, pois por meio deles um ator interage entre atores não adjacentes, compuseram-se pelos pesquisadores VACCARO G. L. R. e BITENCOURT M. P. Juntos, esses autores conectam uma rede formada por outros nove pesquisadores, a maior possível.
... Por lo tanto, la organización debe desarrollar ciertas habilidades que le permitan detectar y aprovechar oportunidades en el mercado. Es responsabilidad de la administración alentar y respaldar la innovación como parte de la misión de la compañía (Kohl et al., 2015, Bart, 2004. ...
Spain is the country, in 2015, with the largest area of vineyards in the world, with nearly one million hectares, production in Spain isa round 38 million hectolitres and consumption over 10 million hectolitres, which has prompted wineries to seek new markets and increase their competitiveness. The objective of this work is to analyze the factors that define competitiveness through the optics of resources and capabilities, strategies, and business performance, between independent wineries and those belonging to business groups.
The survey was conducted by all Spanish wineries, obtaining 339 valid answers. The analysis was performed using logistic regression. The results show that the independent companies and those belonging to groups, have different strengths in relation to resources and capabilities.
Not all strategic typologies are related to competitive advantage. And the fact that a
winery is independent or part of a group does not explain its competitive advantage.
... O mundo vive a era da inovação (BART, 2004). A importância do tema, nos últimos anos, é evidenciada por muitos autores que vêm estudando o assunto, tornando seu conceito mais extenso e complexo (SCHUMPETER, 1911(SCHUMPETER, , 1982DOSI, 1982;ANGLE, 1989;DAMANPOUR, 1991;ROTHWELL, 1994;AFUAH, 2003;TIDD;BESSANT;PAVITT, 2005;HAMEL, 2006). ...
The use of social networks in the analysis of scientific literature allows the observation of interdisciplinary aspects arising from the collaboration of researchers and provide the analysis and structuring
of a given field of knowledge. This study falls within the scope of research aimed at understanding the social networks in the field of scientific innovation in the area, aiming to quantify the exchange of information for the construction of knowledge. The study aims to identify the formation of social networks in the production of scientific innovation in the period 2006-2012 the Qualis CAPES journals of high impact (A1, A2, B1 and B2) of Brazil. The research is considered descriptive, with the quantitative method and documentary character. It was found 678 authors, representing the “nodes” that together produced 1.607 relations between them, called “ties” of 459.006 possible bond, indicating a social network composed of weak ties, fragmented, with the existence of 133 and low subgroups density. The intermediaries authors, considered the most important in a social network, for through them an actor interacts between non-adjacent actors, was formed by researchers VACCARO G. L. R. and BITENCOURT M. P., connecting a network of other researchers 9, the highest possible
... 2009. su importante papel, es el establecimiento de la misión de la empresa (BART, 2004). La misión es parte de la estrategia y ha sido identificada como la herramienta más conocida del mundo de las empresas. ...
Este trabajo se propone a analizar los vínculos entre innovación y estrategia, a partir de la convicción que la innovación es consecuencia de un pensamiento estratégico, trasladado a toda la organización a través de la misión. A través de una revisión bibliográfica y análisis de estudios empíricos publicados recientemente, se buscó la respuesta a las cuestiones: ¿Qué comportamientos estratégicos favorecen la innovación? ¿Qué factores son determinantes y llevan a una empresa a la búsqueda de la innovación? ¿Qué relaciones se establecen entre el pensamiento estratégico, la creatividad y la innovación? Se encontró que hay comportamientos estratégicos que conducen hacia un entorno que favorece la innovación y factores relacionados con actitudes flexibles, de aceptación de nuevas ideas, que favorecen la creatividad, la apertura hacia los cambios del entorno. Estos comportamientos estratégicos caracterizan la relación existente entre el pensamiento estratégico, la estrategia, la creatividad y la innovación como consecuencia.
... The numerous practitioners as well as academic publications involved in a study of innovation illustrate the prominence of this area. The importance placed on innovation manifests in the common practice of research and development departments and even the incorporation of innovation in organization missions (Bart, 2004). While entrepreneurship research often focuses on innovation and creativity, little is known about how small business leaders create an environment that enhances innovation. ...
Innovation is a fundamental requisite for small firms to achieve long-term viability. While relevant literature highlights the importance of leadership within small firms in order to establish and foster a climate conducive for innovation, evidence linking specific leadership attributes with innovation is lacking. This study examines the impact of the individual entrepreneur on fostering new product innovation within firms. An analysis of the responses collected from entrepreneurs indicates that leadership style, negotiation style and organizational efficacy each affect new product innovation. Specifically, we find evidence to support the idea that small business leaders who are inspirational, who negotiate competitively, and who lead efficacious organizations establish environments that are more likely to yield new product innovations.
