Cross-Functional Work Team Analysis

“A growing trend in organizations is to give more responsibility for important activities to teams” (Yukl, 2010). The concept of teams is not at all complex. A team brings together employees, managers and executives on different levels with different experiences to accomplish organizational goals. Rather than relying on individual managers to be solely responsible for the success or failure of a project, department or strategic business unit, the team approach allows team members to become empowered and make decisions to aid in success.
There are a plethora of team types that can be created to help an organization to succeed. Functional Work Teams, for example, are made up of individuals who have the “…same basic function” but have different responsibilities (Yukl, 2010). Team members report to a leader of the group. The “…driving motivation behind this kind of structure is efficiency and functional learning” (Appelo, 2011). Low in autonomy and high in membership stability, the function-work team is not complex; it is simply a way for an organizational team to achieve goals.
Cross-Functional teams, on the other hand, are made up of …show more content…
Formed with a common goal in mind, the executive team “…collectively assume the responsibilities of the chief operating officer in managing internal operations of the organization, and they assist the CEO in formulating strategy” (Yukl, 2010). For an executive team to be successful there must be a clear mission that is shared with and understood by the organization. The contributions of the team members help the organization to progress. Executive team members work with other team members to ensure that key performance indicators are met. Research has shown that strategic decisions by executive teams were both faster and better than by singular leadership alone. (Yukl, 2010). For this reason alone, the executive team is crucial in organizational