Question

Discuss the pros/cons of the three types of teams : functional, cross-functional, self-directed (self-managed).

Answer 1

Functional team: A Functional team is a group of employees working with common functional expertise and toward common objectives. Functional teams are traditional corporate teams usually found in a department. But they are not able to performed specialized works where knowledge of other functions is required.

Cross-functional team: A cross-functional team manages to practice with more than one functional area and it is managing cross functional and cross business group that cross the traditional vertical business units. A cross functional teams can easily exchange their ideas and experiences with each other.     It is most flexible when dealing with changing project requirements and priorities. Sometime it’s difficult to unite a cross-functional team to work in the best interest of the organization as the team members have higher degree of rigidity.

Self-directed (self-managed) team: The self-managing work teams are groups of employees who perform highly related jobs and share work assignments and they take many of the responsibilities and initiatives by their own. They will give better results if involved in decision making process. They also like challenging tasks. They have the ability to tackle the complex problems with their innovative way of thinking. If the motivation level is low in Self-directed or self-managed team then their performance reduced drastically as these teams perform best when they have high degree of self-motivation.