Mission, Goals, and Objectives A set of terms that are goal-related but vague have become popular in current organization parlance. These terms are mission, goal, and objective. Too often in planning a course of action, organizations misuse these terms, and their semantic confusion reflects a more fundamental confusion about how to execute the plan. For clarity, we define these terms here.
The mission is the organization's vision of its fundamental work. It should express the heart, not the mind, of the system. It is the mission that gives the organization its energy to move. The mission statement is the wide-ranging goal that reflects the values and direction of the organization.
Goals are the means of achieving the mission. They are measurable, outcome-oriented, relatively short-term products.
Objectives, or subgoals, are steps to achieving the goals.
As an example, the mission of a business organization might be to become the central identifiable firm in the field, one perceived as having quality and integrity. The goal of the organization may be to acquire a 50-percent share of the market by 1995. Objectives might include placing the product in a particular chain of supermarkets, doubling the number of salespeople in the western region of the United States, and creating production plants in the South, in the Chicago area, and in the West.
Clothes are not simply a means of appearing attractive but become the end. The goal becomes to always have the latest styles. Having the new look guarantees being noticed. The need to have new things leads to a norm of dressing in "outrageous" current fashion. In this may a norm becomes a goal that reinforces the norm.
To use another example, consider partners in a marriage who fear divorce and set a goal of remaining married at all costs. Within that context, conflict comes to mean "bad marriage." Therefore, the partners establish a norm of suppressing conflict and eschewing arguments. This leads in turn to a norm of speaking only about noncontroversial subjects. Alienation and boredom result and spur a new goal: to have an affair for the excitement and closeness missing from the marriage. Thus norms shape goals that may then affect the norms and influence the outcome of the original goal.
The reciprocal influences between norms and goals reveal the fact that norms, our unstated rules, evolve. We need some drive or consensus to adhere to them. If we look closely enough, we see that norms are really subtle goal behavior. Individual goals are more frequently expressed overtly, but group goals often remain unstated norms. Sometimes these normative goals are eventually stated outright, but often they remain the unidentified motivators of a group.