This article discusses a comprehensive study of the mission
statements of Fortune 1000 higher-performing and lower-performing firms
to assess the current state of the mission statement. After content
analysis of these firms' mission statements, the components
included for these two groups of firms were compared. The
higher-performing firms included eight of the nine recommended
components more often than did the lower-performing firms, and the
differences were significant for three of those components. Also, using
textual analysis methods, this study identified strategies employed by
these firms to create a strong identity--or internal ethos--and
image--or external ethos. The two groups used somewhat similar
strategies for building corporate identities and images but differed in
the values they emphasized and the goodwill recipients they targeted.
Keywords: corporate mission statement; corporate reporting;
corporate identity; corporate image; ethos
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Although more than 30 years have now passed since "a furor
over mission statements swept over corporate America" (Morphew
& Hartley, 2006), mission statements still serve as common corporate
reporting tools. Their long-term use by corporations has been
characterized by significant change, however, especially in the format
and delivery of these statements. For example, they are often found on
corporate Web sites now. The purposes for this reporting genre have also
increased and diversified, leading to some differences in the content
and strategy of these statements. This article presents details about a
study designed to assess the current state of the corporate mission
statement by analyzing the content of statements gathered from firms
included on the 2006 Fortune 1000 list. In addition, the study
investigates possible links between mission statements and financial
performance by comparing statements belonging to higher-performing firms
to those belonging to lower-performing ones to see if there are
differences between (a) the content components these firms included and
(b) the rhetorical strategies they employed to create a positive
corporate ethos--an identity or image.
The findings in this study affirm the continuing importance of
mission statements and show that the content components included have
not changed dramatically in the past 20 years. When current statements
belonging to higher-performing firms were compared with those belonging
to lower-performing firms, though, differences in content were again
found. Higher-performing firms included in this study discussed
philosophies and targeted markets more often, and they discussed
strategies for survival, concern for public image, and concern for
employees significantly more often. Other findings in this study show
that firms in both groups used somewhat similar rhetorical strategies
for building a strong ethos. For example, most of the firms used a
first-person point of view to promote identification with the firms, and
most highlighted values to create desirable corporate characters,
although there were some differences in the specific values included.
For example, the values of teamwork and safety were mentioned much more
often by higher-performing firms than by lower-performing ones. In
addition, all 27 of the mission statements analyzed included at least
one expression of goodwill. However, the targets of goodwill differed to
some extent: Employees, shareholders, and communities or society were
listed as goodwill targets by more higher-performing firms than
lower-performing ones.
This article concludes by predicting that mission statements will
continue to be significant corporate reporting tools because of their
lengthy history and the ongoing time and energy devoted to them by
corporations and by corporate and communication experts, scholars, and
researchers. Furthermore, based on the review of literature that
informed this study, suggestions are made for ensuring that future
research and scholarship on mission statements are more consistent and
replicable.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The extensive literature pertinent to this study includes the
following: (a) scholarship that defines the mission statement genre or
makes recommendations for its content, (b) scholarship that provides a
theoretical basis for expecting an effective mission statement to be
associated with successful financial performance, and research to
determine whether that connection can be supported by data, (c)
scholarship that develops relevant rhetorical theories or discusses
applications of those theories to corporate communication, including
mission statements, and (d) studies of the mission statement as a
strategy for creating a strong corporate ethos.
Mission Statement: Definitions
A mission statement "tells two things about a company: who it
is and what it does" (Falsey, 1989, p. 3). A number of others offer
a similar definition (Abrahams, 1995; Bart, 2000; Bart, Bontis, &
Taggar, 2001; Collins & Porras, 1991; David, 1989; Drucker, 1973;
Ireland & Hitt, 1992; Pearce, 1982), and this definition holds true
regardless of whether a corporation refers to this statement as a
"mission statement," a "mission," a
"credo," "our philosophy," "core values,"
or something else (Abrahams, 1995; Collins & Porras, 1991; David,
2007; Ireland & Hitt. 1992; Pearce & David, 1987). These
statements often address multiple audiences, or stakeholders, including
a firm's management, employees, customers or clients, shareholders,
and other residents of the communities, countries, and world where it
does business (Abrahams, 1995; Amato & Amato, 2002; Bart, 1999,
2000; Collins & Porras, 1991 ; Klemm, Sanderson, & Luffman,
1991).
