Mission, Vision, Values, and Management

Vision, Mission, and Value statements, as well as management, are critical when it comes to directing an organization together with its employees and stakeholders about the purpose of the firm.  The mission statement describes an entity’s reason for existing as well as its general use. On the other hand, the vision statement outlines the organization as it should appear in the coming years or decades. A company’s value statement describes what the particular entity believes in and how the organization will behave. Management is usually described as the efficient pursuit of critical organizational goals (Kinicki & Williams 2016). An organization’s vision statement is often supported by its mission statement to make clear the purpose as well as the direction of the organization to its workers, customers, and possibly stakeholders. With a comprehensive realization of such statements, the managerial team could successfully steer an organization. This paper is going to compare the health care company Aetna’s mission, vision, and values against its criteria and evaluate a comparison between United healthcare, which is another health care company. I will discuss Aetna cored competencies and summarize its strategic goals. And I will justify my determination if Aetna lives up to its mission, vision, and values.

Aetna mission, vision, and values against the criteria for robust statements

Aetna is a health services organization within the U.S., the organization has been around since the 1850s, and they are dedicated to the health and well-being of people. Its mission statement is to be “dedicated to helping people achieve health and financial security by providing easy access to safe, cost-effective, high-quality health care and protecting their finances against health-related risks” (Aetna, 2017). An efficient mission statement describes a specific and essential purpose that sets a business apart from its competitors. A mission statement should include specification of the target such as the customers; identify the products or services, its geographical location, basic technology, specification on its profits, belief as well as values, main strengths, and its overall public responsibility.

As stated in the organization’s mission statement, their primary purpose is to be “dedicated to helping people,” which defines their targeted population. The statement said to provide “health and financial security by providing easy access” this outlines the service product, geographic area, including public responsibility. Such a statement also states that the facility will provide cost-effective quality health and protect the resources against any particular health-related risks; it thus defines their beliefs, values, economic as well as significant strengths. Aetna’s mission statement is strong and quite clear because it identifies the entity’s reason for existing and its target. It is crucial for a company to have a mission statement that the senior and junior management can use to guide the company successfully by knowing how to aim and serve its stakeholders, customers, as well as employees.

The company’s vision statement is, “Aetna will be a leader cooperating with doctors and hospitals, employers, patients, public officials, and others to build a stronger, more effective health care system” (Aetna, 2017). An organization’s vision statement is usually a concern with the company’s future aspirations. The company’s vision system describes a clear purpose as well as direction, it is appropriate and had standards of excellence, inspirational, it reflected the uniqueness of the company, and it was easily understood (Sandada, 2014). The mission statement as well as the vision statement, typically correspond with the overall mission statement in defining the business’s purpose. In contrast, its vision statement dictates the company’s future based on the purpose. The vision statement assists management to take the necessary steps towards the company’s future development. Aetna’s vision statement clearly outlines the goals of the organization through cooperating with essential stakeholders to have a leading expansion trajectory within the health care system.

Aetna’s value statement is usually based off various critical values that were created together as a company with the opinion of more than 30,000 individuals and with guidance from their customers. As claimed by the organization’s CEO and president Mark Bertolini, “everything we do at Aetna starts with our values, which is a clear, strong core beliefs that reflects who we are and what you can expect from us, our values carry through our thoughts and actions every day, inspire innovation in our products, services, and drive our commitment to excellence in all we do.” The four values that Aetna live by are through:

Integrity – Do the right think for the right reason.

Excellence -We strive to deliver the highest quality and value possible through simple, easy, and relevant solutions.

Caring– We listen to and respect our customers and each other so we can act with insight, understanding, and compassion.

Inspiration– We inspire each other to explore ideas that can make the world a better place. (Aetna, 2017)

The value statement is deemed to be useful when it comes to delivering the business’ core values to its internal and external stakeholders. Value statements are the unique beliefs of a group or an individual that differentiate a company from competitors (Mirvis, Googins & Kinnicutt, 2010). The value statement helps the management team to guide their departments to achieve the company objectives. The mission, as well as vision statements, do not directly relate towards the organizational value statement, but it assists in guiding an organization’s employees to behave in an ethical manner.

Aetna mission and vision statement were clear, it describes the organization’s to its stakeholder, and included the goals and objectives of the company, compare to United Health care which is one of Aetna competitors. United’s healthcare mission is “to help people live healthier lives and to help make the health care system work better for everyone” (Unitedhealthcare, 2017), this mission statement is a little weak because it is missing a lot of components that a mission statement should have such as the geographical area, basic technology, economic, beliefs, and values. United health vision was strong compare to Aetna’s, Although Aetna vision included all the components a vision statement should include, United health care had three vision statement to follow that were all clear, appropriate, inspiring, unique, and easily understood with standards of excellence (Darbi, 2012). United health care also had a great value statement that included Integrity, compassion, relationships, Innovation and performance which were all clear on the company objectives. At first I thought both companies were unique in creating their values, but they both are similar in many of their beliefs, just written and describe differently.

