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Organizational Goals

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Abstract
Mission statements and organizational goals have evolved dramatically over the past twenty years. Once a mission statement was a simple statement that conveyed why the organization existed. Now, that same statement may include information about supporting sustainability and corporate responsibility. This document will look at trends within mission statements and goals. Organizational Goals
According to dictionary.com, a goal is defined as the result or achievement toward which the effort is directed. For each goal that an organization sets, it also sets objectives. Objectives are short-term targets with measurable results. Without clearly-defined goals and objectives, organizations will have trouble coordinating activities and forecasting future events (Marler, 2013). Virtually every business has a goal or goals that they want to accomplish. Most start with mission statements that tell us why the organization exists and state goals on what they hope to achieve. One of the most comprehensive mission statements that review their goals in terms of leadership, quality and value, profits, ethics, and social responsibility is Caterpillar (King, Case, and Premo, 2010).
Caterpillar
Caterpillar will be the leader in providing the best value in machines, engines, and support services for customers dedicated to building the world’s infrastructure and developing and transporting its resources. We provide the best value to customers.
Caterpillar people will increase shareholder value by aggressively pursuing growth and profit opportunities that leverage our engineering, manufacturing, distribution, information management and financial services expertise. We grow profitably.
Caterpillar will provide its worldwide workforce with an environment that stimulates diversity, innovation, teamwork, continuous learning and improvement and rewards individual performance. We develop and reward people.
Caterpillar is dedicated to improving the quality of life while sustaining the quality of our earth. We encourage social responsibility.

Mission Statements
During the 1990’s more than half of United States businesses had some sort of mission or vision statement which had increased from previous years (as cited in Cady, Wheeler, DeWolf, and Brodke, 2011). We saw mission statements of 2000 bring in ethics and a study done by King et al., indicated that only nine percent of organizations spoke of the environment. In recent years, ethical practices and “going green” to protect the environment have been extremely important goals for all business organizations.
Starbucks is one organization that has embraced the ethical practices and the green initiative. The Starbucks mission statement reads: To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. It goes on to state their principles of how they strive live every day. Those principles include: Our Coffee, Our Partners (employees), Our Customers, Our Stores, Our Neighborhood, Our Shareholders (www.starbucks.com). Starbucks goes one step further with a Responsibility page on their website where they promise to have a positive balance on profitability and social conscience which includes how they will work with the community, minimizing their environmental footprint, offering ethically purchased and responsibly produced products, offering healthier food options, and as well as committing to diversity.
In the 2000 mission statements, only three percent included business ethics which increased to thirty percent in 2008 (King et al., 2010). And after the Enron scandal and passing of Sarbanes-Oxley which called for an ethics code, more and more organizations started including ethics in their statements. In researching various organizations, it was interesting to see that several do not have visions statements or have combine their mission and vision statements and one, Transfirst, LLC., has a corporate culture statement in place of a vision statement.

Organizational Success Little research has been done on the relationship between mission statements and company performance however, organizational statements like mission and vision statements still seem to hold value (as cited in Cady, Wheeler, Wolf, and Brodke, 2011). In the Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship study they look at the comparison of performance of firms with mission statements versus those without mission statements and offer that findings have been conflicting and inconclusive. There seems to be differing conclusions regarding the impact of mission statement presence on a firm's financial performance. As cited in Smith, Heady, Carson, and Carson (2013) they did not find any correlation between performance and having a mission statement. However other studies as they cite as Campbell and colleagues reported a positive relationship between mission statement presence and firm performance. Depending on what factors or variables could play a role in the outcome of the study.

Conclusion
Many things in corporate America have changed over the past several years. Once it was acceptable to just state why an organization was in business and you would probably see something like, “to make the world’s best widget and to make a profit”. Consumers demand more from the organization they support. They want to know that in the process of making the product they consume that the organization will be socially responsible and ethical. Although there is a small amount of research conducted on organizations with mission statements and their success it would be interesting to see if at some point a conclusive study could be conducted.

References
Cady, S., Wheeler, V., DeWolf, Brodke, M., (2011). Mission, vision, and values: What do they say? Organization Development Journal Volume 29 _ Number 1 _ Spring 2011

King, D., Case, C., Premo, K. (2010). Current mission statement emphasis: Be ethical and go global, Academy of Strategic Management Journal, Volume 9, Number 2, 2010

Marler, L. (21013). Goals and goal setting. Reference for Business, Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ex-Gov/Goals-and-Goal-Setting.html#ixzz2HLcU2cgw

Smith, M., Heady, R., Carson, P., Carson, K., (2013). Do missions accomplish their missions? An exploratory analysis of mission statement content and organizational longevity. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, http://www.huizenga.nova.edu/Jame/articles/mission-statement-content.cfm

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