Invitation & Schedule

Previous Mission Statement
New Mission Statement

Speakers' Commentary
Dr. Rich Becherer
Dr. Ron Cox
Dr. Debbie Ingram
Dr. Wilfred McClay
Dr. Mark Mendenhall
Dr. Gail M. Meyer
Dr. Irven Resnick
Dr. David Sachsman
Dr. James Tucker
Dr. Kim Wheetley
Dr. Michael Whittle

Review Session Summaries
September 20, 2001
September 26, 2001

An Overview of Common Pitfalls in the Mission Statement Creation Process

Mark E. Mendenhall
J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership

Constructing a mission that resonates with the members of one's constituency or organization is perhaps the most difficult task that will ever confront a leader or an executive committee.   All of us, I am sure, could empathize with Bill McClay last week when he described his frustrating experience in working on a mission committee at another institution.  It is tempting to conclude from such experiences that mission statements don't matter; however, time and again, historians and management scholars have found that a robust collective mission in the minds of a group of people catalyzes them to create significant achievements.1  No doubt, this is why SACS asks its member institutions to pay close attention to their mission review process.  John Adams, reflecting on the phenomenon of the American Revolution on February 13^th, 1818, observed:

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced.  The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations . . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

When individuals internalize a sense of mission, it imbues them with meaning, and that sense of meaning and purpose in turn triggers high levels of intrinsic motivation.  George Bernard Shaw described this phenomenon a bit differently than John Adams, but no less persuasively, when he wrote:

"This is the true joy in life. . . being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one . . . being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

Constructing a mission statement that generates this kind of focus, motivation, loyalty, and passion is critical to the long-term success of any organization, yet comparatively few organizations are able to create such statements.2  I will discuss a few specific initiatives that I believe UTC might undertake in order to thrive in the future later in this paper, but the main focus of my paper will likely be somewhat different from that of my colleagues' discussions of the mission statement review process.  I thought it might be of some value to all of us to review the common pitfalls that executive committees in many organizations have fallen prey to as they have attempted to create robust and meaningful mission statements. 

Pitfall 1:  Mistaking "Core Values" for the "Mission Statement."

The first pitfall involves the tendency to confuse an explicit statement of the core values of an institution with its mission statement.  Recently I had occasion to visit the Girls Preparatory School, and was impressed by the visible statement that school has made of their core values.  Banners hang outside the administration offices, with a core value stated on each one.  These are values that the school, no doubt, desires to develop in its students. Also, these are the values the administration likely strives to operate from in its daily operations. 

Core values are the essential and enduring tenets of an organization.  [They] have intrinsic value and importance to those inside the organization . . . Ralph S. Larsen, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, puts it this way:  "The core values embodied in our credo might be a competitive advantage, but that is not why we have them.  We have them because they define for us what we stand for, and we would hold them even if they became a competitive disadvantage . . . 3

Some examples of core values include the following4:

Interestingly, productive organizations usually have very few core values, five at the most.5  To identify the core values of an organization is not an easy task. Executive committees must

push with relentless honesty to define what values are truly central.  If you articulate more than five or six, chances are that you are confusing core values (which do not change) with operating practices, business strategies, or cultural norms (which should be open to change). . . After you've drafted a preliminary list of the core values, ask about each one, "If the circumstances changed and penalized us for holding this core value, would we still keep it?  If you can't honestly answer yes, then the value is not core and should be dropped from consideration6.

While an understanding of core values is critical to productive organizational behavior, the statement of them is not a mission statement.  A mission statement must be aligned with core values, but core values are not the mission statement.   Often, a mission statement is accompanied by a commentary statement of the institution's core values7, which is a useful way of indicating what foundational principles will guide the pursuit of the organization's mission.  It should be noted that a commentary statement of core values does not currently exist in the UTC Mission Statement.

Pitfall 2:  Mistaking "Core Purpose" for the "Mission Statement."