In addition to conveying a corporation's nature and reason for
being, this statement may also outline where a firm is headed; how it
plans to get there; what its priorities, values, and beliefs are; and
how it is distinctive (Abrahams, 1995; Collins & Porras, 1991;
Falsey, 1989; Ireland & Hitt, 1992; Klemm et al., 1991; Pearce &
David, 1987). Bartkus, Glassman, and McAfee (2000) define a narrower
focus for a mission statement: "We view a mission statement solely
as a communication tool" (p. 29). They add that
most firms would be better off" if they nam)wed the purpose of the
mission statement to that of realistically communicating product
and market objectives to stakeholders. The best mission statements
simply define the company's business and suggest a future goal. (p.
29)
Their caution about overextending the scope of mission statements
is shared by other practitioners and scholars (Bart, 2000; Collins &
Porras, 1991; Ireland & Hitt, 1992).
Mission Statement: Recommendations for Content
A host of resource materials have been created to assist
corporations and other organizations with drafting the perfect mission
statement. Surprisingly, these guides offer somewhat similar advice
about suggested content for these statements, even if they do not agree
about the labels they assign to content components. For example, in an
article often cited in mission statement literature, Pearce and David
(1987) identify "eight key components of mission statements,"
a list that is modified slightly and expanded to nine components by
David (1989, 2007). A corporation is encouraged to provide information
about its customers or clients, employees, products or services,
markets, technology, self-concept, desired public image, philosophy, and
strategies for growth and survival (David, 1989, 2007).
Other authors have renamed, expanded, narrowed, or redefined the
suggested components (Bart & Baetz, 1998). For instance, specifying
a company's commitment to QOL (quality of life) goals has been
cited as important (Amato & Amato, 2002), a commitment that others
might place under the categories of a firm's general philosophy,
its concern for its employees, or its concern for its public image. In
addition, organizational purpose and financial goals have been studied
as content components (Bart & Baetz, 1998); however, some
researchers consider an organization's purpose to be a subset of
its philosophy and its financial goals to be a subset of its strategies
for growth and survival. Two studies note that anywhere from 10 to 25
different mission statement components have been suggested or used
(Bart, 1997; Bart & Baetz, 1998). Although authors usually provide
rationales for the components and labels they use, the resulting
variations in terminology and definitions limit the comparability of
some studies with others and decrease the long-term benefits realized
when earlier studies can be conclusively replicated. Therefore, although
this serious flaw in the corpus of mission statement literature has been
identified before (e.g., Bart et al., 2001; Peyrefitte & David,
2006), it has not yet been remedied.
Mission Statement Content and Performance: Theory
Corporations are urged to create mission statements for many
reasons: to assert leadership (Klemm et al., 1991), to inform employees
about the company's goals and unify their efforts toward
accomplishing them (Bart, 1998; Ireland & Hitt, 1992: Klemm et al.,
1991; Pearce & David, 1987), to serve as an effective public
relations tool (Bart, 1998; David, 2007: Falsey, 1989), to provide a
rationale lor allocating resources (Bart, 1998; Bart et al., 2001;
David, 2007), "to guide current, critical, strategic decision
making" (Drohan, 1999), and to inspire enthusiasm about the firm
(Bartkus et al., 2000: Collins & Porras, 1991: Ireland & Hitt,
1992).
The belief that mission statements can serve some or all of these
purposes provides a commonly accepted theoretical basis for expecting
corporations with a mission statement to be more successful than those
without one. In addition to specific benefits that are said to accrue
from having such a statement, successfully completing the mission
statement process demonstrates that a firm can think reflectively, plan
carefully, work collaboratively, and make informed decisions. Therefore,
it is logical to think that this demonstrated expertise will contribute
to overall success for a corporation.
