An institutional North Star: the role of values in presidential communication and decision-making

ABSTRACT

Mission statements have been a staple of higher education institutions for decades, but little is known of how they are used as a tool for institutional decision-making. Using three distinct data sources, this study relies on framing theory to analyse the perceptions of university presidents in the United States on the role of mission statements in deciding when and how to communicate. Further, we compare the espoused values of university mission statements to the statements university presidents made following the 2016 US presidential election. Findings indicate presidents view mission statements as central to their decision to communicate and our analysis reveals some congruence between mission statements and public statements.

KEYWORDS:

• University President
• mission statements
• presidential communication
• framing theory
• election

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Michael T. Benson, Marjorie Buckner, Michael Bastedo, Mathew Christian, Kate Epstein and Dave Louis for their important thoughts and support during this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.