CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MISSION STATEMENTS OF SELECTED STATE

UNIVERSITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES: BASIS FOR STRATEGIC

EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT PLANNING
Author:
Abigail C. Gomez
Anabella C. Gomez

The research was conducted on January 20, 2021

Abstract
Mission statements play a vital role in any university system, more especially in
the strategic planning of the universities. Conducting this study through content analysis
allowed the researchers to deconstruct the mission statements of selected five state
universities in the CALABRAZON Region of the Philippines. Findings reveal major
themes which emerged from the analysis. These themes were construed by the
researchers as vital elements in crafting university mission statements: description, role,
objectives, strategies, and graduate outcomes of the universities. Three universities
declared their commitment to do their mission. Major roles of the universities are to serve
as producers, providers and nurturers. Universities vary in their objectives but are mostly
similar in strategizing for the areas of instruction, research, extension, and production
activities to meet specific objectives. Overall, mission statements still differ from one
another even if their thrusts might be similar in ways to respond to their clientele and
mandate of their university charter. These objectives and strategies were deemed aligned
and fundamental in conceptualizing the strategic educational management plans of the
universities.
Purpose of the study
Mission and vision statements have three significant functions: (1) disseminate the
objectives of the organization to its clientele, (2) inform them of the strategic plans, and
(3) develop measurable targets to gauge success (University of Minnesota Creative
commons, n.d.) [4]. Boerema (2009) in his study to analyze the mission statements in
British Columbia wrote that there were five concepts which emerged. These are the
beliefs, goals and objectives, the environment, services offered, and parental involvement
[5].The Balance Small Business (2020) states
there are three easy ways to create a mission statement [6]. The mission statement should
be able to answer the following questions: what does your organization do? How far does
your organization go? And why the organization does it? Many mission statements also
evolve through the years. It is good to establish the mission statement from the
commencement of a company however, it has to be consistently reviewed to ensure that
the vision is articulated with the recent times. Moreover, Ward (2020) reiterates that a
good crafted mission statement provides a focus and motivates employees to work
harmoniously toward a common goal. On the other hand, poorly crafted mission
statements consist of business jargons, unrealistic, unattainable.

Statement of the problem

1. What themes can be extracted from the State Universities’ Mission Statements? 2.
What are the similarities in the emerging concepts of the State Universities’ Mission
Statements? 3. What are the unique emerging concepts of the State Universities’ Mission
Statements? 4. How do the State Universities’ Mission Statements align with Strategic
Educational Management Planning?
Method
This content analysis is qualitative in nature. It: (1) extracted themes from the State
Universities’ Mission Statements; (2) determined the similarities in the emerging
concepts of the State Universities’ Mission Statements; (3) identified the unique emerging
concepts of the State Universities’ Mission Statements; and (4) described the implications
of the State Universities’ Mission Statements on Strategic Educational Management.
There were no direct participants of the study. However, it involved five state universities
from the provinces comprising the Region IV- A in the Philippines i.e., Cavite (State
University no.1- SU1), Laguna (SU2), Batangas (SU3), Rizal (SU4), and Quezon (SU5).
To gather required qualitative data, the researchers used the procedure of Luo (2019):
selecting the content, defining the categories of analysis, developing the rules for coding,
coding, and analyzing the results [9]. This study used thematic tables which were yielded
only during the actual conduct of analysis. The thematic table was formed by creating
first a table with two columns where actual extracted text or the mission statements were
written on the left and the analyzed codes on the right. Afterwards another thematic table
was produced where the codes were turned into general themes. Since the study is
qualitative by nature, only frequency counting of text repetition was considered in coding
the thematic tables.
 Result and Discussion
1. What themes can be extracted from the State Universities’ Mission Statements? Table
1.1 shows the emerging major themes extracted from the mission statements of state
universities in CALABARZON. The mission 9 statements provided the following data:
Description of the University; Role of the University; Objectives; Strategies; and
Graduate Outcomes. Among these major themes, only the role of the university,
objectives, and strategies were evident across all the five state universities. Table 1.2
shows that three state universities are similar in describing themselves in the mission
statements by professing or declaring that they are committed to do their mission. Two
other universities did not provide their description. Commitment is a vital factor that has
an effect on the employees’ work and student performance in the universities. In an
article of Mart (2013), he concludes that when good working conditions are provided for
competent and compassionate teachers, the educational organization can lead to positive
relationship within the school and produce better graduate outputs [10]. Professing a
commitment shows the dedication of the university to put the mission from concept into
reality. Correspondingly, Table 1.3 shows the varying roles of the state universities using
the verbs used in the mission statements. Four out of the five state universities used the
word PROVIDE. The second recurring verb used in the mission statements would be the
word PRODUCE. The third in rank is present in only two universities i.e., the word
NURTURE. These three words, provide, produce, and nurture reflect the extent of what
the Universities can do for its clientele. According to Peleg Top (n.d.), every mission
requires action, and action words are verbs [11]. These top three verbs reflect the
capabilities of what the universities can offer in terms of cognitive (provide),
psychomotor (produce), and affective (nurture), which also coincide with the three
domains of learning. Table 1.4 shows the objectives of the state universities in their
mission statements. However, in this study, it would likewise be best to reiterate to whom
were the objectives directed at. Four of the universities direct their objective to their
clientele: individuals, leaders, graduates, and students. However, each university
professes distinct focus in their objectives. Table 1.5 shows the strategies done by the
state universities. These strategies are seen through the multifocal functions of state
universities: 1. INSTRUCTION- quality instruction, responsive instruction, innovations
in education, professional and technical instruction, quality education. 2. RESEARCH-
responsive research, distinctive research, multidisciplinary research, technical research 3.
EXTENSION- development activities, extension and production services community and
industry partnerships, extension and production services. 4. PRODUCTION- production
services among these five state universities.
only one was able to focus solely on instruction as part of the mission statement.
The remaining four universities show their focus on instruction, research and extension.
Further, two state universities even added production as part of their strategies in the
mission statements. Seemingly, Table 1.6 suggests the targeted student outcomes or
graduate outcomes of the state universities as reflected in their mission statements. Only
one state university did not have a reference to its graduates. But, among these five
universities, two provided the characteristics of their graduates as being “upright”.
Having mentioned the graduates in the mission statement shows that the services of the
universities are directed not only to the name and reputation of the university but to the
immediate clients as well.

Conclusion
Despite minimal studies on the analysis of mission statements, this study yielded
significant findings. The five major themes (description/ characteristics, role, objectives,
strategies, and graduate outcomes) which were extracted from the five mission statements
under study are considered vital elements in crafting university mission statements.
Moreover, uniqueness of mission statements emanates from the university objectives.
Through the themes extracted, it is but rational to create a distinct description of the
university, align all activities to the role of the university, foster its objectives, bring the
strategies into action, and ensure that the graduate outcomes are met. All these five must
always be considered in developing Strategic Educational Management Plans since they
are aligned to one another.
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