Mission Statement Content and Performance: Research
Empirical evidence to support a link between corporate mission
statements and performance is not plentiful or conclusive (Bart &
Baetz, 1998; Bart et al., 2001; Peyrefitte & David, 2006). When the
financial performance of firms with and without a mission statement was
compared, three studies found no significant differences (Bart &
Baetz, 1998; David, 1989; Klemm et al., 1991). In contrast, two other
studies found that firms with mission statements did perform better
(Rarick & Vitton, 1995; Stone, 1996), but the latter study cited
anecdotal evidence only.
Despite this scarcity of persuasive empirical data, mission
statements continue to be developed, disseminated, and valued, and
researchers continue to be interested in studying them.
Some researchers have pursued the possible link between the content
of mission statements and financial performance. In these cases,
researchers have analyzed content to determine whether some components
lead to greater results than others, and this line of inquiry is
important to this study. One of the earliest studies compared the
content of the statements of high-performing Fortune 500 firms to the
content of those of low-performing ones, and the researchers found that
the high-performing firms included three of the components--corporate
philosophy, serf-concept, and concern for public image--significantly
more often (Pearce & David, 1987). However, they did not find
significant differences between the two groups' inclusion of the
other five components: customers or markets, product or service,
geographic domain, technology, and concern for survival.
Based on a later study, researchers also concluded that effective
content caused mission statements to be positively associated with
financial performance. They analyzed the content of mission statements
belonging to firms randomly selected from the 1994 Business Week 1000
list and determined that the return on common shareholder equity for
firms with "high content" statements was 26.2%, whereas the
return for the firms with "low content" statements was 13.7%
(Rafick & Vitton, 1995, p. 12). A "high content" mission
statement included more of the following components: concern for public
image; concern for quality; commitment to survival, growth,
profitability; identity of customers and markets; identity of products
and services; statement of company philosophy; and differentiation from
competition. Using a different sample of industrial firms and a method
other than content analysis, somewhat similar results were reported by
Bart (1997). He surveyed CEOs and presidents from 44 industrial
corporations, asking them to identify which of 25 different content
components were clearly specified in their firms' mission
statements. After tabulating their responses, Bart compared the
"performance of the industrial firms based on each mission
component" and found that 13 of the 25 components had a
"positive relationship with performance" (p. 377). Four of
these components--purpose, values, self-concept, and desired public
image--had been identified as significant by Pearce and David (1987) as
well, although Bart (1997) used different labels in some cases (e.g.,
purpose and values rather than philosophy). The other nine components
that Bart found to be positively associated with performance were
general corporate goals, concern for customers, concern for employees,
concern for suppliers, concern for society, concern for shareholders,
statement of vision, concern for survival, and competitive strategy.
The purpose and values components were again found to be associated
with performance when mission statements from 136 large Canadian firms
were collected and analyzed: "Significant positive differences in
performance were found to be associated with mission statements which
contained no financial goals, identified a firm's values/beliefs,
defined a firm's purpose, and were relatively short" (Bart
& Baetz, 1998, p. 845). Finally, by studying data collected from 83
large Canadian and U.S. firms with mission statements, researchers found
that statements with sound content, ones with clearly specified ends and
means, "can affect financial performance" (Bart et al., 2001,
p. 29). These content components had not been specifically identified or
studied before, but some of the previous researchers could have
categorized ends and means as information belonging to the goals,
competitive strategy, philosophy, or concern for survival and
profitability components.
Mission Statement Content and Corporate Ethos: Rhetorical Theory
None of the literature reviewed thus far has used the term
corporate ethos in connection with mission statements. Instead, other
terms (e.g., image, public image, identity) have been used to describe
the way that a corporation wants to be perceived by its constituencies.
