Examining The Technical and Non Technical Member's Participation in Cross-Functional Teams: A Case Study

Cross-functional teams are made up of several middle management executives from different departments to work together on a certain complex project, within a predetermined time frame. This type of team has great potential if everyone in the team, despite their heterogeneous background, can effectively communicate, cooperate and coordinate their efforts in full synergy. In this study, individuals in the successful CFTs was assessed as means of unit of analysis rather than the team outputs as a whole; like most previous literatures. Effective participation in was based on three factors; communication, cooperation and coordination. A comparison was made between the technical and non-technical members in terms of their effective participation. The data collected was then analyzed by using SPSS 13.0 software, which utilizes descriptive and inferential statistical methods like mean, standard deviation, bivariate cross-tabulation and ultimately, the t-test. The results of this study concluded that effective participations of the technical members and the non-technical members of CFTs were essentially at par in communication, coordination and cooperation.