From sense-making to perceived organizational performance: looking for the best way

Abstract

Purpose

Mission statements (SMs) are a frequent strategic tool, yet little is known about their effects on economic performance. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to model and assess the relationships among the sense-making of the SM, employee mission engagement (EME), organizational mission fulfillment (OMF) and perceived organizational performance (PER) and, second, to determine the path that best explains these connections.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports the results of an empirical investigation drawn from a sample of 132 managers at different levels in two Spanish companies. The data analysis was performed in two steps: the first was to assess the reliability of the measurement scales and the second was to build a causal model using structural equation modeling analysis.

Findings

The findings suggest that the best path to explain the relationships between the SM and perceived organizational performance (PER) is SM, EME, OMF, PER, with a full mediation effect for EME and OMF. These findings are consistent with previous research.

Practical implications

The managerial implications of these results are that just having a good mission and effective communication of the mission is not enough. The mission has to be related to employee engagement and, at the same time, the organization needs to be mission driven.

Originality/value

This research provides a new paradigm for understanding the relationships between sense-making around the SM, EME, OMF and PER, and helps to adjudicate among possible outcome paths and better explain the inter-relationships among these constructs.

Citation

Mas-Machuca, M. and Marimon, F. (2019), "From sense-making to perceived organizational performance: looking for the best way", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-05-2018-0155