However, increasing numbers of scholars and researchers are choosing to
use the term corporate ethos because rhetorical theory provides a sound
theoretical basis for understanding the concept of ethos and why it
matters to communicators who wish to persuade their audiences (e.g.,
Beason, 1991; Cross, 1991; Hyland, 1998; Kallendoff & Kallendorf,
1985; Stoddard, 1985; Swales & Rogers, 1995). As Cross (1991) points
out, "Persuasion, the ability to win over an audience and inspire
action is, after all, the underlying goal of most corporate
correspondence, whether it's trying to create an image, keep
goodwill, or collect an overdue bill" (p. 3). Mission statements
are decidedly persuasive: If corporate communicators cannot persuade
their constituencies to read their mission statements and respond to
them appropriately--whether that means faithfully working for the
corporation, buying its stock or products, or believing it is a
contributing member of a community or society--then the efforts of those
communicators have been wasted.
The term ethos originated with Aristotle, one of the earliest
authorities on persuasion: "In his Rhetoric, written some 2,000
years ago as a guide to persuasive public speaking, he describes
techniques that remain essential to persuasion and that offer important
guidelines in the modern age" (Cross, 1991, p. 3). Aristotle aimed
to educate the individual communicator, of course, rather than an
organizational entity such as a modern corporation. Nevertheless, the
process of carefully shaping and communicating an admirable and
appealing character is similar whether the communicator is an individual
or a group. In Book I of his Rhetoric, Aristotle discusses ethos as one
of three appeals available to a communicator who wishes to persuade. The
other two appeals are logos--strategies to reason with people--and
pathos--strategies to stir their emotions. Although going to great
lengths to explore logos and pathos, Aristotle considered ethos to be
the most important of these appeals, and it is the most pertinent to
this study.
Aristotle (1932) identifies three components of ethos:
"intelligence, character, and good will" (p. 92). He stresses
the importance of intelligence (i.e., knowledge, good sense, and
expertise) because of its crucial impact on credibility. As a rule,
communicators are not taken seriously if an audience perceives that they
are uninformed, for whatever reason. Therefore, Aristotle discusses a
number of strategies for formulating arguments that influence audiences.
The kind of logically developed arguments that Aristotle prescribes are
almost never included in mission statements because this genre rarely
provides support or evidence for the general pronouncements and claims
made (Swales & Rogers, 1995). However, when a mission statement
provides accurate and timely information about the products or services
a firm sells, about the qualifications of its management and employees,
or about methods and procedures it uses to gain a competitive edge, it
is providing evidence of its expertise. In addition, the writing style,
organization, and visual rhetoric of a mission statement can show a
firm's knowledge and skills (Stoddard, 1985).
When discussing character, the second aspect of ethos, Aristotle
(1932, p. 91) says that a communicator should "evince the right
character." Doing so requires that communicators understand the
differences between virtues and vices and that they know the
"characteristics and qualities that are valued by an audience and
community" (Beason, 1991, p. 330). Applying this principle to
corporate communicators suggests that including in a mission statement
the values considered most important to a corporation and its audiences
can strengthen a corporation's ethos. Collins and Porras (1991)
delineate the kinds of information that might be included:
Core values and beliefs are the organization's basic precepts about
what is important in both business and life, how business should be
conducted, its view of humanity, its role in society, the way the
world works, and what is to be held inviolate. (p. 35)
The starting point should be to articulate values and beliefs that
the corporation already considers important or commits to adopting
before deciding to showcase the values and beliefs it shares with its
audiences (Collins & Porras, 1991). Otherwise, the
corporation's ethos will suffer if its pronouncements are
determined to be hollow and insincere (Collins & Porras, 1991).
As part of an extended discussion of contemporary applications of
Aristotelian theory, Stoddard (1985) reminds us that ethos is not
situated exclusively in corporate discourse (or discourse from any
source) but relies on the audience's cooperation in meaning-making.
Therefore, capable corporate communicators have the power of words and
other rhetorical strategies at their disposal when attempting to create
"the right character," but these strategies must be carefully
chosen based on a clear assessment of all parts of the rhetorical
situation, including the characteristics of the audience, the purpose
for the communication, the specific context or environment, and so on
(Stoddard, 1985). For instance, ethics scandals in recent years have
heightened the public's concerns about corporate honesty and
ethics. Therefore, a corporation can strengthen its ethos by stating in
its mission statement that it values integrity and honors ethical
standards on a daily basis. In addition, a manufacturing firm that must
dispose of toxic wastes can help to dispel the fears of residents living
near that business by pledging the firm's commitment to safe
practices that protect the people and environments where it does
business, thereby portraying itself as a corporation with a good
conscience.
