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Slovenia has joined the club of peacekeepers in 1997. The decision was made under pressure of foreign expectations that a country which strives for NATO membership should prove its willingness to co-operate in common defence efforts. First military units, sent to UN-led peacekeeping operations, comprised volunteers on an ad hoc basis and were very small (platoon level). There were also a few policemen who joined missions abroad, first under WEU leadership in Albania. The governmental need ‘to show the flag’ in many operations increased the number of soldiers needed for peace operations and the number of policemen. Currently, there are around 200 soldiers and 30 policemen in different operations abroad. In the period 1997–2001 all soldiers and policemen entered the missions on a voluntary basis. In 2002, there was the first contingent of Slovenian SFOR soldiers that used its home military structure (infantry motorised company) in a peace mission. It marked the end of ad hoc units, comprised to serve the goals of the mission only, and the start of more organised, and also more ordered co-operation of soldiers in missions. They could still refuse participation in the mission, but that would have led to risks of losing unit cohesion. In the transition from voluntary peacekeepers to peacekeepers on duty, or by order, the Slovenian Army realised the need to understand what helps soldiers to fully accept the terms of operations abroad.

The article is focused on three main issues. First, it presents a short overview of Polish armed forces’ engagement in peacekeeping operations in Asia and Africa. This is followed by a discussion on the positive and negative outcomes and consequences of mission participation for the soldiers, with a special emphasis on their professional and interpersonal skills, intercultural experience and social relations. Finally, the chapter highlights the experience of the Polish army's peacekeeping missions as an important factor of change, which influences military institutions and its personnel in Poland. The participation in missions seems to be an important event in soldiers’ professional career, seen as a kind of verification of previously learned skills and abilities. It might influence future career path, would be a reservoir for new practices and knowledge for the military institutions, and might show their weak points. Presented data are based on official information of Ministry of National Defense of Poland as well as on surveys conducted in the years 2004, 2006 and 2008 on a random sample of around 500 Polish soldiers, each done in Military Office for Social Research, Poland.

The purpose of this study is to propose an innovative and efficient process in urban policy-making that combines a divergent and creative method with a convergent and strategic one. At the same time, the purpose is also to propose a useful innovation to enforce the usability of both methods. On the one hand, mission-oriented policies run the risk of being overly focused on the present and of not being able to develop preparedness in organization. On the other hand, scenario development has the reverse problem it often does not point out how to use scenario narratives to inform and devise short-term strategic actions.

The paper proposes an innovative methodological approach, the mission-oriented scenarios, which hybridizes Mazzucato's mission-oriented public policy framework with Jim Dator's Manoa school four futures method. The proposed methodological innovation emerges from a urban foresight academic-led project carried out in the context of the Metropolitan City of Turin, Italy, where a first application of the mission-oriented scenarios was tested on six different focal issues (from reindustrialization to cultural policies) and the scenario narratives were used as sources for the grounding of 12 missions and 48 strategic actions towards 2030.

Mission-oriented scenarios can contribute to the generation of more sustainable and inclusive urban public policies. This methodological proposal is based on an original mix of knowledge exchange procedures borrowed from methodological approaches with different backgrounds: the mission-oriented and the archetypal scenarios. Their conjunction could support the formulation of ambitious yet pragmatic policies, giving a plurality of actors the opportunity to act and establish fruitful and lasting partnerships.

The paper reconstructs one of the first urban foresight projects carried out in a major Italian city by two prestigious universities and exposes a methodological innovation resulting from reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the project, which opens the door to the development of a new scenario technique.

Empirically examines mission statements in Fortune 50 service and Fortune 50 industrial corporations. Content analysis revealed underlying issues and structures of mission statements. Additional analysis indicated that there are issues which can be addressed by a mission statement, as well as issues which cannot be addressed. Concludes with an example of an ideal mission statement and an ideal vision statement.

The paper's aim is to thoroughly examine solutions to mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry.

Extensive field experience relating to individual microfinance institutions and industry trends provide the grounding for a review of the trade and academic literatures in microfinance and social enterprise management.

Mission diffusion arises from pursuing diverse approaches to poverty alleviation and addressing disparate and changing stakeholder interests. Mission drift arises from commercialization and conversion activities aimed toward enhancing ratings and achieving scale. Mission clarity can be regained through clarification of the mission along with more effective corporate governance and performance management systems, and a research function.

The tension between financial and social performance is not merely ideological – economic realities make it almost impossible to stay on mission. Understanding these realities can help microfinance institutions maintain and regain clarity of mission.

The paper sheds new light on solutions for challenges of mission drift and diffusion in the microfinance industry. Addressing this would enable the industry to deliver on promises of poverty alleviation during a period of heavy demand rapid scaling.

An agenda for a social constructionist perspective on corporate communication. It seeks to do so by focusing on the mission statement as an aspect of corporate communications. Previously unpublished research on mission statement design and use in the UK is used as a basis for an analysis of the theoretical assumptions which are often presupposed in corporate communications. It is suggested that these assumptions represent one (cognitivist) model of communication meaning‐making. The alternative model of socially constituted meaning‐making is developed in the context of mission statement use. Some further, more general suggestions are made concerning the implications of social constructionism for corporate communications.

Gives a preliminary exploration into mission statements and their impact on nurses′ attitudes towards them. Mission statements are given much credence by top level management, as part of the thrust towards corporate identity. Only 15 per cent of nurses (from an opportunistic sample of 87) acknowledged that mission statements were directly resonant with their own practice; 75 per cent did not know the originators of their mission statements; others were vague about their organization possessing one. Mission statements are best considered here as an organization rhetoric, a facet of managerial ideology. More research is needed to evaluate critically, by case studies, the impact of mission statements, as an organizational variable on, for example, health treatment and budgeting. Semiotics and communication theories offer this opportunity.

What is a mission in practice? Can it be created and managed? What is the link between strategy and philosophy? What is the role of corporate identity? Should senior managers be putting “mission” high up on their list of priorities? A year‐long research project into mission and corporate philosophy is drawn on to answer these and other questions on the “sense of mission” – that added ingredient which makes companies like Marks & Spencer so successful.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between mission statements and firm performance in the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) sector.

This research is based on an empirical survey of small and medium‐sized enterprises located in science parks in the UK. A postal questionnaire was the main data collection instrument for this research. A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches is employed for data analysis.

The important conclusions reached are that the existence of mission statements in the studied firms was associated with firm performance. It is also found that organisational performance is significantly associated with the degree of non‐managerial employees' involvement in the process of mission statement development. Finally, the presence of financial goals in the studied firms' mission statements were negatively associated with firm performance.

The present study is concerned with the relationship between mission statement and organisational performance in SMEs. A further study is recommended to investigate the impact of involvement and engagement with both mission statement formulation and evolution and the strategic decision‐making process, specifically decision‐making processes in SMEs.

In order to increase firm performance, it is recommended that practitioners develop a meaningful mission statement and increase the involvement of their non‐managerial employees in the development of the mission statement.

The principal contribution of this first study is the attempt to explore the nature and role of the mission statement in enhancing organisational performance.