Developing an organizational mission continues to be a widely used managerial strategy. Strategic ambiguity states that mission statements should be intentionally vague, allowing disparate groups to interpret the statement consistently with their interests. The concept of unified diversity, which suggests that organizational members think they agree on interpretations of mission though actual agreement does not exist, is offered as means through which organizations manage these varying interpretations. In this paper, I first argue that members of organizations often recognize dissimilar interpretations but simultaneously recognize the importance of the values, behaviors, and priorities represented in the disparate interpretations, and introduce the concept of recognized unified diversity to incorporate this position. Next, I present a proposition and hypotheses implied by the recognized unified diversity concept, and describe a study that tests these predictions. Results suggest that while employees perceived others’ missions to be important, systematic differences emerged in situations concerning controversial issues.

Key Words:   Recognized Unified Diversity, Mission, Strategic Ambiguity 

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 1, No. 2,  October  2009,   191 – 206

About the author

Robert Whitbred is an Assistant Professor, School of Communication, 2121 Euclid Avenue, MU233, Cleveland State University, Cleveland OH44115, U.S.A.

Note: This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. ECS-94-27730. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not the National Science Foundation. Please address all correspondence to the author.

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Article Citation

Whitbred, R. (2009): Recognized unified diversity: Mission messages and organizational communication. Journal of Communication and Media Research 1(2): 191 – 206.