Furthermore, carefully shaping the presentation of the character of
a corporation in keeping with the values of its audiences can appeal to
"similitude" (Beason, 1991, p. 331). When communicators
"point out similarities between themselves and their
audiences," benefits often result because "almost all people
are more likely to accept and trust a communicator who is perceived as
being 'one of them' since such commonality gives the
impression that communicator and audience share backgrounds, goals, and
values" (Beason, 1991, p. 331). Using "we" (or other
first-person-plural pronouns) is a way to,join a communicator and
audience, thereby "claiming group membership with that
audience" (Beason, 1991, p. 331).
Building on the same theoretical basis that supports the concept of
similitude, other scholars focus on the use of first-person-plural
pronouns to encourage internal stakeholders--employees--to identify with
a corporation (Cheney, 1983: Swales & Rogers, 1995). Drawing on
Kenneth Burke's "rhetoric of identification," Cheney
(1983) explains how the identification process works within
organizations like corporations:
While an individual has the ability to identify spontaneously with
an organizational target, the "move" is often encouraged by the
organization in dealing with the member. Simply put, an individual
who is inclined to identify with an organization (or an
organizational subunit) will be open to persuasive efforts from
various sources within that unit. The organization "initiates" this
inducement process by communicating its values, goals, and
information (i.e., the organization's own stated "identifications"
in the form of guidelines for individual and collective action; the
member may then "complete" the process by adopting or adapting the
organization's interests, doing "what's best" for the organization,
and perhaps even developing a salient identification with the
organization as a target. (pp. 146-147)
The mission statement is a corporate guideline that definitely
encourages identification because it is "rhetorically designed in
order to ensure maximum employee 'buy-in'" (Swales &
Rogers, 1995, p. 223).
Some scholars extend the scope of identification to include
external stakeholders, thereby influencing a corporation's image
and its identity. For example, Bartkus et al. (2000) state,
Mission statements ... enable current and potential employees,
managers, suppliers, customers, and investors to self-select into
the firm (to determine whether they want to get involved with
it).... Ultimately, if stakeholders are able to align their
individual objectives with those of the firm, the result would more
likely be an intrinsically motivated shareholder group. (p. 29)
A review of published mission statements shows that the
stakeholders considered most important to a firm can differ depending on
the nature of its business:
Companies in mining and construction are keen to stress a
responsible attitude to the environment, newly privatized companies
emphasize profitability and shareholders' interests and companies
dependent on key skilled workers make sure that their value is
mentioned in the statements. (Klemm et al., 1991, p. 75)
In all of these cases, the firms' statements reflect their
understanding of their own contexts and audiences.
As a third aspect of ethos, Aristotle says that speakers should
portray themselves as people of goodwill who show good intentions toward
their audiences. Because of the effect of a speaker's demonstrated
goodwill on the goodwill reciprocated by the audience, Aristotle
discusses this concept in Book II as a part of a lengthy discussion of
human emotions. In many cases, he says, the emotional state of a person
is caused by an unfulfilled need. Cross (1991) supports Aristotle's
assertion: "One of the most powerful motivations, and here
Aristotle and modern psychology are in agreement, is an offer to satisfy
a reader's needs, particularly emotional needs" (p. 5).
Therefore, a communicator who wishes to alter the state of mind of his
or her audience should first identify needs that the audience has and
then craft a message that satisfies those needs in some way (Cross,
1991).
Applying this principle to corporations, Amato and Amato (2002) see
goodwill as an important strategy for "cultivating and maintaining
a corporate good guy image in the eyes of various stakeholders" (p.