... In fact, several studies have generally supported the relationship between an organisation's mission and the behaviour of its members (Bart, 1996a, Bart, 1997Bart and Baetz, 1998). However, despite their generally recognised importance to firm success, the exact nature of the relationship between mission statements and member behaviour remains largely unexplored (Bart, 2004). Furthermore, previous studies have examined this relationship by assessing the extent to which an employee is committed to the mission, which is different from considering the degree of employee commitment to the organisation. ...
Neuromarketing is the new way to understand the consumer and how and why he/she behaves in such ways; or purchases specific products, and brands; or why he/she buys two different kinds of products. The managers believe that they will reach certain results, thanks to this technique. Nevertheless, how these studies are perceived by consumers and consumers’ desires to take part in these kinds of researches become very significant from the ethical point of view. This study aims to understand the attitude of the Turkish consumer towards the research, made with fMRI method for neuromarketing. Suited to this aim, neuromarketing with fMRI technique has been considered with other marketing research techniques and the attitude that Turkish consumers developed towards research techniques has been tried to be brought to light. At the same time, opinions and attitudes of the consumers about the future of neuromarketing has been tried to be brought up.
... In other words, academic mission statements are becoming a variation of the theme 'helping to drive innovation,' an increasingly common rhetorical resource in contemporary mission statements (Bart 2005). In spite of the effort to insert disruption and innovation into business and academic culture (Nederveen Pieterse 2010, 402ff), it tends to overlook the fact that preservation of the plurality of views and missions of academia is important for it to be able to accomplish the necessary differentiation from other institutions in society. ...
In the following article we aim to sketch the classical notion of Bildung (liberal education) in contrast to Ausbildung (formal education, schooling). To begin, we will exemplify this tension with the help of some central thoughts in the Continental tradition where von Humboldt, Fichte and Schleiermacher describe how the university should be organised and structured.
... However Damanpour (1996) later added that innovation maybe 'industry-specific' or 'organizational-specific' and this presents the case for different strategic purposes for innovation. Further, it would seem that the mission and purpose of first the organization and second the innovation strategy are the fundamental precursors to the development of an innovation capacity (Bart 2004). In attempting an evaluative analysis of innovative capacity there perhaps should be consideration for the starting points, determining what it is that is required and what constraints are imposed by the leadership and environmental factors. ...
... These results differ from those of who conducted a case study of one high school and found that administrators simply assumed that athletes and their parents were knowledgeable of the mission of school sport. As Bart (2004) stated, administrators must communicate the purpose of their programs given that the usefulness of organisational statements is contingent on stakeholders" awareness of them. Past research has also discussed the influence of consistent and prolonged involvement in organised activities. ...
... These organizational documents have been touted in organization studies for aligning institutional resources and endeavours. There is evidence that such literature has been engaged in the study of innovation (e.g., Bart 2004), but no studies of which we know have explicitly attempted to discover how innovation is understood and employed by libraries. Our efforts were not completely fruitless. ...
Though innovation is a popular theme of LIS literature, its specific meaning for libraries remains obscure. Clarifying the implicit definition of innovation in librarianship can facilitate a more meaningful use of the term. To do so, we employ a ground-up exploration of innovation through the white literature in conjunction with a detailed survey of website features, of 160 libraries across the United States and Canada.
L'innovation dans les bibliothèques publiques et académiques en Amérique du Nord :examen de la littérature blanche (livres et périodiques) et des applications pour sites web
Résumé : Bien que l'innovation soit un thème populaire dans la littérature en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l'information, le sens spécifique du terme dans le contexte d'une bibliothèque demeure obscur. Essayer de clarifier la définition implicite de l'innovation en bibliothéconomie peut permettre un usage plus prégnant du terme. Pour y parvenir, nous entreprenons une exploration à partir de la base de l'innovation dans la littérature blanche (livres et périodiques publiés), et nous y joignons une enquête détaillée des fonctionnalités de sites web dans 160 bibliothèques aux É tats-Unis et au Canada. Mots-clés : discours sur l'innovation, documents publics de bibliothèques, fonctionnalités des sites web de bibliothèques, analyse de contenu, enquête Introduction
... These results differ from those of , who found that high school administrators simply assumed that athletes and their parents were knowledgeable of the school's mission. As Bart (2004) stated, administrators must communicate their program's purpose given that the usefulness of organizational statements is contingent on stakeholders' awareness of them. Researchers have also discussed the influence of consistent and prolonged involvement in organized activities. ...
