Mission Statements and the Transformation of German Universities into Organizational Actors

In this paper, I analyze the ongoing processes through which German universities are transformed into organizational actors by developing and disseminating mission statements. The empirical research links the analysis of how organizations use mission statement texts to an analysis of reform discourses. Based on an analysis of higher education reform policy documents, case studies of mission statement development, and a content analysis of mission statement texts, the findings show how and why mission statements spread, became popular, and failed to fulfill their intended purposes, but nevertheless helped transform universities from organized institutions to organizational actors. Through several organization – and entity – specific adaptations of their self-descriptions and by relating to, and siphoning legitimacy from, other organizational documents, they have contributed to an interactive process that helped institutionalize universities as competitive organizational actors.