Code of Ethics, Mission and Vision Statement for Companies

Scenario

Suppose you have been hired by a small group of partners who are in the process of starting a new business. The business will design, produce, and sell an innovative product to the biomedical industry.

The partners have a great deal of experience designing products but very little knowledge about starting a business. Due to the sensitive nature of the new business, you feel that the partners need to develop a code of ethics and a mission and vision statement for the company.

They do not agree. You need to write a white paper (a document providing information on a topic) to convince them that this is an important step in establishing a new business.

Instructions

Based on the scenario above, develop a white paper on the importance of mission and vision statements and a code of ethics. Use the Week 4 Assignment Template [DOCX] to develop your white paper with the following sections.

Purpose of Mission and Vision Statements.

Explain the purpose of mission and vision statements using real-world examples and supporting evidence.

Key Elements of Mission and Vision Statements.

Identify key elements within mission and vision statements and explain why the elements are important for a company.

Purpose of a Code of Ethics.

Explain the purpose of a code of ethics and why the code should be directed toward all stakeholders, including leadership, employees, and customers.

Key Elements of a Code of Ethics.

Identify key elements within a code of ethics and explain why the elements are important for a company.

Relationship Between a Company’s Mission and Vision Statements and Its Code of Ethics.

Explain the relationship between a company’s mission and vision statements and its code of ethics in terms of strategic management.

Role of Leadership in Promoting and Supporting the Mission, Vision, and Code of Ethics.

Explain the role of an organisation’s leadership in promoting and supporting the mission, vision, and ethical principles of the organisation, and discuss the consequences of a leader who fails to promote and support the mission, vision, and ethical principles of the company.

Your white paper should be 3–5 pages of content, well organised, and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions.

Academic Integrity and APA Formatting

As a reminder related to using APA rules to ensure academic honesty:

When using a direct quote (using exact or nearly exact wording), you must enclose the quoted wording in quotation marks, immediately followed by an in-text citation. The source must then be listed on your references page.

When paraphrasing (using your own words to describe a non-original idea), the paraphrased idea must be immediately followed by an in-text citation, and the source must be listed on your references page.

Refer to the scoring guide to ensure that your work meets the grading criteria for this assignment.

Exemplar (example) assignment: You may use the Week 4 Assignment Exemplar [PDF] for an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Additional Requirements

Written communication: Communication should be clear, well organised, and support a central idea, with no technical writing errors, as expected of a business professional.

References: References and citations are formatted in consistent style, with a preference for using APA style and formatting.

Number of resources: Use a minimum of three scholarly resources related to the content of the assignment.

Length of paper: Approximately 3–5 typed, double-spaced pages, in addition to the title and references pages.

Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 points.

Once you have completed your assignment, submit your paper to SafeAssign as a draft. Review the report and correct any citations you missed or cited incorrectly before submitting your assignment for grading.

Your paper is due by 11:59 pm central standard time on Sunday.

Note: Your instructor may use the Writing Feedback Tool when grading this assignment. The Writing Feedback Tool is designed to provide you with guidance and resources to develop your writing based on five core skills.

You will find writing feedback in the Scoring Guide for the assignment, once your work has been evaluated. Learn more about the Writing Feedback Tool on the course Tools and Resources page.

Vision, Mission, and Ethics in Organisations

Businesses today must constantly strive to adapt in an increasingly competitive environment. In a constantly evolving business world, it is the core ideals and objectives of businesses that guide their strategic decision-making and help them remain stable.

This applies to new businesses too, which need to establish their guiding principles early on, because proceeding with insufficient experience and learning could prevent businesses and their leaders from reaching their goals. These ideals and principles are stated as mission and vision statements–– both of which are essential for the success of any business.

What Are Mission and Vision Statements?

A mission statement defines a company’s purpose and fundamental objectives. It communicates an organisation’s reason for existence, and how it aims to serve its key stakeholders.

A vision statement, on the other hand, is a concise and precise statement that presents a futuristic view of the organisation’s mission: what the company hopes to become and the target it aims to reach.

What Purpose Do Mission and Vision Statements Serve?

Every business comes into existence to serve a purpose. Mission and vision statements are representative of that purpose. A study conducted by Bain & Company established that 90% of 500 firms surveyed had mission and vision statements to describe the nature of their business.

