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Due to the rapid nature of change and high level of competitiveness in the modern business environment, firms are forced to find ways to remain adaptable to their dynamic environment. The use of cross-functional teams (CFTs) is a common practice as managers find ways to create a more responsive firm ([71] Parker, 2003). CFTs consist of individuals from various functional areas in the firm that work together to obtain a specific goal ([94] Webber, 2002). CFTs are used to develop new products ([19] Bunduchi, 2009), transform organizations ([86] Tabrizi, 2007), increase speed to market ([37] Griffin, 1997), and a variety of other tasks. Members from diverse functional areas contribute unique perspectives to CFTs, which can create innovative teams well-adept at problem solving ([56] Lovelace et al., 2001).
Although the use of this type of team has increased in popularity, research is inconsistent in identifying what factors contribute to the success of CFTs. For example, researchers find that functional diversity has a positive influence on schedule performance ([45] Keller, 2001), product development time ([32] Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995), and new venture performance ([52] Li and Zhang, 2007), while other researchers show functional diversity negatively influences sales ([84] Simons et al. , 1999), information sharing ([18] Bunderson and Sutcliffe, 2002), and overall performance ([4] Ancona and Caldwell, 1992). Still, other researchers contend that functional diversity in teams has no effect on product quality ([82] Sethi, 2000) or performance ([95] Webber and Donahue, 2001). With this variance among observed outcomes, researchers are left to wonder how CFTs affect performance and what causes the vast differences in outcomes.
Cognitive resource diversity theory states that the diversity of knowledge in a CFT positively influences performance due to the various perspectives each member brings to the team ([41] Horwitz, 2005). On the other hand, because CFTs consist of members with specialized expertise, the variation in knowledge and perspectives has the potential to create communication barriers and conflict among team members ([60] Majchrzak et al. , 2011). Taken together, if members are unable to work collaboratively in a supportive environment, the full value of the diversity is not utilized. In other words, if the internal dynamics of the team do not support collaborative interactions among members, then the full potential of...