Organizational Purpose, Mission, and Philosophy
Of all the variables that make up the internal environment, organizational purpose, mission, and philosophy should be examined first because it is here that one gains an understanding of the mission and vision that is intended to provide the logic and the organizing theme for all the other variables. Brody (1993) describes a mission statement as follows:
A good mission statement should be lofty and inspiring, concise, capable of being easily understood and remembered, should reflect the organization’s fundamental purpose, and should indicate what the organization wants to accomplish in relation to the beneficiaries of its work. (pp. 46–47)
Mission statements should be stated in terms of the agency’s projected ideal outcomes for the populations served. For example, an adoption agency may state that its mission is that every child who comes for service will achieve his or her fullest potential in a loving and nurturing adoptive home. As an inspirational statement, the mission provides the basis for the shared vision that Peters and Waterman (1982) found to be a necessary ingredient for excellent organizations.
Organizations sometimes attempt to accomplish too much with a mission statement and incorporate program description as well. When a mission statement includes the term provide or some synonym, the statement goes beyond the definition of mission to program description. The National Network for Social Work Managers (1994) presents what it calls the organization platform, depicted in Figure 3.2.
The National Network for Social Work Managers (1994) defines each of the terms as follows: 72 P A R T I I Managing the Organization
Products and Services
Goals
Culture
Vision
Mission
Beliefs
More Specific
F I G U R E 3 . 2

Beliefs: Your credo, the philosophical underpinnings, values that