One of the most common mistakes that executive committees make when constructing mission statements is to believe that the core purpose of their organization is the ideal mission statement for their organization.  Core purpose is the under girding reason for the existence of the organization.8  Perhaps the best way to illustrate the concept of core purpose is through the words of David Packard9, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, when he stated:

I want to discuss why a company exists in the first place. . . I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money.  While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being . . . we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution . . . so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately--they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental. 

Some scholars refer to core purpose as the "core identity" of an organization10, and note that the vast majority of members of most organizations cannot articulate it very well.  Employees often are aware of the norms and performance standards that flow from it, but have difficulty explicating what the "identity" of the organization might be.  This may be less true in academic institutions, where teaching, research, and service are often voiced as being the core purposes of academe. 

The values of a company that together form the bedrock of the company's culture flow from the core purpose of that company.  A robust mission statement flows from the core purpose of the institution, but the mission statement is not the core purpose.  This is counterintuitive to most people.  But, the core purpose articulates why the company is in business, and reflects the overarching motivation for why the institution was originally formed.  It also delineates the type of business the company is in, and delimits the scope of the company's activities.  The core purpose does not provide direction as to how that purpose will be fulfilled, nor does it delineate the general directional thrust necessary to fulfill the core purpose--that is what a mission statement does (but more on that later).  

Some examples of institutional core purposes below will likely appear to most people as mission statements; however, many organizational scholars would contend that they are rather the foundation, the bedrock, from which mission statements can be molded11:

If we consider the current mission statement of UTC in light of this pitfall of mission creation, a case can be made that we have fallen prey to it as well.  UTC's current mission statement essentially occurs in its first sentence; most organizational scholars would consider the rest of the statement to be commentary. It states that:

The mission of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is the education of students: to assist in the enlightening and disciplining of their minds and their preparation for ethical and active leadership in civic, cultural, and professional life.12

This seems to be more of a statement of core purpose than of mission. 

What then, is a mission statement, if it is not a statement of the core purpose, the raison d'être for the organization? 

Pitfall 3:  Crafting a Bland Mission Statement

Social psychologists have long recognized the importance of superordinate goals to the focused, productive, and united effort of human groups.  Superordinate goals, or what one set of researchers in the field call, "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals," when written down, are called "mission statements." 

It is generally agreed upon by scholars who have evaluated the efficacy of mission statements that in order to be effective, a mission statement should be:

• Audacious and bold in nature, so much so that it will normally take the institution at least 10 years to achieve the superordinate goal expressed in the mission statement.
• Written simply enough so that anyone inside or outside the organization can understand it.  It must be stated in such a way that it can be effectively orally communicated to outsiders very quickly, usually within just a minute or two. 

For example, in the 1940s, Stanford University's mission statement was, "Become the Harvard of the West."  Stanford's mission statement was short, bold, and compelling, and was internalized by the various members and stakeholders of the university.  It drove recruitment and retention policies, funding goals for research activities, and fund-raising standards for alumni and stakeholders.  A clear mission statement that is harmonious with an institution's core purpose and core values has the potential to direct policies, practices, and strategies in powerful, focused ways. Other examples of mission statements include the following13:

Again, let us review the current UTC Mission Statement.  It states:

The mission of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is the education of students: to assist in the enlightening and disciplining of their minds and their preparation for ethical and active leadership in civic, cultural, and professional life.

Within our current mission statement there is no statement of who or what we will become; while there is nothing really negative about this statement, it is not overly bold, audacious, or energizing in nature either.  In fact, one could insert the name of just about any academic institution into the statement, and it would fit.   Our current statement does not address issues such as: "Are we going to be the best medium-sized, public university in the Southeast at performing the activities in the statement?" Or  "are we going to perform these activities in unique, innovative ways that will differentiate our students from graduates of other universities?"  The current UTC mission statement has a status-quo, "business-as-usual" feel to it, in my view.   A mission statement should be compelling enough that when parents read it on our website, they should say to themselves, "Maybe I should send my child to UTC." 

Probably the prime challenge our Mission Review committee faces is to discern what our superordinate goal should be.

Pitfall 4:  Failure to Recognize the Symbiosis of Purpose, Values, and Mission.

