defining mission statements in higher education towards a genre perspective

• DOI: 10.1111/hequ.12378
• Corpus ID: 246807314

Defining mission statements in higher education: Towards a genre perspective

• Iman Aib , Wasima Shehzad
• Published in Higher Education Quarterly 11 February 2022

3 Citations

Visions and missions: stance in the marketisation discourse of selected ghanaian universities, higher education and ‘marketization of intellect’: university admission advertisements from a genre perspective, characterizing public classical schools: promotional language in mission and vision statements, 42 references, marketisation of higher education: a genre analysis of university prospectuses in pakistan, internationalisation of higher education in malaysia and the philippines: a comparative analysis of mission and vision statements of selected universities, what do mission statements reveal about the values of top universities in the world, mapping the mission statements of u.s. lcme-accredited medical schools: an exploration of organizational communalities, entrepreneurship in higher education: the impact of competition-based policy programmes exemplified by the german excellence initiative, universities’ attractiveness to students: the darwinism effect, negotiating the tensions: a critical study of international schools’ mission statements, three dimensions of effective mission implementation, promoting a city's core values using evaluative language, new public management reforms in the italian universities: managerial tools, accountability mechanisms or simply compliance, related papers.

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Mission and Diversity Statements: What They Do and Do Not Say

• Published: 09 August 2011
• Volume 37 , pages 125–139, ( 2012 )

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• Jeffery L. Wilson 1 ,
• Katrina A. Meyer 1 &
• Larry McNeal 1  

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For this study we used institutional web sites to examine the mission statements of 80 higher education institutions for messages about diversity. Of the 80 institutions, 59 (75%) referenced diversity in their mission statements; but only 19% defined diversity in racial or ethnic terms. In addition to mission statements, 52 (or 65%) of the 80 institutions had a separate diversity statement; but only 18 of these were an official institutional statement. These treatments of diversity are interesting in light of the changing demographics of the incoming college student population and the recognized need for greater cultural development or awareness on campuses. If mission and diversity statements reflect the priorities of the institution, 35% of the institutions in the sample said nothing about diversity.

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Wilson, J.L., Meyer, K.A. & McNeal, L. Mission and Diversity Statements: What They Do and Do Not Say. Innov High Educ 37 , 125–139 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-011-9194-8

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Published : 09 August 2011

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-011-9194-8

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Mission statements in higher education: Context analysis and research propositions

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main issues that deal with higher education institutions’ mission statements, from a marketing perspective. It has long been argued in the literature that missions represent the foundation upon which institutions build their strategic plans, and that they should be the first step any institution takes before designing its strategy. Mission statements have also been linked to the institutions’ performance, and to the successful implementation of their strategies. Based on a review of the most recent literature in the field of higher education, the paper explains why missions appear as a relevant tool for the activity of higher education institutions, and provides insights into the way in which these institutions should engage in mission development. The main problems sorrounding the development and implementation of missions are also discussed, with emphasis on their contribution in providing educational institutions with a clear direction when faced with the changing environment. Furthermore, given the fact that some authors argue the ineffectiveness of mission statements, the paper sets to establish whether they should still be given the same importance within higher education institutions, or should they be cast aside. Considering the contribution of higher education to society, we also discuss the topic of universities’ third mission, service to society, which is beginning to be more and more embraced and implemented by higher education institutions. Throughout the paper, we argue that missions hold a significant role, and that is to provide universities with a course of action, and to guide them towards fulfilling their purpose within society. The authors complete the discussion by suggesting a number of research directions in the final sections of the paper, that show a large potential both for helping educational managers to improve their institutions’ activity, and for building richer theories of marketing management.

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This article explores the factors affecting the content of universities' mission statements. We conceptualize missions as identity narratives, a type of symbolic representation of an organization. Based on the literature on organizational identity we argue that universities need to address two major challenges when crafting their mission statements, i) to pursuit legitimacy in spite of multiple and competing expectations, and ii) to properly balance similarity and distinctiveness from other universities. We identify factors that affect this strategic effort and develop hypotheses that we test in the empirical context of the United Kingdom's higher education system. Results show that i) among competing expectations, universities choose claims that are plausible to external constituents and consistent with the values of internal members, and that ii) they adopt claims similar to universities belonging to the same organizational form while differentiating from geographically closer universities in order to reduce competitive overlap.

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