A very common and classic instrument used by organisations to ‘chart’ their future are mission statements. Mission statements became particularly relevant at German universities in the course of the international, neoliberal transformation of academia as a way of positioning oneself as a university in the field (Kosmützky and Krücken, 2015). Mission statements highlight the organization's stance on various societal issues, including, for example, militaristic research, the internationalization of education (Dornick 2020), and gender equality.From an organisational education perspective, it is particularly interesting that mission statements should not only present the organisation to external actors, but should above all influence actual organisational practice. In the case of universities in particular, however, this is countered by the assumption of extremely loose coupling (Weick, 1976). The hope that mission statements will have an impact is therefore largely based on a communicative or even pedagogical assumption of impact. Mission statements in higher education organisations are therefore an insightful field of investigation for the organisational pedagogical examination of organisational future practices. On the basis of an ongoing research project, funded by the German Research Council, we examine (1) how universities present their social responsibility in their mission statements as well as (2) the subjective realisation of social responsibility by academics of these organisations. On the empirical basis of mission statements and group discussions with academics from x different universities, this presentation focuses on the ambivalence between organisational control logics and their respective technologies: While the mission statement is intended to have an effect at the organisational level of the university, researchers are usually more centered in the disciplinary discourse – how does this correspond, collide or amalgamate in practice?

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