Moreover, the firms that developed mission and vision statements showed better performance than firms that did not (Bart & Baetz, 1998).

Vision and mission statements essentially help organisational leaders to:

• Communicate their organisation’s purpose to its stakeholders;
• Keep the stakeholders informed about strategy development; and
• Create measurable goals and objectives that gauge future outcomes of their business strategy (Dias & Shah, 2009).

Therefore, it is no surprise that mission and vision statements are considered to be fundamental elements in creating a company’s identity.

Key Elements of Mission and Vision Statements

Since a mission statement is crucial for a company’s growth, it should include the following:

• What the firm’s aim(s) is
• Who the firm’s stakeholders are
• How the stakeholders are provided with value through specialised products and services
• What the firm’s key purpose is

Google’s mission statement, for example, “To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Millard, n.d.) includes most of these details.

Likewise, vision statements have general principles that need to be considered in order to make them reasonable. For example:

• The customer base must be defined in order to determine the target audience.
• Customers’ needs must be mentioned in order to persuade them to opt for the product or service offered.
• The product or service must be well described to provide the customers with an idea of what the company offers.
• Company’s values must be included to ensure that customers perceive the right things about the company (Ebben, 2005).

These elements of a mission and vision are key for management to connect with clients, employees, and stakeholders, and to achieve financial gain. Along with financial goals, however, businesses also have ethical responsibilities. While mission and vision statements help fulfil financial goals, codes of conduct ensure that businesses and their stakeholders’ function in an acceptable manner.

Code of Ethics/Code of Conduct

Maintaining a code of ethics can help a business attain positive results and make sound decisions. A business environment that encourages and maintains strong values is usually a productive workplace. A code of ethics, also known as a code of conduct, clarifies “an organisation’s mission, values, and principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct.

It includes details about how employees are to treat each other and clients, how managers should treat their subordinates, and what is expected from contractors and vendors. In addition, it includes the duties of top management toward the whole organisation and the organisation’s social responsibilities.

A sound code of ethics will include the following:

• Values: It is highly essential for a business to delineate values such as trustworthiness, respect, accountability, and objectivity to enable transparency.
• Principles: Business principles like customer–organisation relationship and company–stakeholder relationship that support business values must be included in order to clearly establish the standards that employees must adhere to.
• Management support: Managerial support methods, such as open-door policies, can be included in the code of ethics for a general understanding of the working of the business.
• Personal Responsibility: It is important to list out personal responsibilities of an individual toward the company through the code of ethics.
• Compliance: Any laws and regulations may be included in order to make employees and stakeholders aware of the repercussions of unethical conduct (Sullivan, n.d.).

Violation of ethics can get companies in trouble with consumers, organisations, or government bodies. This in turn may adversely affect the image of the company.

Role of a Company’s Leadership in Promoting Mission, Vision, and Ethics

Top-level managers of a business develop a vision and mission to maintain a strategic framework throughout their organisation and ensure consistency in performance and expectations. It is, however, not enough for these managers to create statements and codes.

They must set good examples by acting in accordance with their mission and vision statements and their code of ethics. Organisational leaders must promote their vision and mission by letting employees know how they can contribute toward the larger goals of the organisation and treating issues raised by employees as suggestions and areas to improve (Spiro, 2010).

They must condemn decisions and actions that violate their business’s mission, vision, and code of ethics, even if such actions promise greater economic rewards. A failure of a firm’s leaders to promote the principles it stands for is likely to leave the firm without a purpose and result in a conflict of interest between its employees, management, and stakeholders.

Conclusion

The Business environment for existing and upstart organisations today is incredibly competitive and constantly evolving. Developing a mission, vision, and code of ethics that is supported and promoted by leadership with the core ideals of an organisation is what drives strategic decision-making and helps an organisation remain competitive.

References

Bart, C. K., & Baetz, M. (1998, November). The relationship between mission statement and firm performance: An exploratory study. Journal of Management Studies 36(6), 823-853. Abstract retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=716509

Dias, L. P., & Shah, A. J. (2009). Introduction to business. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BNU3AwAAQBAJ&dq=introduction+to+business+

Vision + and + mission + statements & source=gbs_nav links_s

Ebben, J. (2005, February 1). Developing effective mission and vision statements. Inc.

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