72), and the benefits of this strategy are illustrated by a true example
that Kallendorf and Kallendorf (1989) relate. In response to the public
relations crisis faced by U.S. oil companies during the "oil
crisis" in the early 1970s, Shell Oil Company mounted a public
relations campaign to provide facts and information that would
demonstrate that they were not "greedy price-gougers who, at best,
took unfair advantage of [oil] shortages and, at worst, actually caused
the shortages" (p. 62). Three different attempts by Shell to use
logic-based strategies failed to calm the anger felt by the public; in
fact, using "logical argumentation" actually made the public
angrier and more hostile (p. 62). However, when Shell shifted to an
ethos-based approach, one aimed at generating goodwill, better results
were achieved. A series of advertisements, the "Shell Information
Series" and informative booklets, "Come to Shell for
Answers," were highly successful because they helped to placate the
public's anger and to repair Shell's damaged ethos.
Mission Statement Content and Corporate Ethos: Research
In 1985, Stoddard noted that Aristotle's theory had been
confirmed by empirical research to determine the effects of ethos,
although most of these studies had been
conducted in the contexts of communication theory and social
psychology.... In the triangular model of discourse, communication
theory substitutes the term "source" for rhetoric's "speaker" or
"writer." Thus "source credibility" becomes an operational term for
the classical concept of ethos. (p. 233)
Since 1985, research that tests the effects of ethos and labels it
that way has increased (e.g., Beason, 1991; Livesey, 2002; Shenk, 1995;
Swales & Rogers, 1995), and a few studies have investigated the
links between mission statements and corporate ethos. One study analyzed
these statements to identify character-building strategies and concluded
that they "tend to stress values, positive behavior and guiding
principles within the framework of the corporation's announced
belief system and ideology" (Swales & Rogers, 1995, p. 227).
These authors based their conclusions on a linguistic and textual
analysis of a large collection of mission statements and a contextual
and intertextual analysis of three mission statements from two different
U.S. companies. Their close textual analysis of these three statements
enabled them to identify specific linguistic features the corporations
used to "foster [employees'] affiliation and
identification," such as the frequent use of first-person-plural
pronouns (p. 231).
Other studies have analyzed the ethos-building strategies in
mission statements to determine which audiences were targeted and to
learn whether the primary audiences were internal or external. In 1991,
managers in 50 U.K. companies included on the Times 1000 index were
surveyed to find out whether they saw mission statements as more
important to the firms' identity (internal ethos) or image
(external ethos), and the researchers concluded that "mission
statements are seen by managers as more important internally than
externally" (Klemm et al., 1991, p. 77), especially when these
statements include company values because they enhance management's
leadership within organizations.
Then, in 1997, mission statements found in the annual reports of
companies on the Business Week 1000 list were analyzed to determine
which stakeholder groups--customers, employees, suppliers, and
shareholders--were targeted and what kinds of information--benefits,
values, image, and focus--were conveyed to each group (Leuthesser &
Kohli, 1997). They found that customers were addressed often, whereas
suppliers were addressed rarely. In addition, these researchers found
that "two-thirds of the mission statements included assertions
addressing employees--second only to customers. Among these, value
statements were the most prevalent" (p. 63).
Identity (internal ethos) and image (external ethos) were also
studied in 2002 when the mission statements for firms included in the
Forbes Best Small Business and Fortune 200 lists were analyzed to
determine whether the inclusion of individual and societal QOL
dimensions affected a corporation's ethos (Amato & Amato,
2002). They found that the mission statements belonging to the large
firms addressed four of the seven societal dimensions (economic, social,
institutional, and ecological) and three of the five individual
dimensions (physical, safety, and esteem) significantly more often than
the mission statements belonging to the small firms did. Although they
found a link between size and some QOL dimensions, they found no link
between profitability and QOL dimensions.
HYPOTHESIS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Based on the literature review, one directional hypothesis and two
research questions were formulated.
Mission Statement Content and Performance: Content Analysis
For the content analysis, the following hypothesis guided my
research:
Hypothesis: The mission statements of higher-performing Fortune
1000 firms will include significantly more of the recommended components
than the statements of lower-performing firms.
