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This chapter will help us answer an important question: What is the mission of an IE, in other words, why does an IE exist? We will answer that question by considering the following questions:

• 4.1 What is an organization? Why does an organization exist?
  The purpose of an organization is called its mission. An organization should have a clear mission, a clear vision, and strong values.
  
• 4.2 What do people do in an organization?
  An organization has directors, managers, workers, and support staff.
  
• 4.3 Who does an organization serve?
  An organization serves its customers.
  
• 4.4 Who does the work in an organization?
  The workers do the actual work.
  
• 4.5 What role does an IE play in an organization?
  The IE designs or improves a system of people, machines, information, and money to achieve some goal with efficiency, quality, and safety. The IE is usually a manager or a member of the support staff.

Homework

1. Obtain the mission statement of some company or organization. It could be a store where you shop, an organization or club you belong to, a company where you work, etc. You can use a mission statement that you find on Internet. In 1 to 2 pages, evaluate the mission statement using the criteria in Section 4.1.
2. Write mission, vision, and values statements for the Department of Engineering or for CSU-Pueblo.
3. For an organization that you know well, describe who is in each of the categories of people in the organization, as explained in Seciton 4.2. Explain why you put each person or each group of people in each category.