Aetna Core Competencies

Core competencies it’s a unique way for an organization to separate their company from similar ones. One of Aetna core competence is based off its relationship management; the company believe through the maintenance of a strong external and internal relationship they can create a strong brand. Aetna believe that growing their external relationship can enhance their ability to satisfy all customers while exceeding the company objectives. Staying in compliance is also a core competency for Aetna, by ensuring that the new laws are implemented in the business. Aetna have been working to making the health care system better by creating programs to help its stakeholders become more engaged in their health. In 2010, they launch a team based fitness and nutrition program for all its employers nationwide, they have around 2.5 million members in disease management and case management programs that help individuals with chronic conditions, to get the treatment and preventive care needed.

Aetna is one of the biggest health insurance firms within the U.S.A, with over 26,000 employees and 45 million customers across their different choices of insurance. In 2012, Aetna and its foundation awarded more than fourteen million dollars to nonprofit organizations, with an additional $6.8 million from its employees, directors and retirees. There are currently fifty four active Aetna volunteer’s council in 46 different cities in which six thousand are Aetna employees. As stated in their mission, vision and value statement, Aetna care about the health of the people and through the Aetna way, which reflects who they are and what you can expect from them? The value of the company is carry though their actions and thoughts every day to inspire higher levels of innovation in their services and products, and drive their commitment to overall excellence in all that they do (Aetna, 2017).

Aetna behavior and business goals

Aetna goals and objectives are through their mission, vision and values statement. The statements of the company summarized that they want to be the overall leader in the health sector through dedication to helping people achieve health in a safe high quality and cost effective way. With this goal, Aetna expanded Internationally by serving 400,000 customers in more than 100 nations alongside the group insurance offer in 49 states in the United States. In the past five years Aetna revenues, have increased due to growth of members. Aetna goals includes increasing member’s engagement as well as partnerships, managing technological improvements and improving its relationship with health care services providers (Aetna, 2017). With this goal, in 2014 Aetna acquired the health care plan formerly known as Coventry care, in 2015 the company achieved so much success that the cash flow from operations increase by 15% to $3.9 billion, and in 2016 the company expanded its general operations to over one thousand counties in 39 states. Aetna business strategy is to promote sustainable practice nationally and international to further the health of their members, and employees (Aetna, 2017). These goals are clearly stated for employees to focus on so the company can continue to achieve its vision.

My Determination. With the mission, vision and values statements of Aetna, I believe that the company lives up to these beliefs. Working for Aetna for 3 years, I have learned to act the “Aetna way”, by making sure everything I do is for the right reason, I have learned to provide excellence by providing quality service to our members and helping them solve their problems in the simplest and easy way. I have learned to care for all my coworkers, and our members by listening to them, and respecting them, and I have been able to inspire my coworkers to continue to strive in what they do for the company. Working for Aetna, you are required to set goals for yourself using the value statement twice a year, this has been a great help in reminding us to continue to live and work through the value statement. Aetna mission is dedicated to helping people achieve health and protect their finances against health-related risks, as a member service representative for Aetna, I agree that this is our responsibilities daily, we are taught to treat every single person that come on the phone equally with respect and provide them the assistance to continue to live a healthy lifestyle by assisting with setting up doctor’s appointment.

Conclusion

The mission and vision statement provides the purpose of a company to its stakeholders, and the value statement are the unique beliefs that an organization invest in.  The company I’m currently employ with, Aetna have a strong mission statement compare to its competitors, and its vision statement its very clear, appropriate and inspiring. These are all important for   the management team to guide its employees to meet their goal. With the goals and objectives and the value statement, Aetna have been improving in the last five years and planning to continue to grow to  be the leader cooperating with doctors and hospitals, employers, patient, public officials and others to build a stronger, more effective health care system (Aetna, 2017).

Mission, Vision, Values, and Management

Vision, Mission, and Value statements, as well as management, are critical when it comes to directing an organization together with its employees and stakeholders about the purpose of the firm.  The mission statement describes an entity’s reason for existing as well as its general use. On the other hand, the vision statement outlines the organization as it should appear in the coming years or decades. A company’s value statement describes what the particular entity believes in and how the organization will behave. Management is usually described as the efficient pursuit of critical organizational goals (Kinicki & Williams 2016). An organization’s vision statement is often supported by its mission statement to make clear the purpose as well as the direction of the organization to its workers, customers, and possibly stakeholders. With a comprehensive realization of such statements, the managerial team could successfully steer an organization. This paper is going to compare the health care company Aetna’s mission, vision, and values against its criteria and evaluate a comparison between United healthcare, which is another health care company. I will discuss Aetna cored competencies and summarize its strategic goals. And I will justify my determination if Aetna lives up to its mission, vision, and values.