Mission Statement Content and Corporate Ethos: Textual Analysis
For the textual analysis, the following research questions guided
my study of strategies used to project a strong ethos: (a) Will the
mission statements of higher-performing firms show more evidence than
those of lower-performing firms of the use of first-person point of view
and the inclusion of values to project a strong identity and image and
encourage identification with the firm and its values? (b) Will the
mission statements of higher-performing Fortune 1000 firms show more
evidence than those of lower-performing firms of the use of strategies
to demonstrate a firm's goodwill toward stakeholders?
METHOD
The corporations selected for this study were listed on the 2006
Fortune 1000 list. To increase diversity of size, the firms listed 1 to
25 and 976 to 1000 were initially selected. Then, I visited the Web
sites of all 50 corporations to see if a mission statement was found
there. If not, I used the Web site's search engine, when available.
In some cases, this led me to the mission statement; in other cases,
this led me to a statement or other document that the corporation
considered equivalent to a mission statement. If this equivalent
statement or document included information similar to that usually
included in a mission statement and seemed to serve the same purpose or
purposes, I added it to my collection of documents. When neither a
mission statement nor an equivalent could be located on a
corporation's Web site, I e-mailed or phoned the corporation. If a
representative said the corporation had a mission statement, I asked for
it to be sent to me. Sometimes a representative replied that the
corporation did not have a mission statement but did have an equivalent,
so I asked for this equivalent to be sent to me. In a few cases, I was
told that the corporation did not have a mission statement or
equivalent, and I noted that. In other cases, several contacts had to be
made, but the needed information was eventually received from 48 of the
50 corporations contacted.
I was able to get information from all of the firms in the top 25:
In all, 23 had mission statements or equivalents, 2 had neither. Based
on information obtained during this collection process, 2 of the firms
in the bottom 25 were eliminated: One was simply a holding company and
the other had been sold after the Fortune 1000 list had been issued.
This reduced the second group to 23 firms. I could get no information
from 2 of the corporations in this group, so the size of this group was
reduced to 21 firms: In all, 19 had a mission statement or the
equivalent, 2 had neither.
At this point, based on the profits for each firm, I reconfigured
the initial groups to create one group of higher-performing firms and a
second group of lower-performing firms.
After ranking the 42 firms according to their profits, I selected
the 14 firms with the highest profits for the higher-performing group,
but I decided against choosing the 14 firms with the lowest profits
because the profits for 1 firm were considerably higher than those of
the other 13. Therefore, I decided to limit the number of the firms in
the lower-performing group to 13. Table 1 shows the composition of each
group, each firm's ranking in the Fortune 1000 list, its revenues,
and its profits.
After reviewing all of the collected mission statements or
equivalents (from this point forward, I'll refer to all of the
documents collected as mission statements), I noticed that many had
values statements embedded or appended, and others referred me to a
values statement for additional information about the corporation's
mission. It did not seem consistent, then, for me to analyze some
mission statements that included values statements but to exclude other
values statements just because they were not a part of the mission
statements proper. I decided, therefore, to include any values statement
that was found in close proximity to a mission statement, was referenced
in a mission statement, or was linked to a mission statement. However, I
did not include codes of conduct in the documents I analyzed because
these serve different purposes, I believe, and are not generally
included in the mission statement genre.
Content Analysis
The content of all 42 of the mission statements collected was
analyzed using procedures specified by Pearce and David (1987). Each
statement was read and coded by two raters, both of whom have extensive
business or business communication experience. The raters began by
familiarizing themselves with the definitions, explanations, and
examples of mission statement content components that are found in David
(1989) and Pearce and David (1987). Although various components with a
range of labels have been suggested during the past 30 years or so, this
particular list of components was chosen to provide some comparability
with the study by Pearce and David. A second reason for choosing this
list was to address the concern expressed by Bart et al. (2001) and
discussed earlier in the literature review that collection of a solid
base of mission statement research has been hampered by the tendency of
most researchers to craft new content components, revising them only
slightly in many cases rather than using components already formulated
and suitable for further use. Provided below are the components and
explanations that David (1989, p. 92) provides:
1. Customers--Who are the enterprise's customers?
2. Products or services--What are the firm's major