How do high‐performing organizations define their mission in Ghana?

Purpose – High performing firms have been associated with “quality” mission statements defined by the choice of components. In an attempt to extend our knowledge in order to give more legitimacy to these claims and also provide more local and relevant reference for Ghana‐based firms, the purpose of this paper is to investigate, through a component analysis, how high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define their mission. Design/methodology/approach – Mission statements of 50 of the Ghana Club 100 firms, primarily extracted from the official web sites, Initial Public Offer prospectuses and annual reports of the firms, were subjected to content analysis which evaluated and scored the mission statements based on the occurrence of 20 specific components. Findings – The paper found that high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define missions to include components that the literature uses to measure quality; and these are similar to those of the UK, Canada and Ireland. Based on the ranking of the components, three categories were identified: the imperatives, the highlights, and the adjuncts. Research limitations/implications – The paper lumped together all firms irrespective of industry or sector. There is, therefore, the need to conduct further research to identify possible industry or sectoral differences, for better insight and relevance. Practical implications – Ideas generated in this paper provide a guide to practitioners and firms regarding how they can develop mission statements, drawing on experiences of high‐performing Ghana‐based firms. Originality/value – This is the first attempt to study how high‐performing Ghana‐based firms define their mission and hence is a major contribution to the scarce if not non‐existent Africa‐specific studies. It also provides a more prescriptive approach to crafting mission statements by proposing hierarchies of the components of mission statements.