How Mission Statement Helps A Company Achieve Balance Among Social, Environmental and Commercial Performance

            Thompson mentioned In Moral Well-being that collective unconscious is no longer considered as merely a metaphorical concept, and moral capabilities and moral development are social phenomena. This theory is further supported by Harari’s idea that large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. To put it in another way, if a story (myth, or fiction) is told convincingly enough, it can reform the moral capabilities and direct the actions of a social group. 

             The most obvious application of this theory is the missions statements of companies nowadays. By stating a story about the company in its mission statement, such as who we are and what we do, the company sets up a fictional idea that it believes in. Of course this serves the purpose of attracting people who believe in similar ideas, but a more important function of it is convincing those who do not. Those people are the potential customers, employees and stakeholders that can help the company grow. Human value is at the heart of a business's success. Therefore, if the company has a positive standing, then once more people are convinced by the company’s story, together they can “cooperate successfully” and have a positive impact on the society as a whole.

               In addition, a proper mission statement can help tackle the ethical dilemmas that are troubling the business world nowadays. For example, if a financial institution emphasizes in its mission statement that it believes in making profits without harming the interest of the public and it does show the efforts to live up to that norm, then its employees (“the social group that believes in common myths”) are more likely to make the right choice when facing ethical dilemmas. In this case, the moral capabilities and development of those employees are affected or reformed by a common idea that they believe in. If moral nature facilitates human flourishing, and human flourishing is both the means and the ends of economic development as Thompson suggested, then a mission statement that has positive ethical indication is not merely a superficial effort, but an idea that benefits both the moral capabilities of the company’s employees and the actual business development.