Analyze the Statement against the 5 distinct precepts
An organization’s mission and vision statements are essential for adequate corporate culture and competitive value-based functioning of an organization in its respective environment. While a company’s mission statement defines the performance and the objectives the organization aims to achieve, a vision statement primarily focuses on the future state the organization envisions. The school’s designed vision statement is as follows: “The vision of my organization is to inspire and prepare our students for a competitive global community. We will instill in them critical thinking skills, a desire for learning, and a respect for the core values of integrity, compassion, and perseverance.” The effectiveness of this statement might be analyzed according to five factors to identify its weaknesses and strengths.
Attracts Commitment and Energizes People
Firstly, the presented vision statement is articulated in a clear and concise manner that allows for attracting commitment and motivates involved stakeholders to perform to the best of their ability. Indeed, as stated by Bora et al. (2017), a vision statement identifies the business strategy of an organization by indicating the aspirations and future achievements. The analyzed vision statement reflects the business goal of the school and validates the performance of the involved parties for an improved community where students raised in the school will be influential decision-makers. The commitment aspect of the vision statement is implied in the long-term goals of preparing students for a competitive global community, which requires professionalism and engagement of employees. On the other hand, the positive approach to articulating the driving forces of the change the organization is aimed at energizes individuals to contribute their competencies and experience to the commonly beneficial endeavor.
Creates Meaning in Workers’ Lives
Secondly, in order to create meaning in employee’s professional lives, a vision statement should articulate the outcomes of their work and the impact of the achieved goals on the community and the society as a whole. The vision statement is expected to be “distinctive, motivating, and clear,” and at the same time, it “should be realistic and measurable” so that not only the organization but also employees can identify whether their goals are achievable (Fulea et al., 2018, p. 75). In such a manner, a powerful vision statement provides workers with a meaning of life by introducing agendas that empower them and demonstrate that their skills and knowledge are required to lead the organization toward its envisioned future. The analyzed vision statement implicitly provides the school workers with meaning in their lives by outlining the core values and long-term goals that can potentially change the lives of a new generation.
Establishes a Standard of Excellence
Thirdly, the analyzed vision statement is designed in a way that sets high performance standards and demands full integrity and outstanding performance results. Since the organization is a school where teachers are providing intellectual services, the setting of performance excellence standards is particularly important. According to Bowen (2018), “although vision statements may originate with key founders or visionary leaders, many scholars view vision as originating from organizational culture” (p. 1). The organizational culture of the school is validated by the core values of integrity, responsibility, and excellence. Therefore, when stating that the organization will instill critical thinking, learning, and value respect in students, it is implied that the workers are expected to perform these skills at an exceptional level to be able to share their experience with students. Thus, the vision statement establishes a standard of excellence but in a somewhat implicit form without directly identifying skills or competencies workers must have to achieve the outlined goals.
Bridges the Present to the Future
Fourthly, the core characteristic of a well-developed vision statement is establishing the future state of an organization through a well-led performance of all stakeholders. The strategy and commitment of the leaders predetermine the highlights of a vision statement, which illustrates the leadership’s aspirations for the purpose of the organization (Bowen, 2018). The analyzed vision statement directly addresses the future through the perspective of the present state of the organization. It is indicated that the school will instill particular skills in students to prepare them to live in a competitive global community. The future of society is integrated into the vision statement emphasizing the central role of the educational institution in preparing the young generation for the upcoming social changes. However, the present state of affairs is not articulated in the vision statement, which makes it unclear how the future relates to the current state.
Transcends the Status Quo
Fifthly, for a vision statement to be effective and illustrative of the organizational goals, it should introduce the perspectives for outperforming the current achievements. The current version of the school vision statement does not explicitly address how the status quo will be transcended. It is implied that continuous improvements are planned to meet the challenges of the ever-evolving competitive global community. However, the vision would benefit from the clear identification of how the current achievements will be outperformed. In such a manner, workers will be more motivated, and the overall purpose of the organization adequately validated from the perspective of continuous development.
Explain why you either are or are not inspired by your organization’s Vision Statement
The vision statement of my organization inspires me because it sets high standards for excellent performance while clearly presenting the benefits the employees’ work will bring to a whole generation of young students. The inspiration’s source is in the articulation of the particular skills that are necessary for an individual to be a successful member of a competitive global society. The understanding that I might be able to contribute to the community through the organization empowers and encourages me to challenge myself and perform to the best of my ability.
Explain what you would change to improve the vision statement and present a rewrite of such in this space
Since the vision does not clearly identify the present state of the organization’s performance when bridging present and future, it might be beneficial to enhance this aspect by stating that the current achievements will be improved. In such a manner, both bridging the present to the future and the pursuit for excellence will be explicitly addressed. In addition, the feature of transcending the status quo will also be sufficiently addressed. Thus, the changed version of the vision statement might be as follows: a changed version of the vision statement might be as follows: “The vision of my organization is to inspire and prepare our students for a competitive global community. We will commit to the continuous improvement of performance to instill in them critical thinking skills, a desire for learning, and a respect for the core values of integrity, compassion, and perseverance.”
References
Bora, B., Borah, S., & Chungyalpa, W. (2017). Crafting strategic objectives: Examining the role of business vision and mission statements. Journal of Entrepreneurship & Organization Management, 6(1), 1-6.
Bowen, S. A. (2018). Mission and vision. In R. L. Heath and W. Johansen (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of strategic communication (pp. 1-9). John Wiley & Sons.
Fulea, M., Stelian, B. R. A. D., Mocan, B., & Murar, M. (2018). Framework for building a service vision statement. Acta Technica Napocensis Series: Applied Mathematics, Mechanics, and Engineering, 61, 75-84.