Today, many organizations are facing an increased necessity to employ cross-functional teams. Its growing popularity is rooted in its positive impacts on innovation. Additionally, these teams are an excellent way of managing complex organizational tasks without the need for a significant modification of the existing organizational structure. Despite the benefits of the cross-functional team, the diversity in the profession and the specialized knowledge possessed by the team members lead to different thought worlds and perceptions, causing communication barriers. This is problematic because communication is needed to share, transfer, and create knowledge, which are the prerequisites of both individual and organizational learning. There is various literature on knowledge management and learning; however, our understanding of how knowledge interchanges in cross-functional teams remain limited. Therefore, this thesis conducts semi-structured interviews at five successful companies to examine the policies and procedures established by management to facilitate the interchange of knowledge in the organization. Also, it investigates the activities used by coordinators to maximize learning and create a sense of belonging in the cross-functional team. The findings of this study revealed several activities that could increase both the knowledge interchange and the team’s learning. First, it is preferred to have decent knowledge accessibility, where the bar to contact anyone is low. Second, it seems that knowledge receptivity has to be increased, which can be done by giving knowledge a meaning, using pictures, analogies, metaphors, Etc. Third, a frame of reference could be needed, where people can get into each other’s shoes through, for example, job rotations and learn each other’s jobspecific terminologies. Fourth, competition is preferred to be eliminated, which can be achieved by establishing a common team goal, removing internal bonuses, and eliminating ranking systems. Finally, it seemed essential to have cohesion in the group, which can be accomplished by having, for instance, afterworks, group travel activities, and collective organizational culture
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-477594 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Al-Barghouthi, Mohammad |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Industriell teknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | SAMINT-MILI ; 22011 |
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