In this case study, the author explores the nonprofit mission statement as a genre, its place within a genre ecology, and its communication through various genres. Theorizing the mission statement as a controlling and stabilizing force in a genre ecology, the author notes the potential of the mission statement to enact the genre function, "the authority a genre has even in the absence of its author. Noting the limitations of current genre ecology modeling (GEM), the author maps the genres, documents, and activities of a small community foundation using a revised form of GEM that more purposefully includes speech genres to map relationships; in this case study, the speech genres revealed how the mission statement is mediated through genres and activities. Further, observations and interviews revealed ideological conflicts of the organization's key stakeholders that resulted in clashes between key stakeholder values and the language of the nonprofit's mission (and other genres). Additionally, ideological consensus resulted in the addition of new organizational activities and genres, even though these activities are not in line with the language of the mission statement as written. Eventually, these activities become social facts, "ideas that the key stakeholders believe are in line with the mission when they are, in fact, in conflict with it. If these social facts are not re-aligned with the mission statement, new activities and genres are created and mediated by speech genres, potentially moving the organization further away from its purpose and goals. The author ultimately suggests a cycle of genre and activity production that will realign the social facts and the mission statement and encourage organizational leaders to return to the mission statement and change the language to reflect the organization's new reality. / Ph. D. / In this case study, the author explores how the nonprofit mission statement controls (or fails to control) a nonprofit organization’s production of activities and documents. Using a process called “genre ecology modeling” to map the genres, documents, and activities of a small community foundation, the author illustrates the relationship between the mission statement, the activities of the organization, and the various documents created to communicate the mission to external audiences. The author finds that in the organization being studied, ideological conflicts of the organization’s key stakeholders resulted in clashes between key stakeholder values and the language of the nonprofit’s mission. Additionally, ideological consensus resulted in the addition of new organizational activities as well as communications to support those activities—even though these activities are not in line with the language of the mission statement as written. Eventually, organizational leaders began to regard these activities as “social facts”—socially-accepted concepts of what the organization does that the key stakeholders believe are in line with the mission when they are, in fact, in conflict with it. If these social facts are not re-aligned with the mission statement, organizational leaders develop new activities and communications to support the socially-accepted view the organization’s purpose, as opposed to the stated mission; this pattern can potentially move the organization further away from its stated purpose and goals. The author suggests a process that will help organizational leaders engage in regular mission realignment to avoid mission drift and ensure that the language of the mission statement reflects the organization’s new reality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/80475 |
| Date | 21 November 2017 |
| Creators | Schiewer, Tana M. |
| Contributors | English, Pender, Kelly E., Evia Puerto, Carlos, Warnick, Quinn, Dubinsky, James M. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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