MISSIONS AND POSTURES
Just try searching the phrase 'mission statements' on the web and you will find that it is very common for organizations to have them. That word 'mission', alone, has religious connotations, but when you look at many mission statements, you will find that the religious fervour does not stop there. Here's a typical extract from a real mission statement:
To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions.
The concept of humans as being 'mind, body and spirit', is straight out of a church catechism; and 'inspire' is not far off religion either. Then there is the general flavour of the desire to 'do good' in the form of optimism and happiness. It almost makes us forget that the organization this comes from is primarily concerned with making a financial profit!
This realization then leads us to the role of posture in Management Magic. Those who created this mission statement are merely reflecting the beliefs and values that are supposed to permeate the organization that employs them. Whether they actually believe them or not is another matter. Just as in The Warning Comes True they are pressurised into lying. They are under pressure, consciously or unconsciously, to assent to and assert these beliefs and values. take on a posture of being believers in, and missionaries for, a concept or image of the organization that, in reality, is a fiction. What actually happens is that those who seek to benefit from the organization in terms of financial or personal gain, project the mission statement image of the organization like some religious belief or magic spell, while having very material or financial personal reasons which have little to do with mind, body and spirit, or any other altruistic objective.
Missions Statements are not management reality; they are management lies.
