Cross-Functional Team Decision-Making and Learning Outcomes: A Qualitative Illustration

Abstract

Members of cross-functional teams in a large, multi-site organization discuss their experience in completing various decision tasks, illustrating a confluence of research literature relating to workgroup dynamics, information processing, and organizational learning. Interview responses illustrate how components of the group decision-making process, the decision scenario, the team\'s functional diversity, and external information exchange drive the learning process, resulting in a knowledge directory system with organizational learning and individual learning components. Research propositions, directions for further investigation, and managerial implications are presented.