Cross-functional Structure Research Articles

The Role of Organizational Structure in facilitating Communication and Collaboration within teams: A Quantitative Study

Any team's success depends on effective communication and collaboration. The team's organizational structure is a major component that may have an impact on collaboration and communication. The division and assignment of duties within a team is referred to as organizational structure. Communication inside an organization can be impacted in several ways. For example, teams with a hierarchical organization may have communication barriers since information may need to travel through numerous tiers before it reaches the intended recipient. As team members have greater direct access to one another, teams with flat organizational structures could experience fewer communication hurdles. The organizational structure can also affect how well people collaborate. Teams having a functional structure—in which individuals are grouped according to the function or area of expertise—may have a more specialized knowledge base, but they might have trouble working across functions. Teams with a cross-functional structure, in contrast, may have more potential for cross-functional collaboration but may encounter difficulties coordinating efforts across several domains of knowledge. To emphasize, organizational structure is essential for promoting teamwork and communication. Teams may choose the optimal strategy for the needs and realize the full potential for communication and collaboration by understanding the advantages and disadvantages of various organizational structures.

The Human Element Of Project Management

Much research and dialogue have been published about project management. Studies have been conducted regarding the impact of size, member location, gender composition, cross-functional structure, stakeholder influence, confidence issues, technology usage, management style, generational differences, technical expertise vs. people skills, and a myriad of other topics. Writings regarding the human factors, the "soft" skills, have typically focused on the “what is” and “why” elements of communication and conduct appropriate to project management, often leaving the “how to” in subjection or missing. This article provides additional practical applications to improve project management success.

Studying the Effective Factors of Investors' Sensitivity towards Performance and Price of Investment Funds in Tehran Stock Exchange

Considering that the investment funds in Tehran Stock Exchange started their activity during the last five years and tendency of real and legal investors to invest in such funds, studying the relationship between goodwill and ranking of funds as effective factors on investors' sensitivity towards performance and price of investment funds has been focused in this study. Therefore, twenty two and thirty six funds were investigated in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The ranking factor is in the form of two variables of high ranking and low ranking as well as four factors under study as four representatives of goodwill including inter-group ranking score of funds, size, the fund's age and bank. Data analysis was conducted through cross-functional structure with fixed effects and ordinary least squares (OLS) method. The results confirm the significant linear relationship among the variables of fund age, bank and inter-group ranking score with investors' sensitivity towards price. This relationship was just confirmed between investors' sensitivity towards performance with fund age and bank variables. Also, the relationship between ranking of funds and investors' sensitivity towards performance and price of funds has been confirmed.

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

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.

Structural ambidexterity in NPD processes: A firm-level assessment of the impact of differentiated structures on innovation performance

Based on a survey study of 155 U.S. firms, we conducted a firm-level assessment of the impact of different kinds of structures (i.e., functional versus cross-functional) in different kinds of new product development (NPD) processes (i.e., incremental versus radical) on different kinds of firm innovation performance (i.e., derivative versus breakthrough). We observe that most firms opt for similar structures for their incremental and radical NPD processes. At the same time, though, we find strong evidence that (1) firms that apply a cross-functional structure for the radical NPD process perform significantly better in terms of breakthrough innovation performance than firms that apply a functional structure for the radical NPD process and (2) firms that apply a functional structure for the incremental NPD process perform significantly better in terms of derivative innovation performance than firms that apply a cross-functional structure for the incremental NPD process. These latter findings point to the relevance of adopting structural ambidexterity, where firms make an explicit distinction between incremental and radical NPD processes and organize them in a different way.

Cross-Functional Integration and New Product Success: An Empirical Investigation of the Findings

Although cross-functional integration is often considered an important element in a successful new product development program, a great deal of variance exists in extant literature regarding how integration is defined and implemented and how relevant studies are conducted. The authors attempt to bring clarity to a diverse set of 25 studies that investigate cross-functional integration by empirically analyzing 146 correlations between integration and aspects of new product success. The authors examine the impact of 12 potential moderators that affect the integration–success link using meta-analysis techniques. The findings indicate that though cross-functional integration may indeed have a direct impact on success, the combination of integration with other variables may be of greater importance. Furthermore, because most of the nine variables that significantly affect the integration–success relationship are either managerially controlled or industry specific, the findings imply that firms should design cross-functional structures to maximize their effectiveness. Other variables that affect the integration–success relationship reflect researchers’ methodological decisions, suggesting that care should be taken when designing and interpreting the results of such studies. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and directions for further research.

Lessons learnt on implementing project management in a functionally-only structured South African municipality

This paper reports on the most important lessons learnt from the implementation of project management in a South African district municipality. These lessons demonstrate how difficult it is to gain acceptance of project management in an organisation; more specifically when it has no previous exposure to integrative cross-functional structures and work methods. The paper aims to create awareness that organisations should not jump into project management precariously, but with a well developed project plan. This is done through the discussions of a dozen problematic situations that surfaced during the case, as well as the corrective actions that were taken. Some of these problems were indeed confirmations of the implementation team’s research during the preparatory phase of the implementation project. Although the implementation of project management was found to be not well researched, such research is highlighted were applicable. These problematic situations varied widely. The most important ones to address included inter alia, that the implementation should be a project in own right, a need for firm top management commitment, a strong resistance to change that was encountered, having to deal with the challenges to the de facto organisational culture, structure and systems, the need to establish security for clear career paths in project management, and the necessity for a sound and supportive change management process.

Cross-Functional Structures: A Review and Integration of Matrix Organization and Project Management

In this article, we review and summarize the literature on crossfunctional organization forms that has been published since 1976. We focus on the commonalities of the literatures that deal with matrix organization and project management. With a definition of cross-functional organization in hand, we review the literature for advantages and disadvantages of these organization forms, ending the section with a discussion of the great needfor empirical research to resolve numerous questions and paradoxes. Finally, we review a model for effective cross-functional organizations, comprising environmental influences, organizational characteristics, project characteristics, project team characteristics, project leader characteristics, and project effectiveness. Each section ends with a discussion of needed research, and the article ends with a call for research and theory building regarding cross-functional organizations, which continue to grow in application importance.