A case study of a high school ice hockey program designed to teach players life skills and values was conducted to understand, from the perspective of administrators, coaches, parents, and players, the strengths and challenges of the program. Results indicated that the program’s strengths lied in its comprehensive approach to teaching life skills and values in addition to coaches’ ability to foster relationship with players. However, program members also faced many challenges related to traveling, a lack of resources, and conflicting goals. Results are discussed using the Petitpas et al. (2005) framework and the youth development through sport literature.
... These organizational documents have been touted in organization studies for aligning institutional resources and endeavours. There is evidence that such literature has been engaged in the study of innovation (e.g., Bart 2004), but no studies of which we know have explicitly attempted to discover how innovation is understood and employed by libraries. ...
:Though innovation is a popular theme of LIS literature, its specific meaning for libraries remains obscure. Clarifying the implicit definition of innovation in librarianship can facilitate a more meaningful use of the term. To do so, we employ a ground-up exploration of innovation through the white literature in conjunction with a detailed survey of website features, of 160 libraries across the United States and Canada.Résumé:Bien que l'innovation soit un thème populaire dans la littérature en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l'information, le sens spécifique du terme dans le contexte d'une bibliothèque demeure obscur. Essayer de clarifier la définition implicite de l'innovation en bibliothéconomie peut permettre un usage plus prégnant du terme. Pour y parvenir, nous entreprenons une exploration à partir de la base de l'innovation dans la littérature blanche (livres et périodiques publiés), et nous y joignons une enquête détaillée des fonctionnalités de sites web dans 160 bibliothèques aux États-Unis et au Canada.
... Mission statements also codify the organization's foundational values for a variety of stakeholders -investors, communities, suppliers, regulators, and current and prospective employees (Bartkus et al., 2000;Leuthesser and Kohli, 1997). As an isolated artefact, a mission statement is impotent (Bart, 2004;Piercy, 1997), but when well-constructed, disseminated, heeded, and enabled with resources, mission statements can be linked with superior financial performance (Atrill et al., 2005;Sidhu, 2003). Campbell and Yeung (1991) identify two major schools of thought on mission statements. ...
Purpose
The paper sets out to observe the absorption of strategic management practice in a leading Central and East European (CEE) economy, and to provide insight into institutional differences influencing the content of mission statements.
Design/methodology/approach
The content of mission statements from large Slovene enterprises is compared with research on US mission statements.
Findings
Mission statements in Slovene firms tend to emphasize customers, shareholders, and strategic suppliers significantly less often than do US firms. Corporate reputation, customer‐market scope and quality are also mentioned significantly less often in Slovene statements. Although some gaps between the theoretical ideal and corporate practice may exist in both settings, many differences may be explained by macroeconomic volatility, industry structure, and institutional environments.
Research limitations/implications
Although the Slovene sample size is smaller than comparable US studies, it is an equivalent sample of the two nations' largest firms. The time difference between the Slovene and US samples is not a critical issue in this study since it mimics the time delay between the behaviour of the US firms and the subsequent behaviour of Slovene firms in writing mission statements.
Practical implications
The conclusions can help managers in US multinational firms to better understand some implicit differences in understanding organisations and their relationships with the business and social environment when they do business with firms from CEE.
Originality/value
The paper presents what are differences between Slovene and American companies regarding mission statements content and stakeholders involved and it gives some possible explanations for them based on cultural and historical differences.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the intellectual connections of mission statement research to identify the influential domains of source knowledge and emergent areas of research for future studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors deployed bibliometric methods, namely, citation, co-citation and network analysis. The authors collected data from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and analyzed the connections of the most influential articles.
Findings
The authors identified four knowledge domains that informed the mission statements literature: guidance on mission statement development, the value of mission statements, mission statements and organizational issues, mission statement content and communication. And the authors spotted four opportunities for knowledge advancement based on theoretical frameworks, performance measures, content and context.
Practical implications
Practitioners should think beyond the immediate benefits of mission statements, such as performance and legitimacy improvement. Instead, they should focus on long-term benefits, information advantages and democratizing the development phase of mission statements.
Originality/value
Mission statements have attracted scholarly attention over the past 40 years. Despite the formation of a considerable body of knowledge, intellectual connections of mission statement research have been largely neglected. Previous studies had a narrow focus or insufficient coverage of the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first full-scale bibliometric study on the intellectual connections of the mission statements literature.