Aetna mission, vision, and values against the criteria for robust statements

Aetna is a health services organization within the U.S., the organization has been around since the 1850s, and they are dedicated to the health and well-being of people. Its mission statement is to be “dedicated to helping people achieve health and financial security by providing easy access to safe, cost-effective, high-quality health care and protecting their finances against health-related risks” (Aetna, 2017). An efficient mission statement describes a specific and essential purpose that sets a business apart from its competitors. A mission statement should include specification of the target such as the customers; identify the products or services, its geographical location, basic technology, specification on its profits, belief as well as values, main strengths, and its overall public responsibility.

As stated in the organization’s mission statement, their primary purpose is to be “dedicated to helping people,” which defines their targeted population. The statement said to provide “health and financial security by providing easy access” this outlines the service product, geographic area, including public responsibility. Such a statement also states that the facility will provide cost-effective quality health and protect the resources against any particular health-related risks; it thus defines their beliefs, values, economic as well as significant strengths. Aetna’s mission statement is strong and quite clear because it identifies the entity’s reason for existing and its target. It is crucial for a company to have a mission statement that the senior and junior management can use to guide the company successfully by knowing how to aim and serve its stakeholders, customers, as well as employees.

The company’s vision statement is, “Aetna will be a leader cooperating with doctors and hospitals, employers, patients, public officials, and others to build a stronger, more effective health care system” (Aetna, 2017). An organization’s vision statement is usually a concern with the company’s future aspirations. The company’s vision system describes a clear purpose as well as direction, it is appropriate and had standards of excellence, inspirational, it reflected the uniqueness of the company, and it was easily understood (Sandada, 2014). The mission statement as well as the vision statement, typically correspond with the overall mission statement in defining the business’s purpose. In contrast, its vision statement dictates the company’s future based on the purpose. The vision statement assists management to take the necessary steps towards the company’s future development. Aetna’s vision statement clearly outlines the goals of the organization through cooperating with essential stakeholders to have a leading expansion trajectory within the health care system.

Aetna’s value statement is usually based off various critical values that were created together as a company with the opinion of more than 30,000 individuals and with guidance from their customers. As claimed by the organization’s CEO and president Mark Bertolini, “everything we do at Aetna starts with our values, which is a clear, strong core beliefs that reflects who we are and what you can expect from us, our values carry through our thoughts and actions every day, inspire innovation in our products, services, and drive our commitment to excellence in all we do.” The four values that Aetna live by are through:

Integrity – Do the right think for the right reason.

Excellence -We strive to deliver the highest quality and value possible through simple, easy, and relevant solutions.

Caring– We listen to and respect our customers and each other so we can act with insight, understanding, and compassion.

Inspiration– We inspire each other to explore ideas that can make the world a better place. (Aetna, 2017)

The value statement is deemed to be useful when it comes to delivering the business’ core values to its internal and external stakeholders. Value statements are the unique beliefs of a group or an individual that differentiate a company from competitors (Mirvis, Googins & Kinnicutt, 2010). The value statement helps the management team to guide their departments to achieve the company objectives. The mission, as well as vision statements, do not directly relate towards the organizational value statement, but it assists in guiding an organization’s employees to behave in an ethical manner.

Aetna mission and vision statement were clear, it describes the organization’s to its stakeholder, and included the goals and objectives of the company, compare to United Health care which is one of Aetna competitors. United’s healthcare mission is “to help people live healthier lives and to help make the health care system work better for everyone” (Unitedhealthcare, 2017), this mission statement is a little weak because it is missing a lot of components that a mission statement should have such as the geographical area, basic technology, economic, beliefs, and values. United health vision was strong compare to Aetna’s, Although Aetna vision included all the components a vision statement should include, United health care had three vision statement to follow that were all clear, appropriate, inspiring, unique, and easily understood with standards of excellence (Darbi, 2012). United health care also had a great value statement that included Integrity, compassion, relationships, Innovation and performance which were all clear on the company objectives. At first I thought both companies were unique in creating their values, but they both are similar in many of their beliefs, just written and describe differently.

Aetna Core Competencies

Core competencies it’s a unique way for an organization to separate their company from similar ones. One of Aetna core competence is based off its relationship management; the company believe through the maintenance of a strong external and internal relationship they can create a strong brand. Aetna believe that growing their external relationship can enhance their ability to satisfy all customers while exceeding the company objectives. Staying in compliance is also a core competency for Aetna, by ensuring that the new laws are implemented in the business. Aetna have been working to making the health care system better by creating programs to help its stakeholders become more engaged in their health. In 2010, they launch a team based fitness and nutrition program for all its employers nationwide, they have around 2.5 million members in disease management and case management programs that help individuals with chronic conditions, to get the treatment and preventive care needed.

