Vision, Mission and Strategy Statements Term Paper

3. Statement Validation

a. From a theoretical standpoint, the value of the vision ad mission statements is that is unifies the entire company around a common direction and series of strategies. When used effectively, it can also galvanize an organization around a common set of values, making continual change management more effective and accomplishable over time (Price, Chahal, 2006). Additionally, the greater the alignment of mission, vision and strategic direction, the greater the level of willingness on the part of employees to change as their organizations require them to, they are collaborators in the change (Oakland, Tanner, 2007).

b. Vision, mission and strategy all drive change in the organization by setting a foundation of mutual understanding and insight into why change is necessary to begin with. The greater the change required within any organization the higher the level of trust needed to make all the changes necessary for growth permanent (Oakland, Tanner, 2007). Any organization can create vision, mission and value statements, in addition to strategies to drive change, yet the most successful ones all center on how to bring the people involved in making these initiatives successful into the equation or overall strategy (Nelissen, 2008).Creating greater levels of trust throughout an organization is a prerequisite for the effective use of vision and mission statements over the long-term.

c. Conversely, vision and mission statements can act as constraints on strategic performance over time as well, as they often can limited the number of alternatives a company will consider. Relying too much on vision and mission statements can also lead to a more myopic or very narrowly focused view of market opportunities and risks, leading companies to seek a middle ground that leads to mediocre performance over time. Instead of this approach to managing organizations, agility and focus on being more attuned to major shifts in customer needs and markets need to guide vision and mission statements over time.

References

Nelissen, P. (2008). Surviving organizational change: How management communication helps balance mixed feelings. Corporate Communications, 13(3), 306-318.

Oakland, J.S., & Tanner, S. (2007). Successful change management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 18(1), 1-1.

Price, a.D.F., & Chahal, K. (2006). A strategic framework for change management. Construction Management and Economics, 24(3), 237-251.

Stanleigh,….....