Part 2 Assignment

The importance of a mission statement to an organization cannot be gainsaid. Firstly, it defines an organization’s direction. Among other aspects, the responsibilities of the internal stakeholders are guided by the mission statement. Further, the mission statement offers information to the external stakeholders regarding the expected impact of an organization’s future plan on them (Moseley, 2009). As such, an organization needs to have an effective mission statement.

The mission statement “Above and beyond customer satisfaction” is effective for an organizational department that deals with customers, such customer relationship and sales and marketing departments. There are several reasons why it is effective. To start with, it is short, brief and precise. Secondly, the fact that it is brief and precise makes it easy for the audience to memorize (Moseley, 2009). Thirdly, it is operational in the sense that it describes what an organization’s internal stakeholders intend to do and it informs customers what the organization intends to do. Also, it is realistic since it is possible for an organization to work towards meeting and even exceeding customers’ satisfaction. Also, it is unique to a department that deals with customers (Moseley, 2009). Lastly, the statement is broad to the extent that it can allow modification in case of need.

However, the mission statement is not sufficient for a whole organization with other departments besides those that deal with customers directly. This is due to the fact that it lacks some of the important aspects needed for a comprehensive organizational mission statement. The mission statement is mainly directed to the customers. As Moseley (2009) explains, a comprehensive mission statement should touch on the interests of every organizational stakeholder. It is possible for an organization to focus on satisfying customers’ needs, yet the means of production are harmful to the surrounding community. The mission statement stated above fails to consider the interests of stakeholders such as surrounding communities, creditors, government agencies and workers. Thus, the statement is not recommendable for an organization.

The intended audience for a mission statement should be people who are affected by the practices and activities of an organization. For instance, the audience for a mission statement of a human resource department is mainly the employees. In the same vein, the mission statement for a marketing department ought to be addressed to the customers as the main audience. It is vital to address a mission statement to the audience who are affected in order to show them that their interests have been taken into consideration and the organization aims to meet them (Moseley, 2009).

In my view, the most important attribute of a mission statement is that it should be operational. This is due to the fact that the mentioned attribute encompasses many other important attributes of a mission statement. For instance, an operational attribute is unique to an organization or a department, it is memorable, it is brief and precise, it is realistic and it defines what an organization is going to do or is doing to meet the interests of the targeted audience (Moseley, 2009). In short, organizations ought to design mission statements that are operational.

References

Moseley, G. B. (2009). Managing Health Care Business Strategy. London: Jones & Bartlett

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