Companies boast good intentions in mission statements but rarely put their words in action

Organisations worldwide need to start putting their company mission statements into action, rather than simply paying lip service to their good intentions. A survey by leading attitude research specialists, Sirota Survey Intelligence, has revealed great employee scepticism about whether their organisationís mission or vision statements are ever translated into practice.

Nick Starritt, managing director, Sirota Europe said: ìThese findings are a huge disappointment. Such statements can be enormously helpful to guide and inspire a workforce. They provide employees with both an overarching purpose for their individual efforts and basic decision-making criteria and companies such as IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Walt Disney, for example are good examples of companies where employees feel very positive about the overall company statements ñ and it shows up in their level of commitment. But when they are seen as empty rhetoric, they do more harm than good.î

Sirota, which has surveyed more than three million employees world wide over the last ten years, believes failure to make statements credible is rarely a result of insufficient effort spent on their wording. A lot of time is usually devoted to that, with major input from senior management ñ often at two to three day retreats. Instead, it has highlighted three main reasons why these statements are only sporadically implemented:

- The most important reason is that, despite the resources devoted to composing these statements, their importance to senior management soon slips by the wayside, leaving the workforce feel as though their bosses are merely expressing good intentions, and not acting upon them. ä The statementsí phrasing can be so general that they seem meaningless or so concrete and detailed that they become un-inspirational. ä Other than telling everyone about the statement, the company lacks an effective method to translate it into a daily reality that endures over time.

Nick added: ìProviding an organisation with purpose and principles of which employees can be proud, and to which they will willingly and enthusiastically devote their skill and energy is vital. But having noble purposes ñ for customers, community and so on, rings hollow if employees are treated shabbily. But conceiving of employees as working ëjust for a livingí and the corporation as strictly an economic entity misses a vital element of human nature: the need to do something that matters and to do it well. No one wants to work for a company where for example ëQualityí posters are pinned all over the walls, but the foreman tells his workers the most important thing is to just get the pieces out of the door.î

Sirotaís surveys continue to reveal that people the world over, regardless of age, gender or position want to work for ethical companies. They donít want to produce work of a mediocre quality. Enthusiasm about oneís company requires a company with purpose, especially in relation to its customers and principles.