Cross-functional Work Research Articles

When Teams Won't Do: Understanding the Value of Working Groups

Companies are encouraging and relying on crossfunctional and project-oriented work teams to run their most critical operations, accomplish their most challenging projects, and make recommendations on their most strategic decisions. An abundance of evidence shows that teams outperform individuals acting alone or in larger organizational arrangements. The team concept is one that is familiar to most people in organizations. However, many executives do not understand what teams are and what they require to succeed. They use teams when other ways of arranging work would be more effective.

Managing an Increasingly Complex System

A study of more than 170,000 health care workers (including 47,692 registered nurses [RNs]) in 138 acute care health care organizations revealed that the role of the RN is characterized by excessive numbers of activities, a loss of focus on the professional components of nursing and significant activity overlap with other job classes. Additionally, the study found that these characteristics were related to reduced morale, decreased patient and physician satisfaction with care and increased health care costs. The results of this study suggest a need for nursing leaders to develop new methods for controlling the complexity of health care systems, particularly the complexity of the RN role. Controlling complexity requires better tools for identifying system inefficiencies, more advanced skills in cross-functional work process diagnostics and more effective strategies for reducing complexity across health care systems.

Reengineering the new product development process: A framework for innovation and flexibility in high technology firms

In response to an increasingly global and competitive environment, reengineering of fundamental cross functional processes is being actively pursued by corporations. This is particularly true in those industries which evolve rapidly. The flexibility to adapt to changing market needs and develop innovative products in such an environment is quintessential to success. This would make new product development arguably one of the most critical cross functional process. Traditionally, this process has involved inefficient sequential processing of information and plans between functional specialties. We propose a conceptual framework in this paper that facilitates innovation, flexibility, and an understanding of the reengineering of this product planning process. In particular, we consider the case of high technology firms in the semiconductor and telecommunications industry, which demands a high degree of product innovation. We propose that achieving innovation and flexibility would require a considerable degree of planning and coordination through the various phases of development. This coordination is required not only across functional groups, but also across the hierarchical levels in the organization. Top level management support through a product champion, and proper interfacing with the external environment and the target market are essential components of such a planning process. The proposed framework is initially developed based on information elicited from an expert engaged in the product planning and development process at a large progressive telecommunications firm. The framework is then refined and finally presented based on feedback from five experts in the high technology electronics industry, and also evaluated in the context of prescriptive literature in the reengineering and innovation areas. The information and conceptual content of the framework presented in this paper can facilitate better planning, formation, and organization of cross-functional work teams and groups that may be involved in the product development process. Implications of the framework for strategic product planning and its impact on the manufacturing function within a firm are also discussed.

Cross-functional working relationships in marketing

Cross-functional working relationships in marketing

Teaching tomorrowʼs health care leaders

Business school curricula have traditionally emphasized functional skills for people who will work in functional departments and general management skills for people who will organize interdepartmental work. Recently, some business schools have begun to develop programs that teach cross-functional work and team skills to functional specialists. Students educated in such programs will be well prepared to meet the new challenges that health care organizations will face.

Teaching tomorrowʼs health care leaders

Business school curricula have traditionally emphasized functional skills for people who will work in functional departments and general management skills for people who will organize interdepartmental work. Recently, some business schools have begun to develop programs that teach cross-functional work and team skills to functional specialists. Students educated in such programs will be well prepared to meet the new challenges that health care organizations will face.

Self-management and team-making in cross-functional work teams: Discovering the keys to becoming an integrated team

Project teams are rapidly becoming the primary mechanisms for innovation and change in modern organizations. As such, they are designed to capitalize on leadership and integrated cross-functional teamwork and to negate subordination and individual gamesmanship. Unfortunately, research on cross-functional project teams is scarce and largely atheoretical. The increasing use of these project teams by modern organizations, however, calls for theory development in this area. In the present paper, self-management and team-making models are applied to crossfunctional project designs to develop a theoretical framework for the investigation of teamwork effectiveness for integrated cross-functional project teams. Future issues for theory development and research methodology are presented.

Embodiment design: facilitating a simultaneous approach to mechanical CAD

The article focuses on the embodiment of product concepts, a formal design activity in which it is proposed that computer-aided design (CAD) techniques can be effectively deployed, hence facilitating a simultaneous approach to the mechanical engineering design of products. It also shows that simultaneous concept development, through systematic procedure, is significantly dependent on multidisciplinary cross-functional team working. >