Mission statements of an organisation... Is it really that effective? Should it be
top-down or
bottom-up?
Today during English class, we listened to a recording about how to become a good manager. The first thing it said was,
"Throw out your mission statement!" Why? Because mission statements are fixed by top management and employees may not feel connected with the company as they are not involved in drafting the mission statements. Besides that, if you analyse the purpose of mission statement skeptically, actually mission statement is for promotional use only! The company set up a mission statement to present itself well in front of bankers, investors, potential employees, clients, etc. Inside the company, it is seldom used.
Well, in my opinion, I do agree that in certain extent, mission statement is
"for display" only... But mission statement also plays its part in sometimes. When I am searching for internship, I will look at the company's mission statements to get a glimpse of what the company is about. Even though I know that it may not portray the
REAL culture of that company, but at least it will provide a basic introduction about that company.
Besides that, by displaying mission statement to the public, this will help company to attract employees who are in sync with the company's objectives. It can help to pool talents and also reduce employee turnover rate.
Employees in general do not have any concrete perception about a company. It all goes back to the top management, who understands the best about the company and the direction it is heading, to line out the mission statements so that all employees have the same goal to pursue. If management wants to include employee's role in strategic planning of the company, maybe the management can ask for suggestions or feedback from employees after the employees are clear about the mission statement and have been working towards reaching the set goal for quite some time.
But for other things aside from mission statements, maybe bottom-up is more appropriate. For example, the bus issue of USM. USM administration changed the bus route without consulting the students. They are like the hawk's eye, sitting at the top and managing things, but they are not the people using the bus, students are! As predicted, the new bus route received lots of complaints from students. In the end, the admin has to revert back to the old bus route.
DeeJay should be studying for tomorrow's test, but...
Really can't find the motivation to kick-start my studying mood...
Seems to be distracted easily by the internet...... :(