The perception of an organization is largely based on its identity, which determines how it is expected to act. Yet, digital technology often creates situations where organizations experience conflicting demands from different stakeholders. Over time, organizations are therefore forced to take actions that may not be consistent with their identity and mission, and must find ways to pursue multiple - sometimes conflicting - goals simultaneously. Our study examines how organizations frame their identity and discusses how different framings may help addressing different needs while remaining consistent with the initial identity. Our findings allow us to contribute to extant literature by: (1) Identifying differences in the framing of organizational identities with regard to focus on Purpose, Strategic Boundaries, Value Propositions, and Value Statements. (2) Discussing the implications of our findings for the current literature dealing with the "identity-challenging" nature of digital technology. (3) Outlining promising research questions for future research.
The mission statements of companies reflect the characteristics of their country. There are differences in the content of mission statements between traditional and innovative companies. The sustainable growth of companies has recently become a major focus, and it has been found that mission statements are somewhat related to company innovation. This study analyzed the differences in the readability, keywords, and orientation of mission statements between the top 100 Korean and top 100 US companies by market capitalization and their traditionality and innovativeness. Differences in readability were assessed with the Gunning fog index. Differences in the main keywords were assessed with a keyword network analysis. Differences in orientation were assessed with the nine components of a mission statement. As Korean companies were aiming for global business, there was not much difference in the readability of mission statements between Korean and US companies, but there was a difference between traditional and innovative companies in both countries. There was a difference in the keywords and orientation of the mission statements of Korean and US innovative companies. Both Korean and US innovative companies focused highly on “philosophy.” However, Korean innovative companies focused more on “self-concept,” and US innovative companies focused more on a “concern for survival.”
This chapter contains explanations on how a mission can be used and managed to build capacity within an organization. It investigates and defines the meaning of capacity building by analyzing its elements and purpose. In addition, the chapter describes the leadership style for building capacity through a mission and provides an explanation and description of three phases in building capacity for an organization. The intention of the chapter is to present the rationale for mission statements as a strategy and the anchor for capacity building. The research reveals that an organization's mission statement is an effective tool only if it has an inspiring purpose that is understood by the whole community. This means that simply having a statement is not sufficient to fully incorporate a mission. Rather, the mission statement needs to be properly managed to ensure that the whole community of an organization feels or senses the words expressed in the statement in its daily life at work.
This study explores the relationship between organisation structure and perceived innovation in the manufacturing industry sector of India. Structural variables include vertical and horizontal complexity; formalisation; centralisation; concentration of authority; and participation in decision-making. Concentration of authority and participation in decision-making combine to form centralisation, both the former are analysed as separate variables. Innovation, measured by a perceptual variable, is labelled as perceived innovation. Data were collected from 250 employees of four manufacturers of India. Two organisations represent the pharmaceutical/chemical (bulkdrug) sector, and the other two represent the heavy engineering (transmission and distribution) sector. A significant relationship was found between horizontal complexity and perceived innovation. A positive and significant relationship was found between formalisation and perceived innovation, and between participation in decision-making and perceived innovation. A negative and significant relationship was found between centralisation. and perceived innovation.
It is my contention that part of the value of academia is founded on providing a place and time for the search for knowledge without the limitations imposed by the efficiency principle based on the economy of means towards any given end.
This paper explores the paradox between innovation and entrepreneurship in the context of business model innovation. Innovation focused companies develop policies to enhance human capital and develop a broad base of relationships that generate new ideas and directions. This seems paradoxical to corporate entrepreneurship that seeks to leverage particular intellectual properties through a market focus and penetration. A culture of innovation on the one hand is inefficient due to its nature of experimentation, broad relationship base and interests in discovery while corporate entrepreneurship seeks to capitalise on innovation through the business model to gain scale efficiencies and profitability. The paper concludes by proposing a multi‐perspective conceptual framework to capture and represent the shifts in intellectual capital needed to manage these intertwined concepts.
Innovation is an important topic in the 21st century. Innovation management has become a compulsory path to sustained enterprise growth. In this research, we studied the degree of innovation implementation among domestic high-tech manufacturers and the impact of innovation management implementation on competitiveness. We considered the mediating variables of ''industry type'' and ''enterprise scale'', developed a theoretical model of impact relationship, and conducted the empirical analysis of Taiwan's high-tech manufacturers. We found from the research results that the degree of innovation management implementation has a significant impact on competitiveness. The degree of innovation management implementation has an essential impact on the two competitiveness dimensions including technological innovation and differentiation. Moreover, the two mediating variables of ''industry type'' and ''enterprise scale'' were proven to have a significant impact on the degree of innovation management and competitiveness.
