Characterizing Cross-Functional Teams in Service Companies: A Case Study from Telecom Industry

The concept of cross-functional integration is based on the synchronization between different functions to meet organizational goals. One of the main elements identified in the literature within this theme is the cross-functional team (CFT), which is a group composed by members with different functional knowledge and experiences, from different parts of the organization, and under a leadership to accomplish a specific task. The objective of this paper is to characterize the internal dynamics of CFTs in different processes, such as: strategy development, product development, portfolio management, sales channels management, and business evaluation. Through a literature review, four basic dimensions were identified: Team’s Constitution; Task Drivers; Behaviors and Attitudes; Environmental Factors. A case study in a Brazilian service company was conducted in order to analyze these four dimensions in several teams. In-depth interviews, observation and documentary research were used for data collection. The results point out the necessity to invest time and attention in the constitution of the CFT, in order to select the appropriate functions it should be composed of, based on performance expectations. When the constitution of the team is characterized by a massive presence of senior members, positive impacts can be generated, such as: collaboration and team cohesion. This helps to reach team’s internal goals without frequent help from top management. This paper also presents implications related to the four studied dimensions, indicating ways to mitigate risks of failures and to avoid conflict within teams, and by that obtaining a superior performance.