Aetna is one of the biggest health insurance firms within the U.S.A, with over 26,000 employees and 45 million customers across their different choices of insurance. In 2012, Aetna and its foundation awarded more than fourteen million dollars to nonprofit organizations, with an additional $6.8 million from its employees, directors and retirees. There are currently fifty four active Aetna volunteer’s council in 46 different cities in which six thousand are Aetna employees. As stated in their mission, vision and value statement, Aetna care about the health of the people and through the Aetna way, which reflects who they are and what you can expect from them? The value of the company is carry though their actions and thoughts every day to inspire higher levels of innovation in their services and products, and drive their commitment to overall excellence in all that they do (Aetna, 2017).

Aetna behavior and business goals

Aetna goals and objectives are through their mission, vision and values statement. The statements of the company summarized that they want to be the overall leader in the health sector through dedication to helping people achieve health in a safe high quality and cost effective way. With this goal, Aetna expanded Internationally by serving 400,000 customers in more than 100 nations alongside the group insurance offer in 49 states in the United States. In the past five years Aetna revenues, have increased due to growth of members. Aetna goals includes increasing member’s engagement as well as partnerships, managing technological improvements and improving its relationship with health care services providers (Aetna, 2017). With this goal, in 2014 Aetna acquired the health care plan formerly known as Coventry care, in 2015 the company achieved so much success that the cash flow from operations increase by 15% to $3.9 billion, and in 2016 the company expanded its general operations to over one thousand counties in 39 states. Aetna business strategy is to promote sustainable practice nationally and international to further the health of their members, and employees (Aetna, 2017). These goals are clearly stated for employees to focus on so the company can continue to achieve its vision.

My Determination. With the mission, vision and values statements of Aetna, I believe that the company lives up to these beliefs. Working for Aetna for 3 years, I have learned to act the “Aetna way”, by making sure everything I do is for the right reason, I have learned to provide excellence by providing quality service to our members and helping them solve their problems in the simplest and easy way. I have learned to care for all my coworkers, and our members by listening to them, and respecting them, and I have been able to inspire my coworkers to continue to strive in what they do for the company. Working for Aetna, you are required to set goals for yourself using the value statement twice a year, this has been a great help in reminding us to continue to live and work through the value statement. Aetna mission is dedicated to helping people achieve health and protect their finances against health-related risks, as a member service representative for Aetna, I agree that this is our responsibilities daily, we are taught to treat every single person that come on the phone equally with respect and provide them the assistance to continue to live a healthy lifestyle by assisting with setting up doctor’s appointment.

Conclusion

The mission and vision statement provides the purpose of a company to its stakeholders, and the value statement are the unique beliefs that an organization invest in.  The company I’m currently employ with, Aetna have a strong mission statement compare to its competitors, and its vision statement its very clear, appropriate and inspiring. These are all important for   the management team to guide its employees to meet their goal. With the goals and objectives and the value statement, Aetna have been improving in the last five years and planning to continue to grow to  be the leader cooperating with doctors and hospitals, employers, patient, public officials and others to build a stronger, more effective health care system (Aetna, 2017).

References

Aetna Mission and Values. (n.d.). Retrieved May 08, 2017, from https://www1.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/aetna_mission_statement.html

Darbi, W. P. K. (2012). Of mission and vision statements and their potential impact on employee behaviour and attitudes: The case of a public but profit-oriented tertiary institution. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(14).

Group, U. (n.d.). Mission & Values. Retrieved May 08, 2017, from http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/About/MissionValues.aspx#value1

Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. (2016). Management: A practical introduction (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/1259723542/cfi/6/2!/4/2/2@0:32.4.

Mirvis, P., Googins, B., & Kinnicutt, S. (2010). Vision, mission, values. Organizational Dynamics, 39(4), 316.

Sandada, M. (2014). Mission and vision, environmental scanning and formality of strategic

planning as predictors of the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) In the

Gauteng Province of South Africa. Ecoforum Journal, 3(2), 7.

References

Aetna Mission and Values. (n.d.). Retrieved May 08, 2017, from https://www1.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/aetna_mission_statement.html

Darbi, W. P. K. (2012). Of mission and vision statements and their potential impact on employee behaviour and attitudes: The case of a public but profit-oriented tertiary institution. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(14).

Group, U. (n.d.). Mission & Values. Retrieved May 08, 2017, from http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/About/MissionValues.aspx#value1

Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. (2016). Management: A practical introduction (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/1259723542/cfi/6/2!/4/2/2@0:32.4.

Mirvis, P., Googins, B., & Kinnicutt, S. (2010). Vision, mission, values. Organizational Dynamics, 39(4), 316.

Sandada, M. (2014). Mission and vision, environmental scanning and formality of strategic

planning as predictors of the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) In the

Gauteng Province of South Africa. Ecoforum Journal, 3(2), 7.