Investigation of factors contributing to the success of cross-functional teams

Although recent empirical research shows that most firms have implemented c ross-functional teams for the majority of the new product development proje cts undertaken, they are still finding it hard to ensure that these teams a re successful in completing the new product development task. in this artic le, the author first reviews the vast literature on cross functional new pr oduct development teams to uncover the array of factors that have previousl y been demonstrated or hypothesized to relate to cross-functional team succ ess, when measured at the project level. He then analyzes the responses of 112 new product development professionals to determine which factors are mo re frequently mentioned as lending to project success. In looking at how to achieve successful teams, many factors have been sugge sted in the literature by a number of different researchers. The author sug gests a model of these factors that divides them into three categories that help achieve success. Setting the stage for product development by develop ing appropriate project goals, empowering the team with the needed decision -making power, assigning the appropriate human resources, and creating a pr oductive climate should be related to fostering team success. Of these four factors, appropriate project goals is mentioned most often as being associ ated with success, followed by empowerment. Several specific team behaviors , including cooperation, commitment to the project, ownership of the projec t, and respect and trust among team members, also have been posited to cont ribute to team success. Of these, this research finds that cooperation is m entioned most often as being associated with success, followed by commitmen t and ownership. Finally, a number of researchers have suggested that team leaders, senior managers, and champions provide enabling support to cross-f unctional teams in achieving success. Team leadership is the most frequentl y mentioned enabler, according to these findings, followed by senior manage ment support. The author's results also show that increased use of cross-functional teams in new product development is related to higher project success. However, achieving cross-functional team success appears to be more complicated than previously thought. For example, across the set of factors identified in t his research, the most frequently mentioned is obtaining the team behavior of cooperation. Setting appropriate project goals, a stage-setting step tha t is completed early project, follows closely in relative importance. Final ly, providing good team leader-ship as an enabler is the third most frequen tly mentioned factor irt achieving success. This suggests that companies mu st work in all dimensions to maximize the probability of achieving team suc cess. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.