Institutional Concept “Mission”: Evaluative Characteristics

Abstract

The paper deals with an institutional concept “mission” which includes three main components: the purpose of a certain social institute, the image of this institute in mass consciousness and key values of that social organization. We argue that the basic characteristic feature of the concept “mission” in mass consciousness is the emphasized idea of importance of a certain evaluative position. The material of the article includes dictionary definitions, texts from the National corpus of the Russian language and mission verbalizations of leading universities and world companies developing information technologies. Notional, situational and evaluative characteristics of the concept in question have been analyzed. A notional approach to explanation of the concept “mission” makes it possible to characterize its topical features which include the ideas of importance of the purpose the organization must realize, predestination of the chosen way and id its sacral value, projecting the future and the distinction of collective and individual identity. Situational features of the concept “mission” as verbalized in textual corpus examples contain either explicit or implicit positive evaluation of the action characterized as a mission, but in certain contexts describe it ironically. There are two main types of promoted values attributed to and specified by educational and business institutions: the former express terminal values (knowledge, verity, enlightment, etc.) whereas the latter appeal to both terminal and utilitarian values (progress, success, wealth, etc.). The main conclusion is that the political aim of a mission verbalization expresses the purpose of the social institute to design the future.