A cross-functional team is a group of people brought
together from different functional areas to redesign a process
or product or to make decisions or recommendations about a
process or a product. A cross-functional team is different from
a task force, because it adopts the principles of teamwork,
and because its charge may be either short-term or long-term.
Membership will come from a number of areas within the organization,
but may also include suppliers or customers of the organization.
Members may represent different levels of the organization and
different functional areas, but while they are participating on
the cross-functional team, they share responsibility and authority
for the way the team works together and the accomplishments of the team.
Guide to Performance Management, UCSD
Cross-functional teams aim to improve internal
communication,
coordination, and
collaboration by bringing together people from
different departments and areas of expertise. This will, in theory,
allow the team members to see beyond their own limited sphere of
interest and focus on
long-term goals as well. In practice,
cross-functional team members tend to have problems transcending
their own limited points of view and poorly designed or
poorly led teams often degenerate into
aimless squabbling over
irrelevant issues.
David Chaudron
suggest ensuring the following preconditions are in place:
back to organizational behavior
References
http://www.hrfree.com/articles/cross_functional_tmwrk.htm