Purpose
This paper seeks to determine whether significant differences exist between secular and faith‐based hospitals in terms of specific mission statement components and mission‐related performance variables.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 130 top managers from a sample of 515 Canadian hospitals responded to a comprehensive questionnaire investigating 23 mission statement components and seven mission performance outcome measures. Data were analyzed using frequency analysis, one‐way analysis of variance, MANOVA, chi‐squared and Mann‐Whitney U tests.
Findings
The analysis showed that differences in mission content exist between different types of hospitals, and that these differences form a pattern of sorts within each type. It was also found that faith‐based hospitals out‐perform their secular counterparts in many ways.
Research limitations/implications
The research and its findings are limited in their application to relatively large Canadian health care organizations and the responses/opinions given by managers from a hospital's senior echelons.
Practical implications
The results have implications for all health care organizations interested in improving the results in their mission performance scorecard. The findings both confirm the impact that mission statements can have on selected hospital performance indicators and demonstrate that faith‐based hospitals have been more diligent in taking advantage of them.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to show that specific and significant differences exist between the mission statements of secular and faith‐based hospitals and that those differences are associated with hospital performance. These findings will be of special interest to senior hospital administrators and “directors of mission” within faith‐based institutions.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide explicit thinking about the organizational elements that support or hinder innovation in the government sector as it increasingly faces demand for innovative solutions to policy areas. The paper aims to present the development and findings of an evaluative case method conducted for an Australian state government department's organizational innovation program.
Design/methodology/approach
The evaluative case study was developed and conducted in two phases. First, an intellectual capital conceptual framework was applied to four independently sourced and discreet case organizations to represent multiple exemplars of innovation capacity building. These exemplars were suspended from their context in order to identify essential elements of the innovation capacity development process which in turn were then applied in phase two to the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF), a Victorian (Australia) public policy organization.
Findings
The case raises critical distinctions between “innovation capability” and “innovation capacity”. The discussion offers insight into the process of developing innovation capacity for government policy organizations.
Research limitations/implications
The evaluation method incorporated a novel technique and trialed a phase development instrument for testing the embeddedness of organizational innovation. Both the technique and the instrument would benefit from further refinement, testing and development.
Originality/value
This paper develops work previously presented in O'Connor and Roos that considered the conceptual framework for using intellectual capital as an evaluation framework for organizational innovative capacity. It extends this work by piloting its application in a specific context and offers new insight into the organizational design issues of government organizations facing the challenge of producing innovative policy solutions.
Purpose
After two decades of research, the effect of a mission statement on an organization's performance is still unclear. In order to address these shortcomings, a research project via the setting‐up of this paper seeks to identify all empirical studies addressing the mission statement‐financial performance relation, analyze how the mission statement‐financial performance relation is operationalized, and aggregate the findings of the identified studies by means of a meta‐analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review procedure was developed to identify all relevant articles and meta‐analytic procedures were used to calculate the effect size of the selected studies.
Findings
The study results indicate a small positive relation between mission statements and measures of financial organizational performance. However, additional analyses indicated that interstudy differences in measures significantly influenced the estimates (population effect sizes of the created subsamples ranged from 0.0808 to 0.4100).
Research limitations/implications
These contradictive findings stress the importance and impact of operationalization decisions in mission statement‐performance research, and provide paths for future practice‐oriented research.
Originality/value
This study is the first to assess the performance impact of one of the most popular management instruments, namely mission statements, by means of meta‐analytical techniques and, to evaluate the moderation effect of operationalization decisions on the cited relationship. Furthermore, by aggregating research on the mission statement‐performance relationship, a knowledge base was devised which provides normative advice on the characteristics of a “good” mission statement.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how an employee volunteer program (EVP) as one aspect of responsible corporate citizenship (typically expressed in a mission statement) can influence the relationships among a firm, its employees and its community.
Design/methodology/approach
A pedagogical approach used in the educational sector known as “community service‐learning” or “service‐learning” was used as the basis for analyzing the experiences of 12 first‐time volunteering employees who described in a personal interview the motivations and outcomes associated with their participation in their EVP.
Findings
It was found that all three elements of service‐learning – that is, reciprocity, reflection, and development of responsible citizenship skills – were useful in understanding how an EVP can leverage human capital to benefit the firm, its employees and the community and make a firm's mission of responsible citizenship a reality.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the small sample size of 12 respondents, there were significant data in the comments from these respondents about the possible impact of an EVP experience in terms of various elements involved in service‐learning.
Practical implications
There are several corporate implications from the research which are related to various elements of service‐learning. For example, companies are encouraged to include in the creation and rollout of their EVP a reflection process which could also be connected to employee recognition programs, training programs and employee career development.
