Mission and Vision of COMOPTEVFOR

Mission and vision statements are important ways for organizations to express their purpose and goals; they are also important methods of establishing organizational culture. Developing clear mission and vision statements provide "synergy" for the members of the organization, a sense of worth and direction; and a basis for planning and strategy (David, 2011, p. 50). Moreover, large organizations especially benefit from clear mission and vision statements in that they help the members to reconcile their differences and resolve divergent views (David, 2011, p. 50). A mission statement and a vision statement are similar in their impact on the organization, but different in that a mission expresses "who we are" and "reason for being," whereas a vision expresses "what we want to become," (David, 2011, p. 44-45). Mission statements set the tone and "ensure unanimity of purpose within an organization," and vision statements offer employees motivation for work that goes beyond mere profit (David, 2011, p. 47). It can be helpful to evaluate mission and vision statements, such as that of the United States Navy's Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force (COMOPTEVFOR). On the COMOPTEVFOR website, the mission and vision statements are displayed clearly together on the same page with the taglines: "robust, repeatable, and defendable," and "quality, timelessness, communication." These keywords are integrated into both the mission and strategic vision statement as they are presented on the COMOPTEVFOR website. The COMOPTEVOR mission and vision statements fall short on some counts, but in general they are effective in achieving their goals.

David (2011) offers a checklist for evaluating the quality of an organization's mission and vision statements. First, the mission statement should be less than 250 words. In the case of COMOPTEVFOR, the mission statement and the vision statement are each less than 250 words. This allows for a brief statement providing the "fine balance between specificity and generality," which is achieved here by COMOPTEVFOR (David, 2011, p. 50).

The COMOPTEVFOR mission and vision statements exhibit several weaknesses. For one, the mission and vision statements should be inspiring and "arouse positive feelings," (David, 2011, p. 50). The COMOPTEVFOR mission and vision statements are not inspiring; they are rather dry in tone and do not arouse positive feelings. Another weakness of the COMOPTEVFOR mission and vision statements is that they do not refer either to social or environmental responsibility. Some amendments could easily be made to include references to social and environmental responsibility, which might in turn inspire and arouse positive emotions.

However, the COMOPTEVFOR mission and vision statements do fulfill many other parameters of a good mission and vision statement as outlined by David (2011). For example, the mission and vision statements refer to the utility of their products and services. Those services include providing testing, evaluation, and consultation services. Moreover, David (2011) outlines nine components of a successful mission and vision statement. These nine components include a reference to customers; to products and services; to the markets; to technology; to concern for growth; to overall philosophy; to self-concept and differentiation; to concern for public image; and finally, to employees. On most of these counts, the COMOPTEVFOR mission and vision statements are effective.

The customers of COMOPTEVFOR services include mainly the Chief Naval Officer, a position mentioned in the mission statement. The products and services have been mentioned throughout the mission and vision statement. Implicit in the mission and vision statements of COMOPTEVFOR is that the markets are mainly within the United States of America. Technology is indeed a core component of what COMOPTEVFOR does, and although specific systems are not mentioned, the mission and vision statements unequivocally refer to the fact that effective military testing depends on the use of state-of-the-art technology.