The mission statement in Catholic higher education organizations and identity challenges

Abstract

PurposeMission statements are usually related to strategic management and elements related to the organization's identity. Catholic higher education organizations (CHEOs) identity is based on the Charisma of the founder of the Catholic order or congregation. If in contradiction, it puts their organizational legitimacy at risk. If organizations deviate from their identity, it means a mission drift. Even more severe is when mission statements are misaligned with the identity. In this study, the authors seek better understand the mission drift by the misalignment between the mission statement and the organizational identity of the CHEOs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine the mission statements of 112 Catholic CHEOs in Brazil. They used lexical analysis based on descending hierarchical classification and post-factorial analysis. They analyzed the vocabularies of each class extracted from the descending hierarchical classification and determine the presence or absence of the Charisma.FindingsThe results indicate that aspects of Catholic identity through the Charisma are manifested in the organizational mission but are not predominant. There is a variation of the mission statements relative to the Charisma of the orders and congregations. A significant part manifests generically. They respond in a similar and isomorphic way or to internal institutional pressures of CHEOs.Originality/valueThe authors empirically identified a mission drift, considering the mismatch between the mission statement and the Charisma. The authors emphasize that for organizational identity to manifest, it should consider the identity that emerges from the founder's Charisma. This influence must appear in central elements of the organizational identity, such as the mission statements.

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“…The extent to which higher education institution (HEI) mission statements reflect isomorphism, attempts at defining market position or unique "conceptual ideas" (Kosmützky, 2012), and similarly, whether they are primarily aspirational, platforms for strategic implementation and institutional meaning-making, or relevant to the experiences of minoritized students are areas of debate in the international literature (Arcimaviciene, 2015;Cortés-Sánchez, 2018;Ortega et al, 2020;Santa-Ramirez et al, 2022). Thus mission statements are important with respect to organizational behavior (e.g., Othelia Lee, 2010;Serra et al, 2022), human resources practice (e.g., Miller, 1996;Sweem, 2009), leadership for equity (e.g., Lindsay, 1999;Malcom-Piqueux & Bensimon, 2015), student success (e.g., Gnage & Drumm, 2010;Kuh, 2005), and -if education is framed as a human right per the supranational diplomatic architecture -humanitarian engagement (United Nations General Assembly, 1948).…”