Make communication central to achieving your organization’s mission

Your organization’s mission statement is vital because it defines the organization’s purpose and reason for existence. The mission statement should be about the core solutions your leaders believe the organization provides in society.

Incidentally, a mission is not about making a profit or delivering a return on investment to shareholders, which are by-products of achieving the mission.

Organizational mission or purpose provides a consistent guide for strategic decisions. Once the statement is finalized, many other vital management practices should flow from it such as strategic planning, culture and values development, employee engagement, and communication strategy.

Top management and strategy teams work hard to develop a mission statement. It is important for the head of communication to be included in this development process because a good mission statement relates to key stakeholders, especially employees, customers, shareholders, and financiers, who are the domain of the communication function.

A mission statement can be written for any organization, large and small, including individual business units and departments within an organization, and PR consultancies.

A mission statement is different from a vision statement, which states where the organization wishes to be, its desired state at a future time if management’s intentions are achieved.

Mission of the PR/communication department

Many business units such as operating divisions develop their own mission to support the organization’s mission. And in turn, the PR department can develop its own mission statement to clarify its role and direction. The mission of the typical PR department is to:

• Collect and analyze information on changing trends in the external environment that will affect the organization’s relationships with stakeholders
• Act as the central channel of communication between the organization and its stakeholders
• Communicate significant information to keep stakeholders aware of organizational policies and actions
• Coordinate activities that affect the organization’s relationships with its stakeholders.

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