Abstract:
Institutions of higher education use their website to share mission statements that communicate their identities to stakeholders. A content analysis examining the presence and frequency of components related to stakeholders, organizational identity, and organizational image of the mission statements of the U.S. News and World Top 200 National Universities and Top 200 Liberal Arts Colleges was conducted. Stakeholder theory and theories on organizational identity and organizational image were used to guide the study. Some significant differences in the presence of the examined components in mission statements of national universities and liberal arts colleges were identified. Specifically, differences exist between institutional types as to the types of stakeholders named, geographic scope of institutional influence, core competencies, strategies, and products outlined within the sampled mission statements. Theoretical implications for the continued use of Stakeholder theory and theories of organizational identity within the field of higher education and among strategic communication scholars, as well as practical implications for the same, are discussed. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings, as well as areas of future research, are discussed.
