Essence of Vision and Mission Statements

Introduction

Vision is a set target or aim to which an individual or a group wants to achieve (Clawson 2008, pp.122-123). It serves as the guiding light towards which everyone that shares in the vision will look up to so that they can remember what they need to achieve as per given period of time. In any relevant field the importance of vision in leadership cannot be underemphasized.

For any individual or group of individuals at the helm of any company, organization, team, group or even firm, how well they execute the vision, whether the vision is corporate or individual, determine the progress of the organization and affect even the least member of the group (Kouzes and Posner 2007, pp. 46-59). Having a vision is vital in the in the attainment of the set targets. Northouse (2008, p. 96) explains that this is realized when, even the weakest member of the team, has to shun his weakness and focus on the set goal by getting in sync with the vision for the organization.

A Mission statement is a formal written statement of the purpose of an organization. It acts as the basis of reference to guide the actions of the organization and provides the context within which the strategies of the organization are made. Mission statements give emphasis on the commitment of the organization to meet the needs of the relevant field or client (Clawson 2008, pp. 117-121). It is a bold way of telling the client or any person who wishes to get involved with the organization what you will or will not do so that you can achieve what is best for the organization. Vision and mission statements are core in giving a comprehensive overview of what the organization is expected to do and also what is to be expected by any client who wants to indulge the services of the organization.

According to Clawson (2008, p 67), visions and mission statements are challenged and experience a lot of difficulty being realized in cases where not everyone understands their importance and therefore some leaders slacken in their implementation. Kouzes, Posner (2007, pp. 6-20) argue that if a leader is poor in vision implementation, those looking up to him loose focus and that is disastrous.

Case Study

Nike Company’s mission statement states that “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete, in the world, if you have a body, you are an athlete.” They aspire to make their clientele get satisfactory services from their customer service and for their products to be able to meet the expectations of the client. They also aspire to meet the needs of their diverse clients. Looking at this mission statement we gather that we should expect for any queries we have about products to be addressed appropriately as well as us to be handled with care. Consequently, the products we aspire to purchase or inquire about should be able to meet our specifications or need.

Analysis of Mission Statements

Such a mission statement demands for each employee to be very customer-oriented and they should be ready to handle each customer with a lot of expertise and finesse. They should also be able to guide the customer accordingly so that the customer can get value for their money. Every employee should be the image of the administration of the company in that they can handle clients’ needs and problems at the basic level.

Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Mission Statements

In assessing whether the company is true to its mission statement we realize that though we may say that Nike products are of utmost quality and they cannot be questioned when it comes to performance, we have the problem of them serving only a specific field of sports and this causes there to be a lot of sidelined clientele in the virtue of the client not being a sportsman. Moreover, since the clients in the sporting field are dynamic in their needs and specifications, the company gets a little left behind sometimes in addressing these dynamic needs. The growing number of clientele also warrants a large customer service which has also been a little slow in coming. Though the current customer service has been almost impeccable, the backlog sometimes frustrates clients.

Impact of Effectiveness of Mission Statements

Such instances as discussed above can have both negative and positive impacts on the employees of the company in that being true to the mission statement in product quality ensures that you have a steady client base since most clients prefer quality. This is good for employees get good wages and they also get experience on how to handle diverse range of clients. On the other hand, the backlog in customer service as well as not being able to meet the demands of the bigger percentage of the population [those who are not sportsmen or women] render the company toothless against competitors who cater the whole range of clientele. Not being able to cater for the needs of all clients also puts a lot of pressure on the employees to perform beyond normal performance expectations so that they can take the company to new levels.

Conclusion

As studied in class, mission statements and visions are the pillars on which all the strategies in a company are formulated and thus are very important in winning any organization or group trust from clients since they are the lighthouse to guide the many ships [clients] as well as the basis of evaluation by anyone wishing indulgence with the organization.

References

Clawson, J.G. (2008), Level three leadership: Getting below the surface (Edn.) 4, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 67-123.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2007), Leadership challenges (Edn) 4, San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 6-59.

Northouse, P.G. (2008), An Introduction to leadership. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishings, 96.