Originality/value
The paper presents a novel approach to assessing the motivations and possible outcomes associated with an EVP. It should be of interest to both academics and practitioners.
Aufgrund ständiger Veränderung der Unternehmensumwelt sind auch kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen (KMU) gefordert, sich dieser anzupassen und ihre Geschäftsmodelle sowie —systeme kontinuierlich zu adaptieren. Um einen Wettbewerbsvorteil zu erzielen, sind Flexibilität sowie die Bereitschaft, Ziele, Strategien und Führungsstile zu hinterfragen und neu zu definieren, notwendig. Unternehmen sind gezwungen, neue Möglichkeiten in Form von neuen Produkten, Prozessen und Geschäftskonzepten zu identifizieren, zu fördern und umzusetzen (vgl. Lumpkin/Dess 1996, Bart 2004).
A relationship between board/management "involvement" and "awareness" with organizational mission and their link to "employee commitment" and "organizational performance" was modeled by drawing on previous research. The model was tested with data from 339 large Canadian and US organizations. It was determined that "mission awareness" on the part of both the board and senior management is an important consideration in the determination of employees' commitment to the mission. However, the impact of board and management involvement with the mission is not identical. The results emphasize the strong and important role that the board performs when it is actively engaged in the development of the organization's mission.
The significance of product innovation charters (PICs) cannot be overemphasized, as they provide understanding and a tool for setting organizational goals, charting strategic direction, and allocating resources for new product portfolios. In a unique way, a PIC represents a sort of mission statement mutation for new products. With the backdrop of strategy formulation and product innovation literatures, this article investigates the impact of both content specificity within PICs and satisfaction with the PIC formulation process on new product performance in North American corporations. A survey was undertaken among executives knowledgeable about their organization's new product development process. The respondents included chief executive officers, vice presidents, directors, and managers. The findings demonstrate that significant differences exist both in PIC content specificity and process satisfaction between highly innovative and low innovative firms. The study also shows that PIC specificity in terms of the factors mission content and strategic directives positively influences new product performance. Further, the study demonstrates that satisfaction with the process of formulating PICs plays a positive and powerful mediating role in the PIC specificity–performance relationship. The results suggest that product innovation charters, like their mission statement cousins, may be of more value than most managers realize. The study shows that achieving a state of organizational satisfaction with a PIC's formulation process is critical for obtaining better new product performance. Directions for future research also are suggested.
This dissertation aims to identify patterns in the managerial processes during an enterprise system implementation (ESI) period. An ESI remains a notorious challenge. In most cases, it concurrently involves business strategy change, organizational change, and technical innovation. This dissertation adopts structuration theory as a “sensitizing device” for understanding change forces behind an ESI. A pattern-recognition method is used to extract and describe patterns of managerial processes out of the structuration insights. Two sub-structuration processes are selected in order to make the structuration process observable and identifiable for the pattern recognition: Communicating significance by top management and facilitating learning for ESI. Ten in-depth empirical cases are studied in a longitudinal way. The main contribution of the thesis is four-fold: (1) the thesis designs a pattern-recognition method for conducting process studies (Structuration); (2) A set of process patterns are identified. These patterns clearly show the predictive power of the process studies; (3) A method to operationalize structuration theory. The ‘modalities’ embedded in the structuration framework are operationalized as a specific set of techniques within certain managerial processes which are observable and actionable; (4) New insights into the performance criteria of a strategic ESI project. A success of an ESI should not only be decided by operative criteria, but also should be judged by the achieved strategic impact.
The study at hand analyses the research strategies applied in empirical articles addressing the concept of mission statements. We systematically scanned eight computerized databases in order to delimit the field of empirical mission statement research. This scanning process resulted in 63 articles. Consequently the detected articles were analyzed by means of a code sheet. The code sheet comprised five general sets of research strategy characteristics: (1) primary data location and means of data collection, (2) level of analysis, (3) sample characteristics, (4) type of analysis / analytic techniques and (5) time frame. The results of the content analysis enabled us to assess the validity and robustness of research conducted within the field of mission statement research. Suggestions are made to increase the level of validity of future research. We claim that the results of the study at hand will contribute to the maturation of the field. They will provide insights into the possible future development of mission statement research methodology and facilitate the transition of the field from predominantly descriptive to empirically grounded.
