Team Performance and Adaptability in Crisis Management: A comparison of cross-functional and functional teams

Abstract

Crisis management (CM) is a facet of command and control (C2) characterized by complexity and uncertainty, in addition to high time pressure. In order to meet the challenges of this kind of unpredictable crisis situations, teams must be able to adapt and coordinate in an effective way. The functional structure (i.e., each team member is allocated a unique functional role) is the most common in CM, but it is not necessarily the most efficient one. Structures that encourage independence and flexibility, like the cross-functional structure (i.e., team functions are shared across all team members), could promote much better performance in this kind of situations. We compared these two structures, functional and cross-functional, in a dynamic situation of CM. C3Fire, a forest firefighting simulation, was used to compare team structure on the basis of performance (process gain), communication, coordination and adaptability. Cross-functional team structures presented a better process gain, a more efficient coordination, and less communication. Surprisingly, no differences were seen regarding adaptability.