The Writing of Business

Chapter 4: Writing to Negotiate and Express Institutional Goals, Values, and Practices

Mission and Vision Statements

Draft community-building documents collaboratively, including mission and vision statements; those that result from true collaboration will be effective for all who participated in the process.

Express the organization's essential values and goals so that they are visible to those inside and outside of the organization.

Express three essential elements:
a clear sense of identity
clear, tangible goals
the values that inform the goals

Strive for brevity, portability, and memorability of expression in mission and vision statements.

Express vision statements in visionary, sensory terms.

Operationalize in mission statements the image put forth in the vision statement

Strategic Plans

Use strategic plans to make arguments for time, money, equipment, staff, or other resources.

Include as your readers executives who determine organizational priorities and allocate resources and staff.

Clarify and express your institutional identity before you determine your goals.

Make sure your goals are consistent with individual and organizational values and aspirations.

Use SWOT analysis:
Look inward at your organization's strengths and weaknesses (and values and aspirations)
Look outward at opportunities and threats in the environment
Based on this analysis, imagine strategies for achieving your goals and mitigating your risks.

Answer basic questions about your organization's mission, vision, and values.

Provide a realistic audit of your organization's resources and accomplishments.

Align your organization's mission and vision with its resources and accomplishments.

Assess realistically the environment in which your organization hopes to realize its plan.

Project future action coherent with other elements of the plan

Policies and Procedures Manuals

Remember that the first goal in writing a policy or procedure is to prevent employees
from hurting themselves or others
from damaging equipment
or from committing the company to something that's harmful or contrary to the company's mission

Keep in mind that the second aim is to clarify
the organizational goals the policy or procedure serves
the context in which these goals exist
and the means of accomplishing these goals

Design your policies and procedures so they free employees
from deciding among alternative ways to complete tasks
from worrying about the ramifications for colleagues

Focus on Do rather than on Don't.

Write policies and procedures that empower employees to act with confidence in difficult situations.

Present positive alternatives when teaching policies that prohibit something.

Don't assume people know your policies and procedures exist, where to find them, and how to use them.

Don't assume readers will read the complete statement or set of instructions before acting on it.

Don't assume readers share your interest in the details and history of the policy or procedure.

Don't assume readers will approach the situation that calls forth the policy or procedure the same way you do.

Don't assume readers will read the policy or procedure in the same environment or circumstances in which you wrote it.

Design and test policies and procedures in consultation with users during interviews, focus groups, and pilot tests.

Include appeals to authority, utility, and delimitations when appropriate.

Compile policies and procedures in comprehensive manuals or electronic archives in a central, safe place so there are written records of how things are done.

Make important policies and procedures available several different times in several places so they're visible for all who need to see them.

Use a physical design for manuals that enables employees to add and remove documents as policies and procedures change.

Segment and organize documents according to who needs what information.

Use redundant directional signals-page numbers, numbering within subsections, detailed tables of contents and indexes, and the like.

Follow any agreed upon institutional format, use topic and keyword headers and titles, and place visual emphasis on risks or concerns.

Make the sequence of steps in a procedure clear and provide necessary contextual information.

Use the active voice and frequently use commands.

Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews

Keep in mind the multiple goals of job descriptions:
to provide the basis for hiring employees to achieve particular institutional goals
to help individual employees organize tasks and set priorities
to enable both the employee and the organization to review an individual's job performance
to provide a legal document to verify that hiring and firing have been based on qualifications and job performance

Set forth the expectations and goals for someone working in a particular position in a job description.

Describe and evaluate the work of someone working in a particular position in a performance review.

Job Descriptions

Keep in mind that the employees, immediate colleagues, and the supervisor should be readers and co-writers of a job description.

Make job descriptions for hiring general enough so that the employee and supervisor have room to tailor the employee's duties to the needs of the office, the employee, and fellow employees.

But make the description specific enough to make meaningful distinctions among candidates.

Performance Reviews

Conduct performance reviews frequently, and ensure that those persons being evaluated take an active part in the process.

Remember that the participants in a performance review should be readers of the review: if the reviewee is not a reader, the process is flawed and probably illegal.

Write performance reviews based on job descriptions.

Make sure that assessments are behavior oriented rather than trait oriented.

For questions and suggestions, please e-mail us at kilbornj@stcloudstate.edu or rinkster@stcloudstate.edu.
The print version of the Instructor's Manual for The Writing of Business
was written by Robert P. Inkster and Judith M. Kilborn for Allyn and Bacon.
This web version of the manual was coded by Judith M. Kilborn.
© 1999 Allyn & Bacon
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