The matching of strategy and management design presents a challenging opportunity to scholars of management. It calls for skill in building a viable, integrated system; it draws upon insights on many facets of management; and it plunges us into a highly dynamic set of relationships. Both synthesis and refinement of theory are revolved. Our discussion is divided into four parts. (1) Strategy is defined. (2) The concept of a coherent management design is set forth, with particular attention to those features most likely to be affected by strategy. (3) Then, an analytical approach for matching strategy and management design is examined. And, (4) implications for heterogeneous as well as homogeneous enterprises are identified. Discussions of "strategy and structure" often focus on only organization structure. If the match between strategy and management design is to be fully effective, however, more than organization must be harmonized. The nature of the planning process, the leadership style, and the form and location of control mechanisms are also intimately involved. This more information system, which has already been listed under organization. Although the preparation of a total management design rarely starts with control, no plan is complete until provision is made for control.
This article reports the findings of a pilot research project which investigated the nature and degree of control that presidents of large, diversified firms exercise over their new product initiatives. The research findings of this exploratory study challenge some of the conventional notions that exist regarding the management of new products. The control dimensions associated with “high” and “low” new product output situations are identified, and the role of a new product's strategic category in understanding the variations in presidential control is underscored. Most important, the findings represent a first step in capturing the “balance” that presidents appear to strike between “loose” and “tight” control when managing new products. As such, they suggest the potential for developing a control template against which presidents of other large, diversified firms might someday be able to judge their own new product control practices.
What role does a mission statement play in the context of high tech organizations? And what is the nature of the relationship between a high tech company's formal mission statement and performance? Traditionally, the mission statement has been regarded as the essential starting point in designing an effective and successful strategy for virtually any firm. However, the role and impact of mission statements within high tech firms has not received any significant empirical consideration in the literature of the past twenty years. This is somewhat surprising since the importance of high tech firms to an economy's future growth is well accepted. Moreover, it is almost impossible to pick up a standard text on strategic planning without some mention of the virtues and importance of having a well developed mission statement. At the same time, there is much literature and research which confirms the existence of unique and special organizational arrangements for high tech (as opposed to low tech) companies. Thus, if mission is important to firm success, one would also expect to find significant differences in the content and characteristics of mission statements between high tech and other corporate situations. The current study reports the results of a survey on the use and performance impact of mission statements among a group of high-tech and low-tech companies. The research confirms that there are important and major differences in the content of the mission statements between these two groups. However, for high tech firms, differences in mission statements do not necessarily translate into variations in financial performance. The research also demonstrates that significant differences exist between high and low tech companies in terms of the factors “driving” the mission statements. These drivers, in turn, sometimes bear somewhat significantly on firm performance but, more critically, impact the behavior of organizational members. The research, therefore, confirms an emerging notion that mission statements primarily influence the behavior of firm members and it is the organizational members' behaviors which, in turn, impact financial performance.
This article presents findings from some research which examined and analyzed the content of industrial firm mission statements. In particular, the specific components of industrial firm mission statements were analyzed to determine if there were any which “made a difference” in terms of firm performance. The findings suggest that some mission components seem to matter more than others and it is these to which managers of industrial firms should pay especially close attention.
What is a mission in practice? Can it be created and managed? What
is the link between strategy and philosophy? What is the role of
corporate identity? Should senior managers be putting
“mission” high up on their list of priorities? A year-long
research project into mission and corporate philosophy is drawn on to
answer these and other questions on the “sense of mission”
– that added ingredient which makes companies like Marks &
Spencer so successful.
What impact, if any, does a firm's formal mission statement have on its innovativeness? Over the years, the mission statement has been regarded as one of the cornerstone documents of the large, modern corporation. It has especially been seen as essential in terms of providing two major benefits: (1) better staff motivation and control regarding common organizational objectives; and (2) a more focussed allocation of resources. Yet, little is known empirically about the relationship between company mission and those management practices that contribute to a firm's innovativeness. In the current study, we identified 15 management practices which have been cited as being important for fostering innovation. We then surveyed 75 firms to determine: a) the degree to which the 15 selected innovativeness practices were followed; b) the degree to which these innovativeness practices were specified in the organization's formal mission statement; and c) the relationships among formal mission, the 15 innovativeness practices and new product sales. Our results demonstrated that many of the 15 management practices identified as fostering innovation were widely used by the companies in our sample. These practices, in turn, were found to have a strong impact on new product sales. Interestingly, these practices were generally not well-articulated within the firms' mission statements. Nevertheless, we found a powerful and positive relationship between mission statement content and the degree to which our 15 innovativeness practices were employed. The relationship between mission and new product sales, on the other hand, proved to be much more indirect.
Seventy-five mission statements were obtained from chief executive officers of large companies. Content and statistical analyses of these documents reveal the inclusion of nine key components. Profiles of the mission statements of manufacturing and service firms are developed and guidelines are provided for writing and using mission statements.