Mission creation committees not only commonly mistake purpose and values for mission, but they often fail to perceive the symbiotic relationship between these three aspects of a social organization's culture as well.  In actuality, these three dimensions combine to form a meta-organizational concept, organizational vision.14   When these three dimensions are in congruence, the organizational vision becomes a functional, proactive causal agent within the institution, generating a multitude of positive amplifier effects.  Sony is a good example of a company that at one point in time had an integrated organizational vision that generated massive productivity over the long term.15

Sony's Organizational Vision

Core Values:

Elevation of the Japanese culture and national status

Being a pioneer--not following others; doing the impossible

Encouraging individual ability and creativity

Core Purpose:

To experience the sheer joy of innovation and the application of technology for the benefit and pleasure of the general public.

Mission Statement:

Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products.

Sony's organizational vision, like Stanford University's mission statement, provided a general but focused strategic conduit through which all subsequent decisions, plans, strategies, and policies were formed.  Their visions enabled these organizations to avoid drift, remain focused on the achievement of superordinate goals, and maintain high performance standards. 

All organizations have a core purpose and core values.  While some do not have a mission statement that is written down, they all have long-term goals of some sort, though often those goals are implicit and out of the conscious awareness of the organizations' members.  All organizations have a systemic organizational vision, but in many cases, the vision is dysfunctional in nature to one degree or another.  The degree to which the organizational vision is vague, implicit vs. explicit, and based upon values and purpose that are counterproductive to the work of the organization, is the degree that institutional drift, low productivity, and internal contention exist in that organization.  Collins and Porras observed from their research that:

Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world.  The dynamic of preserving the core while stimulating progress is the reason that [these companies] became elite institutions able to renew themselves and achieve superior long-term performance . . . Truly great companies understand the difference between what should never change and what should be open for change, between what is genuinely sacred and what is not.  This rare ability to manage continuity and change--requiring a consciously practiced discipline--is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision.  Vision provides guidance about what is core to preserve and what future to stimulate progress toward.16

Crafting a mission statement that joins with purpose and values into an explicit and powerful organizational vision is a difficult challenge for any organization.  Yet, the process can render important insights to both administrators and faculty as they jointly explore the corporate culture for core values, assess strengths and weaknesses, rethink priorities, and consider superordinate goals.  The committee that has been given the task of reviewing our mission statement deserves the total support of the UTC family, for if the Psalmist was right when he wrote, "where there is no vision, the people perish," then it is no small thing that they are undertaking.  

Addendum:  A Few Concluding Thoughts on Possible Strategic Initiatives

I was struck during last week's presentations by what some people in the local community envision for UTC.  Bill McClay observed that

These individuals want their university, this city's university, to have a visible mark of academic distinction. They want their university to have something extraordinary about it, something they can point to as a source of civic pride, something that can have national visibility. This is by no means an unreasonable desire. Neither is it a goal that is unachievable. On the contrary, we should be grateful for such patrons and constituents, who will push us to do better than we do now. The question is, what can we do, or propose to do, that will answer their hopes? If we cannot be a little Chapel Hill, what can we do?17

If achieving national/international prominence in selected academic niches becomes part of our mission, one strategic initiative that would fulfill that part of the mission would be the establishment of research centers.

Research Centers:  Phase I. Selection of the Domain of the Centers

The first phase in the establishment of research centers is to decide the appropriate scope of their domain.  It would seem reasonable that at UTC research centers must focus on academic sub-fields that are either newly emerging, or that have been somewhat overlooked by most scholars, in order to ensure that UTC can develop solid national/international reputations in these areas.  Many scholars in various fields ignore pedagogical research in favor of experimental and/or clinical research;  centers that focus on research on pedagogical issues might be a workable niche for UTC given its traditional focus on teaching excellence.

Research Centers:  Phase 2.  Forming a Critical Mass.

