How readable are mission statements? An exploratory study

Abstract

PurposeMission statements are fairly ubiquitous, particularly among large organizations. However, if they are to have a chance of achieving the desired positive outcomes, they must first be readable and comprehensible to the targeted stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue, to answer the question of whether the mission statements of large companies are readable or not.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis and appropriate scores were employed to investigate the readability of the mission statements collected from a random sample of 100 firms in the Fortune 500 annual rankings.FindingsThe results indicate that on average, the mission statements of the studied companies are not that readable, and that in the case of many of them, the mission statements assume the readings skills of a university graduate.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this paper suggest that if the target audience of a mission statement is broad, and includes stakeholders such as customers and lower level employees, then firms would do well to test the readability of their mission statements, and revise them where necessary. Mission statements are not the only tools that organizations use to communicate with stakeholder. This encourages future research on readability analysis of other communication tools in firms. A larger sample of companies and other approaches to measure readability can be included in future research.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the related literature, as the level of readability of mission statements has received limited attention in the past.

Determining Mission Statement Effectiveness from a Fit Perspective

“…The PMSB construct represents organisation strategic alignment to the mission statement. There are no surprises here as the results support past studies which indicated the importance of mission statement clarity for organisational strategic alignment Bart, 1997;Desmidt et al, 2011;Sattari et al, 2011;Stone, 1996) and strategic alignment is positively linked to organisation outcomes (Braun et al, 2012;Koon, 2015). Furthermore, the results indicate that strategic alignment contributes positively towards a fit situation which is in line with Guest (1994) who suggested that human resource practices like recruitment, orientation and training can contribute towards sustaining shared norms and values.…”

“…Past studies have shown that clarity in the mission statement (MC) is important for alignment of organisational arrangements (Bart, Archer, & Ghasemzadeh, 1998;Bart, 1997;Sattari, Pitt, & Caruana, 2011;Stone, 1996). The perception of mission statement clarity by key managers who are directly involved in managing business and people is important because managers play an active role in the strategic and cultural alignment of the organisation with the mission statement.…”

The readability of integrated reports

“…The regulation to enhance "Plain English" is to ensure that companies use clear language, avoid vague language to hide negative information, and ensure that all investors can understand disclosures and make informed decisions (Li, 2008). Readability is the cornerstone of understandability, since a document that is easy to read facilitates comprehension, retention, reading speed, and reading persistence (Sattari, Pitt, & Caruana, 2011). The SEC handbook on plain English writing alludes to six principles, namely short sentences, everyday language, active voice, tables and bulleted lists where possible, not legal or business jargon, and no double negatives (Li, 2008).…”

Transformational Organizational Change, Reinforcing Structures, and Formal Communication

“…Results are mixed as to whether or not mission statements actually influence an organization's performance (Sattari et al 2011;Williams 2008). Some mission statements are too vague, irrelevant, unrealistically inspirational, not truthful or representative, or unreadable.…”