Mission is still a relatively neglected area of management, and there is no clear agreement on what it encompasses. The Ashridge Strategic Management Centre conducted a 2-year research project designed to fill this gap. The research found that if mission is more clearly defined it can be managed better, and developed a model of mission that includes four elements--purpose, strategy, behaviour standards and values. The project identified companies where, in addition to strong links between these elements, employees also showed an emotional commitment to their company which Campbell has called a 'sense of mission'. This commitment was deepest when there was a match between the employee's values and the company's values.
This article investigates the reasons for the increasing use of the Company Mission Statement. Using information from a survey of U.K. companies in 1989 it looks at the types of statements issued by companies, their content, usage, and value to managers. Of particular interest is whether the mission is primarily used for the motivation of staff, or for external image building. Related issues are the value of the mission drafting process in bringing managers together to agree common objectives and the use of a hierarchy of statements to reconcile internal and external stakeholders' interests. The conclusion is that the Mission, which includes a statement of company values, is an important tool for managers to assert their leadership within the organization.
This article conducts a thorough review of the extensive literature on executive leadership. It provides a definition for the concept of superior executive leadership and then presents a model explaining the key roles and attributes required to perform effectively in top management ranks. The article then discusses the implications of this model for senior executives and describes how it can be used to assess the quality of executive performance.
Mission statements abound in health care organizations. And much is written on what they should contain. But, the process of creating and implementing mission statements in health care organizations has received virtually no attention in the literature. This article presents findings from a research study that sought to determine whether or not a relationship existed between selected mission process characteristics and various measures of a hospital's performance.
This article presents some initial findings from an ongoing research project on the way that divisional general managers of targe organizational units control new product innovations. (Control, in this instance, refers to the set of procedures, systems, and actions that general managers use to monitor, evaluate, influence, or define what subordinates are doing.) The research presented here focuses on three broad questions: 1.1. Do divisional general managers of large organizational units control their new product activities differently from their more established operations?2.2. Is a new product's innovation strategy related to the nature and degree of divisional general manager control—and, if so, in what way?3.3. Is a divisional general manager's choice of control methods related to his/her unit's new product output?The results were based on in-depth interviews with the general managers of 26 large Canadian-based divisions in 12 firms. All the firms were significant competitors in the North American market and all were actively engaged in new product activities. Firm size ranged from 5 billion in sales. The following is a summary of the study's principal findings and conclusions: 1.1. Control varies among dimensions. The study measured the degree of control exercised by divisional general managers over new and established products on 14 control variables. It was found that none of the new products (relative to established brands) was controlled in the same fashion by the managers. Instead, new products were always managed through a variety of “loose” and “tight” controls. In so doing, it appeared that the divisional general managers were trying to balance the control and freedom required by subordinates with new products.2.2. Control varies with strategy. Both theory and empirical research generally support the notion of linkage between a unit's strategy and its organizational (eg, design, reward, placement, information, etc.) practices. The results of this study strengthen this line of thinking. The data show that both the nature and degree of divisional general manager control vary with three dimensions of product strategy (i.e., familiarity, uniqueness, and advancement).3.3. Control varies with output. The analysis highlighted the pivotal relationship between divisional general manager control and new product output. Both the nature and degree of control were found to be associated with new product output in each strategic category. Although there does not appear to be one best way to control all types of new products, some divisional general management approaches to control were more preferred than others.4.4. Loose formal/tight informal. The general managers' control patterns showed that formal control dimensions were usually managed more loosely than informal ones; that tighter informal controls were used to off-set (or “balance” ) the more relaxed formal dimensions; and that the observed reduction in formal control should not be interpreted to mean either the absence of bureaucracy or the absence of formal control. Indeed, some formal bureaucratic control was always found in the “high output” strategic categories. Thus, rather than being considered or labeled as typically “bad”, bureaucracy may in fact be “beautiful”—provided, of course, that it is appropriately used.The article concludes by arguing that a divisional general manager's approach to controlling new products seems to make a difference in terms of performance. As such, the control approach chosen should not be made haphazardly or with abandon.
Convinced that it will improve their performance, the majority of public and non-profit organizations has developed a formal mission statement. However, despite its popularity, the assumed mission statement-performance hypothesis seems to be barely analyzed nor tested (Weiss and Piderit 1999). We addressed this issue by empirically examining the effectiveness of mission statements from an intra-organizational communication perspective and tested a theoretical rationale explaining the mission statement-performance hypothesis. The study results indicated that mission statements stimulate organizational members to engage in information conveyance and convergence processes, which prove to be positively related with the level of mission motivation. Higher levels of mission motivation, in turn, are assumed to be related with higher organizational performance.