For a given research center to be effective quickly,  a critical mass of faculty in a college or department must decide to focus their research in a particular sub-field.  Such a focus would not mean that everyone would be limited to doing work solely in that field; rather, it would require that enough faculty would have at least "one-foot-in" the niche area to make up a critical mass of scholars for the center in question.  It may be that there are already at least two or three current faculty members already doing research in the sub-field; if so, a center can be built around their past and current research work.   The strategic hiring of at least one senior scholar who has already developed a reputation in the sub-field would also add to the critical mass necessary for the center to begin on a firm footing. 

Research Centers:  Phase 3.  Start-up.

The first one to two years of a given center's existence would involve a variety of activities, all strategically geared to increase the exposure of the center on a national level.  Such activities would include, but not be limited to: 1)  hosting of conferences, 2) center members' participation at national and international conferences, 3) creating and editing a new journal in the sub-field, 4) inviting scholars with strong reputations in the field to come to UTC to expose them to the center's activities, 5) development of a comprehensive website that is designed to become the nexus for information about the sub-field for scholars around the world; and 5)  a national marketing campaign that promotes the center's activities.

Within five to ten years a national reputation can be built by engaging in such a process.  I have seen this general pattern work at other institutions, but it requires financial and administrative support to do so. 

Centers serve as symbols of all that is excellent within a faculty; without such institutions it is often difficult for those external to UTC to perceive the quality of work and the good that our faculty do.  Centers act as a natural means by which quiet and often invisible excellence in teaching, research, and service of a faculty becomes known to others on a national and global scale.  Because centers reveal the strengths of faculty and their work, they are natural attractors for external funding, and over time they become fund generators in universities.  Foundations, federal grants, partnerships with other universities, and individual donors are easily attracted to a well-run, nationally prominent research center.  Research centers can, and should, become part of the university's fund raising arm.

Given the history of the financial support of UTC from the State of Tennessee, it behooves us institutionally to strategically prioritize where to send the lion's share of money that we receive from State appropriations.  Centers would be internal units at UTC upon which internal resources could and should be strategically focused. Rich Becherer18 addressed the idea that the revision of the UTC mission statement represents a unique opportunity to review the performance of individual units, reevaluate priorities, assess current strengths and weaknesses, and set a course for the future.  A viable mission statement should provide not just general energy to members of the organization, but aid in the prioritizing of programs for internal budgetary and human resource decision-making, as well.  I support this view, and refer the reader to his comments in this regard.  If national/international prominence is to be part of our mission, infrastructure to support institutional reputation building will need to be enhanced (e.g., public relations, placement services, technological support staff, webmasters, etc.).

Endnotes

1. See for example Alf J. Mapp, Jr.'s seminal historical analysis of the "golden age" societies of Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan England, and Colonial America in his work, "The Golden Ages: Discovering the Creative Secrets of Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan England, and America's Founding." Madison Books, 1999; James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, "Building Your Company's Vision," Harvard Business Review, September/October, 1996, 65-77;  Laurence D. Ackerman, "Identity is Destiny:  Leadership and the Roots of Value Creation," Berrett-Kohler Publishers, 2000.
2. Collins & Porras, 1996.
3. Collins & Porras, 1996, p. 67
4. Collins & Porras, 1996; http://www.thedixiegroup.com/about/about.html
5. Collins & Porras, 1996.
6. Collins & Porras, 1996, p. 67
7. See for example: http://www.thedixiegroup.com/about/about.html, http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/mission.html
8. Collins & Porras, 1996
9. Packard, D. Speech given to Hewlett-Packard's training group on March 8, 1960.
10. Ackerman, 2000.
11. Collins & Porras, 1996
12. http://www.utc.educurrent.htm
13. Collins & Porras, 1996
14. Collins & Porras, 1996
15. Lyons, N. "The Sony Vision." New York: Crown Publishers, 1976; Morita, A. "Made in Japan.
    New York: E.P.Dutton, 1988; Collins & Porras, 1996
16. Collins & Porras, 1996, pp. 65-66
17. McClay, W.M.  "Thoughts on Revision of UTC's Mission Statement." http://www.utc.eduMcClay.htm
18. Becherer, R.  "A Commentary on the Mission Review Process at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. http://www.utc.eduBecherer.htm