Vision, Mission, and Ethics in Organizations
Vision, Mission, and Ethics in Organizations
Introduction
Individuals, partners, or groups of people establish new business entities for various purposes. The purposes depend on the interests of the founders or incorporators, as well as various factors that would ensure the success of the business endeavor. During the conceptualization stage, the proprietors would usually define vision as well as mission statements, including code of ethics that would provide the direction that the organization intends to achieve. The current report hereby aims to present the importance of a code of ethics, as well as the mission and vision statements when starting a new business. Moreover, an explanation on the purpose of each, identification of the key elements for each, and explanation on how they can affect the success of a business would also be provided.
The mission statement is described as an explicit pronouncement of the organization’s reason for existence including the way by which it “aims to serve its stakeholders” . On the other hand, the vision statement is a futuristic communication that describes the direction or ultimate goal that the organization intends to attain. As emphasized, the mission and vision statements exemplify three (3) critical roles: (1) to disseminate the objective of the business entity to stakeholders, (2) to advise stakeholders of the designed strategies, and finally, (3) to create the appropriately defined objectives that would effectively measure the effectiveness of attaining the designed strategies (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2017).
Purpose
The purpose of the mission statement is to communicate the rationale for the organization’s being for informative function. Concurrently, the purpose of the vision statement is to serve as guiding principles for stakeholders that would assist in their behavior and decision-making towards achievement of the defined goal.
Key Elements
The key elements of a mission statement are as follows: it identifies (1) who is being served (the target market), (2) what is being served (the product or services offered), and (3) what distinguishes the organization from others (core competencies or competitive advantages) . On the contrary, the key elements of a vision statement include answering where the organization wants to go (the target direction), in what specific time frame (in the next five years, for instance), and how the goal is to be achieved (the strategy).
The Role of Leadership in Promoting the Vision, Mission, and Ethical Principles
Leaders play an important role in promoting the vision, mission, and ethical principles of the organization. The serve as the designers of these statements, as well as in developing the strategies that would help the stakeholders perform their responsibilities to achieve the explicitly defined goals .
The code of ethics contains guiding principles that direct stakeholders in the organization to behave and conduct business according to ethical, moral, and legal standards.
Purpose
Key Elements
The key elements of a code of ethics are as follows: (1) the introductory letter from the
CEO or the organization’s topmost leader; (2) the company’s mission and vision statements, as well as values and principles; (3) ethical decision framework to guide employees in decision-making; (4) a listing of resources for obtaining guidance or reporting suspected misconduct; (5) a listing of additional policies or procedures, as well as ethics and compliance resources; (6) “enforcement and implementation mechanisms that address the notion of accountability and discipline for unethical behavior” ; and (7) examples of what constitute ethical and unethical behavior .
Relationship Between a Company’s Code of Ethics and its Mission and Vision Statements
As learned, the code of ethics that is developed by the organization should contain the mission and vision statements, as well as values and principles, the manner by which the stakeholders are guided towards problem-solving, as well as the core values and standards of performance for operating the business (Investopedia, LLC, 2017). Likewise, the mission and vision statements are supposed to be integrated in the code of ethics so that the stakeholders would be apprised on the objectives and goals, the direction that the organization intends to achieve, as well as the explicitly designed strategies to achieve these goals. The code of ethics would thereby assist the stakeholders in behaving in the manner that is appropriate, especially when faced with ethical issues and concerns.
Conclusion
New businesses are established with the recommendation that mission and vision statements, as well as code of ethics, being explicitly written and communicated to the stakeholders. As acknowledged, the mission and vision statements communicate the business’ reason for existence as well as the direction it intends to pursue. The code of ethics provides the guiding principles that assist stakeholders in behaving in the most ethical manner to ensure that the explicitly defined goals are effectively attained.
References
Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2017). 4.1 The Roles of Mission, Vision, and Values. Retrieved from flatworldknowledge.com: http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/5?e=carpenter-ch04_s01
Deloitte. (n.d.). Suggested Guidelines for Writing a Code of Ethics/Conduct. Retrieved from deloitte.com: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/il/Documents/risk/CCG/other_comittees/932__suggested_guidelines_writing_code_ethics_conduct0805.pdf
Investopedia, LLC. (2017). Code Of Ethics. Retrieved from investopedia.com: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-ethics.asp
Millard, S. (2010, December 7). Characteristics of Mission and Vision Statements . Retrieved from University of Hawaii: https://hilo.hawaii.edu/strategicplan/documents/SPC18_10_Mission_and_Vision.pdf
